Companies highly value executives who are masters of change. They know resiliency, the capacity to overcome, and an open mind to new ideas are paramount to success.
And to get personal… drop-dead intimate… For you, it can’t be about something your company wants you to exhibit. It has to be essential for you! After all, it’s fundamental for surviving with your joy and fulfillment and growth intact—not to mention just about everything else important to you. The bottom line is mastering your success change equation is more valuable to you than to your company.
Take a deep breath and consider the last year. In no way could any of us have imagined the unprecedented, genuine change barreling into our lives, nor could we anticipate the emotional stretching necessary to thrive. We’ve been experiencing a revolutionary whirlwind of disruption at a whole new level than ever before in our lifetime.
Ready to get the upper hand on change?
#1 CheckPoint… Feelings: Frank, self-awareness on your part is a vital factor when change comes barreling down the tracks of life.
Identifying your feelings of vulnerability, uncertainty, anxiety, or fear is the first step. Because change always impacts us personally as it hits us right in the gut.
It has us battling this century’s Saber Tooth Tigers using our fight, flight, or freeze response. This reaction leaves you disconnected from the thinking part of your brain. The war is lost in today’s modern world when we revert to that extinct conditioning to confront today’s challenges.
The bottom-line foundation of every successful endeavor is mental toughness and an emotionally secure interior core. It’s up to you to find that peaceful, balanced place of wisdom.
Suppose you don’t gain dominance? You doom yourself to be the follower of others rather than the trailblazer championing and influencing a new way of being in the middle of chaos. Once you get your attitude in check, your cerebral cortex once again kicks into game planning, the next stage unhampered by feelings.
#2 CheckPoint… Strategic: Now that your brain is fully engaged, make sure you put it to good use. Determine for yourself what you intend to achieve through the uncomfortableness you’re facing. Transformation requires confronting yourself strategically, objectively, and honestly. Only you can determine what is working and what isn’t, and you alone can envision the future you desire.
This gap between the disruptive change and where you intend to be is the intersection point for focusing your strategic thinking. Time to move into exploration, curiosity, inquiry mode:
- What isn’t working for you right now?
- What specific action would turn this around or solve the troublesome challenges you’re facing?
- Are you solving issues that others may also be facing? Would collaboration speed up your process? Is it time for you to share your intel with others to support their response to similar changes?
- Did the initial change impact other areas in your life? If so, what? Is it time to strategize the entire dynamics of the global shift in your life? Holistic tactical ideas increase your counter-measures pace.
- Will others be affected by your decisions? If so, who and in what ways?
- What is the risk-success assessment on each of the moving parts of your plan? Is it worth moving forward into implementation?
- You now have a “big picture view.” Ask yourself: In what areas do I have the authority and power to take action right now?
#3 CheckPoint… Implementation: Hopefully, you’re laser-focused on improvement. All your thinking is a waste of time unless you put it into action. And despite what you may think or feel, it is relatively simple.
- Think leverage… meaning which of the concepts will make the most significant impact?
- Think accountability…meaning nothing will change unless you keep promises to yourself.
- Think reset…nothing ever transpires smoothly. You’re sure to stumble, certainly lose momentum, perhaps even fail, and it is only through resetting that you will achieve your goals.
- Think perseverance…the road moving away from unsettling change, and the road to your future emerges out of your resolve.
There’s no question that anyone who has carved out a satisfying and fulfilling life for themselves has learned to overcome change outside of their control. Charles Darwin was so right when he said: It’s not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change.
