5MR#40 : Leader Shift

“You cannot be the same, think the same and act the same if you hope to be successful in a world that does not remain the same,” writes John C. Maxwell early in Leadershift, clearly outlining the main premise of his book.

“Good leaders adapt,” writes Maxwell. “They shift. They don’t remain static because they know the world around them does not remain static. This has always been true, but it’s never more obvious than today, nor has the ability to change quickly been more important.”

As defined by John C. Maxwell, “leadershifting is the ability and willingness to make a leadership change that will positively enhance organizational and personal growth.” Or, even more concise, as defined in the blurb, leadershift is “the act of nimbly adapting one’s leadership in the midst of rapid change.”

This can be achieved via 7 fundamental practices, 4 self-improvement techniques, and 11 essential changes.

7 Fundamental Practices

#1. Continually learn, unlearn and relearn. “The lessons learned in school can become outdated before student loans are paid off,” reported recently the Harvard Business Review. The encyclopedias of the past were updated once every few years; today’s encyclopedias are updated several times a minute. Update yourself: constantly.

#2. Value yesterday but live in today. “Yesterday’s homerun doesn’t win today’s game,” said once baseball’s greatest Babe Ruth. The lesson: focus on current challenges, and leave the past glories to the past.

#3. Rely on speed but thrive on timing. As Wild West’s gunslingers knew full well, it’s not only about being fast but also about being fast at the right time. As then, timing is everything today as well.

#4. See the big picture as the picture keeps getting bigger. Try to learn in layers. And never fool yourself that you’ve learned everything there is to know about a subject. It’s quite the opposite: the more you learn about something—if you’re learning correctly—the more there is to learn.

#5. Live in today, but think about tomorrow. Even though, as we said above (#2), you need to focus on today, leaders are leaders because they can think about tomorrow as well. Even if for much, much shorter periods than in the 1980s—always, always, plan ahead.

#6. Move forward courageously in the midst of uncertainty. Being a leader is all about risking, about getting out of the comfort zone. It’s not only true that when the going gets tough, the tough get going—it’s also true that the ones who risk bravely are the ones who win the biggest prizes.

#7. Realize today’s best will not meet tomorrow’s challenges. Upgrading, upgrading, upgrading. In a world of radical changes, that is your only way to remain a leader in the long run. Only the short-sighted rest on their laurels.

The 4 Questions You Need to Ask Yourself

By asking yourself the following four questions, you should be able to set signposts to guide you on your journey toward self-improvement, which, in essence, can be described in, more or less, a version of the famous Olympic motto: faster, higher, stronger:

#1. Learn something new. Ask yourself, “When’s the last time I learned something for the first time?”

#2. Try something different. Ask yourself, “When’s the last time I did something for the first time?”

#3. Find something better. Ask yourself, “When’s the last time I found something better for the first time?”

#4. See something bigger. Ask yourself, “When’s the last time I saw something bigger for the first time?”

The 11 Leadershifts Every Leader Should Make

Even more important than the leadership practices above are the eleven leadershifts, dubbed by Maxwell as the “essential changes every leader must embrace.” They are:

#1. The Focus Shift: Soloist to Conductor. Great leaders are never soloists: they orchestrate.

#2. The Personal Development Shift: Goals to Growth. Goals are great, but growth is better. Be growth-oriented.

#3. The Cost Shift: Perks to Price. Great leaders don’t think about what they can get out of their position: they are focused on what they can give.

#4. The Relational Shift: Pleasing People to Challenging. Stop worrying about pleasing people: start challenging them.

#5. The Abundance Shift: Maintaining to Creating. Tradition doesn’t work as well as it used to: instead of maintaining the old ways, focus on creating new rituals.

#6. The Reproduction Shift: Ladder Climbing to Ladder Building. Become an equipper: build ladders for your employees, and not for yourself (in fact, the latter will happen simultaneously).

#7. The Communication Shift: Directing to Connecting. Stop ordering people around: connect with them.

#8. The Improvement Shift: Team Uniformity to Team Diversity. Bring to your team people who are different than you, even such that don’t agree with your strategies: dissent breeds progress.

#9. The Influence Shift: Positional Authority to Moral Authority. You’re not a leader because of your position, but because of your character. Never forget that.

#10. The Impact Shift: Trained Leaders to Transformational Leaders. Don’t settle with being a trained leader: become a transformational one who inspires and encourages other people to become more than they are.

#11. The Passion Shift: Career to Calling. Becoming a leader should never be a career move: great leaders are the ones who have a calling to become that.

Conclusion:

From Leadership to Leadershift: the World Is Changing, and You Need to Adapt

Everything is changing so fast nowadays, that the only ones able to keep up with the pace are the flexible ones.

Adaptability is, by far, the most important trait a modern leader should possess. It is so important, in fact, that leadership can be better defined as leadershift nowadays—something that requires constant adjustments and change.

As Maxwell writes, today, “every advance you make as a leader will require a Leadershift that changes the way you think, act, and lead.”