5 Fundamental Habits For Change Leadership
5 Fundamental Habits For Change Leadership
Change leadership is not natural, especially when your first start practicing it. Change is most often associated with leaving behind something that has worked and pursuing something untested and relatively unknown. This change will always create tension between the stability of the past and the uncertainty of future opportunities.
As you prepare your journey of becoming a change leader and master the change leadership practices, the critical path should include five foundational practices as explained below:
Continuous and never-ending improvement (CANI); Continually learn, unlearn, and relearn
Research has indicated that your job and businesses change so drastically that you need to relearn 30% to 40% every few years. Knowledge changes rapidly and requires constant updating. As the Harvard Business Review reported, “The lessons learned in school can become outdated before student loans are paid off.” Leaders must replace what they learned yesterday with what they will learn tomorrow. The assumptions and strategies that you had pre-COVID-19 should be evaluated entirely against the “New Normal” and start the process of individual and institutional unlearning and relearning to survive and grow.
Value past learning but focus on today
A key point to remember – All your past success and victories are significant accomplishments that can be documented on your websites, marketing collateral, or resumes. These accomplishments will not help you to solve any of your current challenges. Baseball star Babe Ruth said, “Yesterday’s home run doesn’t win today’s game.” Focus on current challenges, not past glories. Current challenges and opportunities stand on their own. If you want an outstanding today and a great future, then you need to do whatever is necessary to solve today’s challenges. Be grateful and acknowledge the past but focus 100% on today.
Rely on speed, but thrive on timing
The critical point to remember is that “Timing” is everything. You need to focus on your environment and be able to recognize the appropriate time making decisions and executing on them. According to folk wisdom, there’s only one good day to eat a pear. Have it a day early or a day late, and you will miss the best taste. Eat your pear on the correct day, and it will be delicious. Timing is everything. As a leader, you need to be able to recognize the timing for when to give a pep talk to an employee, when to push an employee to take on additional responsibilities, when to introduce a new product or new strategy for the success of the organization, etc.
Take action and move courageously in the midst of uncertainty
Many, many great things have begun with a single act of courage throughout history and today. A leader steps out and makes one courageous decision and that one domino starts many other dominoes falling—fear in leadership usually connected to the uncertainty about the future. But uncertainty about the future is never going to go away. Leaders get paid to deal with uncertainty. They must relish it because it comes with the territory. Betty Bender, former president of the Library Administration and Management Association, explains, “Anything I’ve ever done that ultimately was worthwhile initially scared me to death.”
When faced with uncertainty, as leaders, we need to move forward courageously.
Remember, today’s best will not meet tomorrow’s challenges.
When faced with uncertainty, as leaders, we need to move forward courageously.
To be a Change Leader and lead successfully, you must continuously upgrade your skills. In today’s world of radical change, what worked for you in the past might not work for you tomorrow. Spend time planning how to get better. The best way to meet the challenges of tomorrow is to do our best today. Ask yourself the question, “Is this the best I can do today?” Have an attitude of “positive dissatisfaction,” this is where you reflect and acknowledge your contributions today and move your focus to the next challenge. The question “Am I getting better?’ keeps me motivated to learn and change to take on tomorrow’s big challenge.
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