When Kolab held the President role, the team was not as supportive as they were before. It was because of the behavior that Kolab has shown at the workplace. She was more into working efficiently rather than building relationships at the workplace. The team was not comfortable with such an attitude of Kolab. Therefore, there are different ways in which Kolab could have been more successful and effective in the new organization.
First of all, Kolab could have handled the transition into a new organizational culture by being more empathetic towards her employees, listening to their emotional desires, and understanding their psychology rather than being too focused on goal orientation and achieving tasks. Kolab had displayed resilient behavior toward her employees and was so focused on changing the organizational culture that she forgot to talk to her employees, understand their requirements, motivate them, and provide a collaborative professional environment. She could have understood the employees better and changed the culture to accommodate their desires, understood their cultural backgrounds, and tried to teach a common organizational culture that was more accommodating and understanding of employee desires and demands. It could have taken more time, but it was worth it.
Before applying her leadership in a new organization, she should have interacted with the employees and understood their beliefs and values and their way of working, their personal lives, and their problems at work. She needed to create personal relationships with the new employees. Change of leadership style from being task-oriented to people-oriented. Kolab needs to adopt the traits of a transformational leader. The leader acts as a change agent for the overall society. The leader is quite inspiring and has a vision for a better future for the general community.
What is more, a cultural shift is not an immediate activity, and a significant amount of time and patience is required for it. Kolab needed to understand that there were cultural differences between her new organization and its employees. Kolab can use referent and reward power. Reward power is all about exerting force by making an individual do something in the expectation of getting rewards. Under Referent power, the leader uses his influence and charisma to influence and win followers and make them do the required work. In addition, communication seems missing as a leader from Kolab. Continuous communication with employees is essential for any leader and a new leader. Kolab also needs to facilitate a positive work environment at the company, where employees collaborate and work in team synergy.
Being a Refugee has a high impact on her personality and career. The new organization would not accept her personality easily as they had worked under the opposite kind of leadership. She needed to practice empathy, which is an essential characteristic of a leader. Kolab is resilient by being a refugee, but not everybody has that quality. As a leader, Kolab should have understood it and managed the situation accordingly. To implement her plan as a leader, she needed to build a rapport with her employees. This part seems missing from Kolab’s behavior. A leader should have shared her vision and taken all employees into confidence. As part of the benefits program, Kolab needs to provide work-life flexibility to the employees. All these initiatives will make employees loyal and motivated to work for the company and increase its profitability.
