Leadership_Is_Change_Agent_and_Action

Leadership Is a Change Agent and an Action In today’s military, a leader must be able to foster the necessary changes for the future needs of the armed force mission. A leader must take the action with their vision, passion, and a positive attitude to engage Soldiers with impeding changes. The visible effective leadership is expressed ultimately in its practice. It is the ability of influencing other people to cooperate towards some goals which they come to find desirable outcomes. My leadership philosophy is to be a leader who shows that leadership is an action, not a position and how it relates to becoming a change agent.   As a professional and military leader, knowing how to cope with peoples fear and uncertainty is a process that is developed through personal life experience. A “Change Agent” described by Dennis Stevenson is someone who aspires to alter human capability or organizational systems to achieve a higher degree of output or self-actualization (1). To develop a learning organization or unit, an effective leader must be a change agent who takes actions to overcome resistance of change in order to cope with present and future missions. To become an effective change agent, a leader must provide a clear vision, intellectual and emotional stimulation.  Because change is often misunderstood, resistance to change is common. Leaders should develop skills to facilitate the change process by working in team environments where collaboration is essential (2). In my past military career and working with many different projects, I consistently shared information and my view with my group and willing to listen to my team members and subordinates for all possible options and different approaches. This type of action resulted in team members learning from others and commitment to changes in various goals and allowed them to grow and make better decisions.   A change agent is fueled by passion and can inspire passion in others. Passion is the first step to achievement which increase willpower and bring about changes that make the impossible, possible (3).  I believe passion is the most important asset for a leader and change agent. Passion differentiates us consistently over time, and it needs to be nurtured, evolved, and invigorated by all leaders. Passion needs clear vision and focus. A leader who knows desirable outcomes for the organization is his/her vision. Ambiguity is the enemy of change. Clear vision and focus from leaders enable an organization moving towards achieving its vision, mission, and goals. Everyone can learn therefore everyone can make and accept change. Lead people by example and action are signs for a passionate leader. Empowering people often inspires others passion. Empowering people does not mean you clean yourself from responsibility. It means sharing your authority, resource, decision and working together harmoniously. Empowerment might not always have positive outcomes and therefore being there to participate and continuously make assessment and provide guidance to the members of your team. Additionally, empirical evidence support that empowering leadership is positively related to team performance and knowledge sharing (4). To be a change agent, a true leader should be self-motivated and is able to motivate others. If leaders are not self-motivated, it is difficult for them to lead and motivate others. Leaders should take the initiative to improve organization and lead by example. Lead by example is an action and creates a leader’s credibility to your organization. Looking for ways to change or improve an organization requires leaders to motivate teams, groups and others. To motivate organization and subordinates, leaders need to use the power wisely, and take actions to translate an intention into reality and sustain it. Some individuals are motivated by being recognized and given credit for their participation. Others may be motivated by empowering, promotion, award and discipline actions. A good leader sees the best in people and figures out what it takes to motivates the individuals in different situations. A leader is humble but in a way that his actions are kept organized. To be a leader and change agent, you must understand people and organization culture. “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how you care” (3). If your team members see that you have a positive attitude about their environment and what they need, it makes change easy to attain.   Having a positive attitude even during the worst circumstances became evident to me during my past career and experience. I was motivated to accomplish my missions and accept changes no matter how bad the situation was or how difficult and challenge project that I had to work on when I realized my supervisor and senior rater were positive to my achievement and were there taken care of my best interest. A true leader should definitely know the changes that are happening to his/her organization and subordinates, knowing that they learnt the knowledge that you shared with them. Are all team members reaching their potential' Are they changing significantly through learning' Can they lead on their own' The function of leadership is to produce more leaders than followers. An outstanding leadership can be determined based on these observations and take actions to influence other people to cooperate towards some goals which they come to find desirable. References: 1. Stevenson, D. (2008, April 14). Original Thinking. Retrieved 21 July, 2011, from What is a change agent: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/original-thinking/what-is-a-change-agent-23764 2. Trybus, M. A. (2011). Facing the Chalolenge of Change: Steps to Becoming an Effective Leader. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin Vol 77 Issue 3. , 33-36. 3. Maxwell, J. C. (1999). The 21 Indespensable Qualities Of A Leader. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc. 4. Srivastava, A., Bartol, K.M. and Locke, E.A., 2006. Empowering Leadership in Management Team Effects on Knowledge Sharing, Efficacy, and Performance. Academy of Management Journal, 49(6), pp.1239-1251.