Hbr - Big Shoes to Fill, the Innostat Case

Big Shoes to Fill, the Innostat case

To attract followers, a leader has to be many things to many people; the trick is to pull that off, while remaining true to yourself.

Unfortunately, a highly charismatic leader who has everything at hand, a bigger role that makes her/him have more presence than the company, happens frequently. Without having a new products on the street, the company needed a big change after all, and Jack should be aware of this a long time ago, so this kind of management style and behavior shows that the company really needs fresh blood, even though he's now dead or the company is going down.

But when bad times came to the company, a the leader pass away and the company started to wane, there's no better opportunity for a symbolic and transformation leader, a true leader that sees everything from everywhere, pulling all aside, while remaining true to her/himself.

Innostat was a lone warrior with Jack Donally on his head, but when this situations happens through the years, it can start to strangle the company's innovation, due on that any attempt on changing something, has to go through her/him, and with this kind of decisions and maneuvers, the people can lose their creative spirit and focus.

Stephanie Fortas needs to be a symbolic and transformational leader. The company doesn't need another Steve Jobs, who leads and directs his own company, they need a 360 degree change, and by the reading, I am convinced that she has the power to manage in this direction, but my very personal recommendation is to have the symbolic frame at top, not forgetting the rest ones. Her coach, Teddy Adler tells her that the company doesn't need her, but I want to believe that the way it showed at the lecture it seems more than a tricky comment to her, trying to push her on the leading company's way, the company needs a new model, and she has the background, needs new products, and she will have the opportunity to let the people explode their creativities potential.

At the beginning, she will have to use her structural frame, based on that the first year will be a challenging start, so she will have to encourage the team to keep them together, establish the new goals, rules and environment, she has to be the architecture of the new era, the Fortas era.

She has to establish a new vision for the company, to re-focus on their new goals and objectives, get the right people on the bus, and letting each department to do what they do best, due on that reorganization will encourage her people to focus internally on company politics and position instead of looking externally at the challenges presented by the competition and customer needs, and take advantage on her new coaching position in order to contribute to their teams with her own experience and technical skills.

She has a strategic partners, who can lead the departments and manage the people to put into action their new goals and share her new vision, Frank Timoshotsky, a trustworthy employee, Jim Pappas with his all his efforts but no expertise, so she has to use her Political frame in order to establish a great relationship with this two guys, let them remain in the company, convince them to remain in the company, and promoting, recruiting, and developing the next-generation leaders to do this work

I do not see her divorce as a problem, better said, her divorce will help the company to maintain her focused on reestablishing the company, and drive it to new levels of performance.

She has in her hands Innostat's