Could YOU change the world?

“Action needs to happen…”

“Someone needs to take the lead…”

“Who is going to step up and take responsibility?”

“Who is going to inspire a change in thinking and behaviour?”

“When will the correct policies be created to ensure a sustainable future?”

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Do any of these statements and questions resonate? When you look at the title of this post and consider the challenges that you/we currently face, whether in business, our personal lives or in society - do you ever wonder how just one individual’s force could be so powerful that others are prepared to change their beliefs…maybe even lay down their lives for that cause?

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Talk is cheap, as they say. People can be inspired by reading, speeches and seminars, but perhaps more so if they see someone actually?doing?something about their cause or passion. I enjoy looking at specific examples…those who ‘walked the talk’. Here are just a few that spring to mind (and I apologise for those I haven’t included who are equally as, if not more inspirational)…

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Let’s take Ernest Shackleton. He didn’t ask anyone to do a task he wouldn’t do himself. He promoted group bonding by being amongst his team, rather than directing from the sidelines, and he taught his team to care for and help others, as he did.

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Great leadership doesn’t have to feature life or death situations. Similarly inspirational leaders, or?those with great vision, who are willing to go against the current status quo, can be found in any modern workplace.

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Then there’s?Ernest Thomke, who took over ETA, Switzerland’s largest watch manufacturer. ETA’s Japanese competitors were making slimmer, cheaper watches, and threatening ETA’s market share. Thomke’s approach, rather than trying to shave margins or to continue with normal practice must have been viewed as absurd at the time; he challenged his engineers, under a seemingly impossible deadline of six months, to design a watch slimmer than ever before: two millimetres.

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The engineers knew they couldn’t adapt current practices and therefore returned to the drawing board. They came up with the idea of placing the watch’s moving parts directly into the watch case, rather than a casing, which was common practice. Thomke pushed the boundaries again, and challenged them to produce this new design for less than ten francs, despite the mechanism alone costing twenty-five. Again, the engineers were forced to think differently, and the Swatch was born.

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Chief Executive of SAS airlines,?Jan Carlzon, is renowned for his leadership practices. One example was when the whole company, in financial difficulty as he took over, was asked to cut costs in all areas. To demonstrate that he wasn’t above such treatment, he stopped using the company’s limousine and caught the bus to work. Needless to say, this simple action earned him a great deal of respect during this challenging situation.

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Ricardo Semler, the boss of Semco, was another who threw out the rule book when he was in charge. When cuts were necessary he didn’t start at the bottom like many company chiefs, but cut out layers of management he deemed limiting to productivity. He reduced the chain of command in the company’s management structure from twelve to three. Employees were subsequently encouraged to be democratic and self-supervising. The freedom Semler’s move brought increased motivation and, ultimately, output.

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Richard Branson?is held aloft in the modern workplace as an example of a great leader. His vision and belief system seem to hone in on exactly the right people for the Virgin organisation. One of Branson’s principles is to ignore competition. Instead, he chooses to pay attention only to the market, at what’s missing or what’s not being done well. There is no ‘business as usual’ at Virgin, only the aspiration to shake up the norm and find a better way.

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Perhaps?Nelson Mandela’s?attitude is amongst the most noteworthy. Imprisoned for decades, his message of racial harmony on his release was cemented by his actions, which included visiting the widow of the very man who had incarcerated him for so long. To Mandela, he could not ask others to forgive if he wasn’t prepared to himself.

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“Don’t underestimate the power of your vision to change the world. Whether that world is your office, your community, an industry or a global movement, you need to have a core belief that what you contribute can fundamentally change the paradigm or way of thinking about problems.”

Leroy Hood

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There’s nothing particularly special about any of these leaders’ DNA or physicality. They are/were people just like you and me who employed a different way of thinking. They didn’t accept current practice, rules and regulations, or the attitudes of others – they challenged them until they found a better way. Their achievements weren’t gained overnight either; most of them endured significant setbacks along the way, and all had to start somewhere.

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Whatever you want to change - your weight/health, your career opportunities, your situation – concentrate on taking the first step.?Change is within you, not out of your reach.

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