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Intentional Leadership — D3, W2, M8 — Change

Today, I encourage you to focus on change externally.

Who do you know who is facing a significant change in his/her personal or professional life?

What could you do to help this person? Sometimes, it’s as simple as spending time with them and listening; others, help requires taking action of some sort.

As you spend time with this person, and listen to his or her story, could you help them to see the situation from a different angle? As a coach, this is one of the things I do with my participants — help them to see another perspective that might allow them some new insight or ideas they may not have otherwise considered.

You might be able to help them come up with a couple of different solutions, and evaluate them…decide if they need to do something new, stop doing something they currently do that no longer serves them, or maybe even both (Yes! use the tool you learned yesterday — Know, Evaluate, Act/Change).

Who do you know who is facing change?

How much do you know about their situation?

What options are you aware of that they might want to consider when developing a solution or action plan?

Does the situation call for them to start something new, stop something in progress, or some combination of the two?

What is the best thing you could do for this person at this point in their life?

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Intentional Leadership — D2, W2, M8 — Change

For many of us, we change only when we absolutely have to — literally pushed through it by forces beyond our control — when the pain of not changing is worse than the pain of the change. We change reactively, rather than proactively.

As a leader, you can capitalize on these moments because people are now ready to act.

There are times when we make decisions quickly and emotionally, without considering all the factors involved. These are the decisions born of reacting (immediate and emotional) rather than of responding (thoughtfully, and with consideration for the risks, consequences, and implications).

Here is a tool you might use in considering your options when faced with a decision involving change. This is based on the steps of knowing, evaluating, then acting (changing).

Know: What is the level of pain your organization is in? What is wrong, confused, or broken within your team or organization that is driving you towards a change? Take a few minutes to describe the situation.

Evaluate: Now that you are in pain, and recognize you must make some change, what are three potential solutions? For each solution, write down at least two benefits to moving in that direction, and two risks or implications that are associated with taking that action.

Act/Change: To make this change, do you need to start something new, simply stop something you are already doing, or go in an entirely different direction? Based on these considerations, what’s the best solution you’ve come up with and what do you need to do to make it happen?

What will it cost you to do nothing?

Whatever you decide is the best course of action, the time to act is NOW!

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Intentional Leadership — D1, W2, M8 — Change

Approximately a year and a half ago, I attended the Chick-fil-A Leadercast, and Andy Stanley was one of the speakers. I don’t remember the entire content of his talk, but one part of it really stuck out for me and I remember it frequently.

He was telling to story of two executives, a few years ago, I believe at Dell. They were struggling with an issue that they had to resolve, and weren’t coming up with new ideas. You see, they were so firmly entrenched in their paradigms, that they couldn’t see their situation in a different light. They knew their way of thinking at that time wasn’t going to allow them to come up with the solutions they needed to change the direction of their business.

Finally, one of them had a stroke of genius and asked this question: “What would our successors (replacements) do?” You see, he recognized the dire situation they were in and was confident that if they weren’t able to change their way of thinking, and change their corporate strategy, they would soon be replaced with someone who could!

Pretty sobering thought, don’t you think?

This simple question allowed them to think as if they were someone else, with different beliefs, constraints, perceived barriers, etc…and they were able to come up with some ideas that were a bit out of the ordinary for them, but weren’t out of the realm of possibility. Having given themselves permission to consider ideas they wouldn’t normally entertain, they were able to come up with some better responses to their situation.

And that, as they say, made all the difference!

Take some time today to think back on a time when you had to change your way of thinking in order to succeed. What was the situation?

What “barriers” (either real or perceived) held you back?

What pushed you into a new way of thinking?

What were the results?

How have you used that experience with different situations?

Having had this experience, how quickly do you now move into a new way of thinking when faced with a challenge?

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