what is required of a leader at each stage

According to the Reardons and Rowe (1998), there are five stages of radical change. They are Planning, Enabling, Launching, Catalyzing, and Maintaining. There are many components to each stage but two will be described for each below. The four leadership styles from the Leadership Style Inventory (LSI) are assigned to each component of each of the five stages. The four styles are Commanding, Logical, Inspirational, and Supportive. In the Planning stage, a leader needs to try to acquire all available and relevant information, best performed using the logical leadership style from the leadership style inventory (LSI). Also, a leader should come up with creative ideas to reach the organizations goals. The leader can solicit ideas from others up and down the hierarchy after inspiring them to find innovative ideas. In the Enabling stage, a leader explains the plan and secures buy-in from employees. This is done using the logical leadership style. Then, the leader empowers the employees with the ability to execute the tasks set forth by the plan, via the inspirational and supportive style. In the Launching stage, a leader implements the plan and its steps, and periodically assesses progress. This is done with the logical style. The commanding leadership style ensures tasks are completed and milestones met. In the Catalyzing stage, a leader maintains the energy in its employees to continue the change effort. In this stage, the people are the focus not the plans or tasks themselves. The leader continues to inspire employees to not lose sight of the grand goal. The leader needs to be supportive (style) to employee needs (e.g. information, personnel, resources) as they continue the journey through the change process. As in the Enabling stage, employees need to be empowered with task ownership, so they feel they have “skin in the game”. Finally, in the Maintaining stage, a leader oversees the progress made and ensure changes are sustained with continued efforts, by further support and inspiration. Earlier in 2019, my company acquired another called Coriant. When the acquisition was announced and during the process of finalizing the deal, everyone in the company knew there would be layoffs due to redundancies. To allay the fears from some members of my team, our boss assured us he would seek clarification from his bosses the risks to our team. Our boss informed us that he would let us know as soon as he found out anything. Within two months, he received word that there would be no changes to our team nor the department as there were no overlaps with Coriant. I felt that my boss was logical and supportive in his approach to managing this uncertainty. I think it was effective in terms of helping his subordinates (eight total) feel confident that he is looking out for them. While the layoff not affecting our team had nothing to do with his actions, but just as important is how our boss handled the uncertainty, providing timely updates, and reassurances that he would demonstrate the value of our team. Leadership is not only being inspirational, it can also be gaining the trust of your employees, being supportive in their concerns, and looping them into information that they may find useful/significant. The latter especially helps employees understand how they fit in the organization and building trust.   REFERENCES Reardon, K.K., Reardon K.J., & Rowe, A.J. (1998). Leadership styles for the five stages of radical change. Acquisition Review Quarterly, 2. Retrieved from: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Leadership-Styles-for-the-Five-Stages-of-Radical-Reardon-Reardon/f19cc0f7a6e2990ad00fa0731c54367a5a7d8138