Question

Think about how the structure of tasks affect leaders' behaviors. They are task autonomy, task feedback, task structure, and task interdependence. It also sees most problems, as defined by Ronald Heifitz, as either technical or adaptive. Describe how you as a leader (or another leader who you've observed) used this analysis in effectively dealing with an organizational challenge. Which of the variables related to the problem's definition and how was it handled, either as a technical problem or an adaptive one?

Answer 1

Task leadership is task focused and focuses on the completion of the task . Task leaders lead from the beginning looking at the end and each milestone in the time frame is developed around task milestones . Such leadership is more effective in technical problem as technical problems can be resolved with task leadership. For adaptive problems which is more about soft problems like cultural change in the organization task leadership shall be ineffective . For Adaptive leadership leader has to be more with the peoples . It may arise from the foot of the organization rather than the head of the organization . Leaders job is to give space to transformers in his team and make management more participative . Goals will be more iterative than final in one go . It needs lot of adjustment plans looking at the pace of the team .

We can take example of my Uncle Jeri , who took over a loss making steel firm the Perfect Steel . He found that there was over staffing in the organization and work culture was not good enough leading to high cost . he made a plan of golden handshake and gradually reduced staff. Alongside he worked on the team and created leaders with in to bring in adaptive cultural change . Today after 5 years the company has turned out to be profitable and a happy organization.