Leaders are a role model for managers to help sustain organisational changes Few managers are able to implement or sustain changes in a company without the right 'emotional energy', and it is their responsibility to bring this into an organisation, a consultant says. 'Energy management is most crucial. Leaders have to channel the energy downwards,' says Eric Chua Chui-hai, chief executive of Pritchett Rummler-Brache (Asia). The company is a global training and business consultancy recognised for innovative work in the human side of organisational change. Its services are in areas such as implementation of change, leadership effectiveness, corporate culture, mergers and acquisitions, process improvement and enhancing competitiveness. An organisation can have four energy levels, says Mr Chua. 'If an organisation is the creator of new changes, it is on level four. It should be highly innovative and able to treat customers as the No1 priority. 'Organisations at energy level three are those that exploit changes but are not creating them. By using its available financial power and manpower, the changes undertaken are usually in technology.' Level two organisations respond and adapt to changes, whereas those on the lowest, at level one, can only cope with changes. 'Our job is to help organisations move closer to level four,' Mr Chua says. General Electric (GE) has the ideal energy level, he says. 'It is a real showcase on successful transformation - it achieves leadership positions in almost every sector that it is in. 'It produces the right return to shareholders and has gained wide recognition in corporate history. 'In particular, it has successfully implemented the six sigma discipline. Though six sigma originated at Motorola, GE has applied the system not only in manufacturing but also in helping its customers to achieve success.' Leaders must implement a few fundamental practices to create positive energy. First, they should take direct responsibility in developing the next level of future managers. Second, winning leaders are teachers who can pass on their ideas and values to the next management level to make an organisation successful. Third, leaders should be able to build learning experiences and beliefs so employees and lower-level managers can help to attain the ideal environment. 'The leaders should be the role model for others to follow. They should shift their focus to teaching and creating energy,' Mr Chua says. 'A number of global corporations are adopting the concept of a learning organisation. By truly adapting to the concept, the leaders can then create leaders at every level and the changes within.' Although most chief executives are busy managing the profit and loss of daily operations, they must still be accountable for driving and channelling positive energy to sustain a company's long-term success. 'Any leaders who are focusing merely on profit and loss rather than creating change are risking their jobs,' Mr Chua says. In addition to providing executive coaching and education workshops to help managers gain essential leadership techniques, organisations should strike a good balance between the profit-loss performance and changes in management. 'Change is a bridge to achieving profit performance. Under current market pressures, organisations need to respond quickly to changes to sustain a winning position,' Mr Chua says. A company's organisational dimension carries the same level of importance as its financial dimension, in which a company is easily assessed on performance, he says. 'There is a formula to measure the organisational dimension. It involves a commonly aligned purpose, positive energies and effective process management as well as prompt actions towards changes. 'Each and every step is important. It is our job to help the executives to think through each step in order to optimise the performance.' To implement any changes successfully, leaders need to be flexible, innovative, prepared to take risks and able to handle stress. 'Being flexible and open-minded are straightforward qualities. Innovation is especially important in the e-business sectors, where leaders have to learn from other business models to create their own successful formula,' Mr Chua says. Pritchett Rummler-Brache's experiences have given it an interesting perspective in risk-taking. 'In our observations, most people will relate risk-taking to potential failures. We need to ensure that leaders understand that failing is not part of risk-taking. This [thought of failure] will prevent people from going all the way to make change successfully,' Mr Chua says. Being able to face change, and accept and manage stress is another area of competency leaders need to learn. 'These days, organisations are caught in a dilemma - most want to invest in people but the cost is very high,' Mr Chua says. 'We suggest that training should be focused on those who can improve staff performance for today as well as for the immediate and foreseeable changes to be undertaken [in the future].'
