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In my career, the real leaders were the ones who could effect significant change. The others were managers, caretakers, etc.
Initiating change is easy, sustaining it is hard. Employees quickly suspect “flavor of the month” and move on to other things. So a real leader develops a vision for the future, communicates it in terms employees can understand, and reinforces it with ongoing communications and aligned rewards. They are also honest about the milestones and failures/readjustments.
Radical change usually requires a “burning platform”. Could be business is failing, new competition, COVID impacts, whatever. Lights a fire under senior management and forces change. If there isn’t an obvious one, a good leader with a vision for the future will create one. Read Clayton Christenson’s (SP?) The Innovator’s Delimma for discussion on entrenched strategy and the blindness to new disruptive technologies.
I found it hard to get much change in a department if the rest of the company wasn’t on board, but sometimes real improvements can be made at that level. Doing that successfully is a good indicator of leadership quality, and should help career advancement (perhaps at another company).
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