The hrst Annual Hugh J. Clause Leadership Lecture: Transformational Leadership Teaching the JAG Elephant to Dance

• Author: Brigadier General (Ret.) Dulaney L O'Roark, Jr
• Pages: 04

1 Transformational Leaderslup

There are always new "m"ideas on leadership that define the mood

and cxcumstmces of the times. In the IQQOs, Tom Peters's book. Thnuing On Chaos. best depicts the enmronment for today's ieaders of public and prix-ate organizations Comespondingly. a new leadership personality has been disco, ered the "Type C" leader who is successful in resdv-mg chaos The orerall label that best captures this defining issue of the 1QQOs is 'Transformational Leadership "

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Transformatianalleademtop IS afresh concept for talhng and thmkmg about the dramatic changes-polincal, social, and technical-occur-ring throughout the world and how leaders must haw the vision to make crucial changes to their organizations. Fen people in leadenhip positions need to be told that we iiv$ in a watenhed peliod of history W3at IS rare 1s for ths to be so evident to us all. It LS mtumvely obvious that our society in general, and the rnihtwy in particular, IS undergoing a sea change.

Transformational leadershp holds that a leader first must recognize the magnitude of this change. Then that leader must create ausion of the future far the orgamzation and a strategy for achim4ng that wion which allows the organization to SUMW chaos and conunue to serve its purpose. What LS \1s10n7 Vision 1s a graphc and compeiimg descnptmn of the organization I" the future. It IS gmphzc m the sense that members of an organization can literally conceptualize what the future organiza. tion wll look like and compelling because It incorporates the values and inspiration for the future organization that motivates people to want to be pan of that n m n and help to achieve it The transfomational leader's role is to develop that wsmn and teach its north to the organizat,on.

11. So What's the Problem' Just Do It!

Unfortunately, as they say, the devil 1s in the details The truth is that 6 is extremely difficult for either individuals or organizations to change.

On an individual basis, while w-e often how change is on the honzon, it is hard to believe that tomorraw- u?ll be much different from today So we do not do much today. The classic example is the buggy w-hip companies of the early part of this centllly whose leaders thought that the automobile would nerer replace the horse. This lack of msm led to the rapid disappearance of those companies wluch failed to transfam their operauons to a new reality. Another mhibitor IS that not evely person m a leaderstop position IS a good viaonary In our rmlitary history the courtmmial of General Billy Mitchell, whose uiaan far air power wasnatrecagmzed by hisleaden, isasymbolafthefrustratedui~ionary's fate. Indimduals with talent for creatimty, adaptablhty and mnovative application are more rare than many think. They are an orgamaational tremure

Regrettably, It IS harder to get a large argamzation to change than an indindual. James A. Belasco's book, Teaching the Elephant To Dance-7% Manogw's h i d e To Empowering Change, captures orgamsational inertia best with this analogy

In India, where an elephant IS a beast of burden, a baby eiephant is tethered to a stake uith a short rope attached to a metal band on one of the baby's hind legs The young elephant quickly learns that It has a range of the short rope and no more After the elephant 1s grom, at the end of a day's work a metal band is once agan put on a hind leg, but the eiephant 1s

not tethered vith a rope to a stake because no rope and stake can hold a grown elephant. Fascmatmgiy, the elephant free to go any where It wants will range no farther than a short rope's iengrh because that IS as far as It thinks it can go wth a metal band on a hind leg.

Much the same thing happens m organizations "We have always done it that way." the "not invented here" symdmme. tunnei wsmn. and resistance to change by those comfoltahle with the current situation are just a few of the symptoms of a moribund organization. John Maynard Keynes said It best when he commented that "[tlhe difficulty lies not in che new ideas. but in escaping from the old '

The upshot LS that the organization does not realize ~tsstrength and

flembiiity and remans tethered far short of rts potential The challenge far leaders in today's emiiranment IS to overcome this seif.limitmg, eiephant mindset that exists m all organizations, including our militan m-stitutions. The transformational leader must promde the msmn that will teach the organization how strong It really is and how to range and even dance at a distance far beyond...