The merging of two companies & their cultures is always a complex challenge, even if there are people within who have worked for both entities and know the industry. If you begin with experience and business knowledge, then the goal becomes to create teamwork, effective processes, focus, and opportunity for innovation. If you are combining people and cultures for the first time, or you sense inflexibility, the priority must be team building or strengths analysis in order to create a working baseline. After establishing the team’s strengths, move to determine innovation opportunities, rather than process analysis, which is often the next best step.
I've worked with some outstanding leaders who performed exceptionally in the midst of major change initiatives. Complex changes included M&A, outsourcing, staffing reductions, new system implementations, and dramatic increases in product delivery. The leadership characteristics enabling them to improve organizational effectiveness are characterized in the transformational leadership model.
According to Bernard Bass, in the book “Performance Beyond Expectations,” transformational leaders “raise people’s awareness, their level of consciousness about the importance and value of designated outcomes (future focused), get people to transcend self-interest for the sake of the team and/or organization (systems thinking), and encourage people to develop and perform beyond expectations (commitment to excellence)." In the current state of technological and environmental turbulence, all organizational levels need transformational leadership.
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