In today’s world, context shifting has become a common theme. In fact, being in an organization now-a-days is like being inside infinite waves of continuous change.
People arriving or leaving, law changes, aggressive, strong handed competitors; all surrounded by economical constraints, in a chaotically organized world.
There are several challenges that arise for a leader who wants to overcome these day to day challenges successfully. Some that I could mention are:
- How to be at the top of our employee’s expectations and be a role model without disappointing anyone?
- How to help organizations continuously adapt when facing hierarchical heavy structures, that are not responding as quick as required to a continuous wave of changes?
- How to stay balanced, calm and compassionate, to help ourselves and our colleagues perform at their best?
Well, I have some crazy ideas to cope with these challenges, that have helped me and my team(s) move forward and dance with continuous changes :
Ideas:
- Dance with changes. Change is the only thing that would happen in life. So, why are we always fighting it? Give it a try and accept changes by pausing; train yourself to pause when big, scary and crazy changes arise.
- Take a break to breath. Spend time thinking changes over, thoroughly, and do your best to jump into action. Use your emotional intelligence skills to control your emotions (Self-management) and wait a minute before a word comes out of your mouth.
- Try harder to collaborate. Ask the team what they want and need. Ask for proposals and ideas of potential solutions to solve problems. Empower them to participate and remember to trust them because they are smart people. They will trust you even more for that demonstration of trust.
- Stay humble enough to share your worries. Your teammates are willing to help and they want to feel useful, especially during crisis. Be their role model and show how humble you are; even during the worst case scenarios. Invite them to collaborate and brainstorm together. Yes, I know that all of these requires a lot of yourself, but who chose to be there in that leadership position? Sorry, but I think it was you!!!
- Create perspective by seeing change as gifts/opportunities. Think about this: What if, at every situation we look at it as a gift/opportunity? “A gift is something given to someone without the expectation of payment” Wikipedia. Now, ask yourself, what has shifted? What have you received as a gift/opportunity? there is no expectation about what it is, so what could happen if you act normal and take it as is? No planning, no stress, zero expectations. Think about it!
- Support people through change. Leadership requires effort and involvement. It demands a lot of engagement. But when you give yourself to others, and you are there for them, you will always get back more than you have gave. So give it a try, and when you ask your people how they are doing, be sincere and show that you really care about them and be ready to be surprised.
I’ve learned in my whole life, that being a leader is highly demanding. It requires personal investment; it can be draining and disappointing sometimes. But in our globalized world, leaders are the key to turn things around. Good leaders listen and care; are present and engaged with their people.
Remember, the only person that can change the world is you, so give it a try and put yourself at the service of others, be honest and humble because you have maybe developped some leadership, and that requires you to be responsible.
Nobody said that it would be easy?
Thank you for reading and sharing your experiences.
All the best,
Jesus
