You don’t become a leader by default when you are promoted to a role managing people. While promotions symbolise advancement and are given after you demonstrate business results, they don’t inherently qualify you as a leader. There are important distinctions between being a manager and being a leader.
Leadership requires you to challenge the way things have always been done instead of following the status quo. It involves doing what is best for your team instead of doing what’s best for you. You may even have to challenge your thinking!
To understand what it takes to be an effective leader, you need the right training. Understanding how leadership, negotiation and change management intersects and how they function together is vital for business leaders. Today’s leaders must create a powerful vision, share it with their subordinates and manage the change that occurs when working towards that vision.
Executive MBA students specialising in leadership, negotiation and change management can play a crucial role in an organisation’s strategic decision-making.
What Is Change Management In Business?
Change is difficult. However, a business that fails to remain agile, adapt, and move with the times will cease to be effective and profitable. Managing such change is a challenge that must be dealt with effectively. While managers focus on fine-tuning existing systems and processes, leaders are change agents.
A study by Gartner reveals that most organisations have undergone at least five significant changes within the past three years. It also reports that 50% of these initiatives fail, others are somewhat successful, and 34% achieve the intended outcomes.
Change management, also known as change enablement, requires leadership and negotiation skills to guide organisations. Leaders can propel organisations through disruption and growth.
While traditional change management tends to be process-heavy and slow, data-driven and adaptive practices are more efficient. Organisations can use change management software to monitor and optimise the change management process. It helps maintain version control, tracks changes made, allows reversal of changes made and prevents more than one user from making the same change to avoid duplication of effort.
The demand for change management software will rise as automation of IT processes and digital transformation becomes more widespread across business organisations. According to a Future Market Insights report, the change management software market is worth $1.9 billion and is estimated to grow to $4.4 billion by 2032.
The Role Of Leadership In Change Management
Leaders must first get buy-in from top management to understand the change and become advocates for that change. This enables employees at every level to buy into the organisation’s vision. The communication for this must be clear, fact-driven and consistent.
What can leaders do to assist in top-down change management?
- Inform stakeholders about the change and why it will improve the organisation.
- Bring key people together to form a core team responsible for this change.
- Commit and get others to commit to that change. Persistence is key.
Change management can be chaotic. Leaders must know that they cannot turn a company’s direction overnight. These steps must be gradual and planned.
Where Does Negotiation Fit Into Change Management?
Negotiation skills go far beyond striking great business deals. Leaders seeking people change must overcome resistance with tact, sense and diplomacy. Negotiation skills come into play beyond convincing peers because every level of organisation, including external stakeholders, must buy-in. And so, how you communicate the change is vital. This may mean discussing the difficulties and the advantages and informing each person how they will benefit from the change.
Job Prospects For Executive MBA In India
An Executive MBA with a specialisation in Leadership and Strategy can help you implement change management initiatives, develop sharp negotiation skills and grow into an effective leader. It offers working professionals in management positions a chance to add value to their resume, career and salary. According to a GMAC survey, preference for hybrid program delivery models has increased significantly across student segments, including those who prefer Executive MBA, Part-time and Flexible MBA programs.
Here are some titles that EMBA graduates who specialise in leadership, negotiation and change management could look at:
· Business Realisation Manager
· Business Transformation Manager
· Business Readiness Leader
· Business Transition Analyst
· Change Management Consultant
· Implementation Specialist
· Organisational Adoption Leader
· Organisational Readiness Analyst
To Sum Up
Too often, organisations need proper management to weather the upheaval that structural change can cause. Even beyond the top leadership, businesses seek leaders who can communicate effectively and plan and adapt as needed.
You can bridge the gap in top management by completing an Executive MBA In India. Executive MBA (MBA [WX]) by NMIMS Global include a Foundation course from Harvard Business Publishing Education along with a certification.
The program enables students to integrate knowledge and concepts across functional areas to identify and solve complex business challenges. It also helps them expand their professional and personal network with like-minded professionals. Students can choose among five specialisation tracks – Marketing, Leadership and Strategy, Operations & Supply Chain, Digital Marketing and Applied Finance. With a deepened understanding of the intricacies of change management, you can lead transformation initiatives at your organisation.
