Lead Change Heart Way: Navigating External Change Through Internal Transformation

In today's fast-paced world, we're dealing with challenges that our ancestors couldn’t have imagined.

With technologies like Industry 4.0 and the rise of artificial intelligence, our roles are constantly evolving, pushing us to be more innovative and adaptable.

Adding to the complexity, the recent pandemic has reshaped how we work, live, and interact with one another.

With all these rapid changes, it's natural to feel overwhelmed and resistant. The constant flux in our jobs, personal lives, and society at large can leave us yearning for simpler times and may even impact our mental well-being.

So, how can we embrace change in a positive way? What if we shifted our perspective from a purely logical, mind-driven approach to one guided by our hearts?

Curious to explore how leading change the heart way can lead to better experiences and outcomes? Read more, and find out!

Embracing Change from Within

You might be thinking, “Coping with change is already hard enough. Now, I’ve got to lead change from the heart? Why make things harder?”

The answer is simple. Change will never happen if we do not lead it from the inside.

Change starts internally. It’s about aligning your thoughts and feelings and getting your mind and heart on the same page. Both how we think and how we feel influences how we react and handle external changes.

By integrating our emotions into the change process, we become more committed and aligned. And this leads to better creativity, productivity, and less stress for ourselves and our team.

Overall, this approach also reduces stress and increases the success of the change, ultimately benefiting us in the long run.

The second reason is this: Just knowing something isn’t enough to make us change. For example, we know that eating a healthy diet, sleeping 8 hours a day, and exercising keep us healthy. However, how many of us are practising it daily?

The key to making a change is to make a choice, make a decision to commit, and take action. It's about moving from just knowing to actually doing.

By creating a “buy-in” for ourselves, we are “all in” when we are handling change.

1. Scan for the Positive Things

Your brain can process 11 million bytes of information per second. But guess what? Your conscious mind can only handle a tiny fraction of that, only 40 to 50 bytes at a time.

It's like having a super-filtered inbox, only letting a select few messages through. In neuroscience, this is called ‘selective attention’.

Knowing this fact makes it even more important for us to feed our brains with “nutritious” information instead of “junk” such as negative perceptions. Remember the saying, “Garbage in, garbage out”?

When you consistently train your brain to focus on the good stuff, one positive thought at a time, you’re essentially giving your mind a daily workout for a healthier and happier outlook on life.

Consciously feed our brains with nutritious food and let the magic of positive change unfolds. The magic happens because we have slowly “engineered” our mind to shift our perspectives. ?

2. Rephrase Your Internal Dialogue

Feeling powerless in external change is a common experience.

When we feel that we’ve got no choice, that’s when we feel this way. We feel powerless to change the external circumstances, whether it’s something as minor as a traffic jam or as major as a company restructuring.

However, there’s one way you can shift from feeling powerless to feeling empowered.

It’s by shifting your internal dialogue from “I have to” to “I choose to”. Let’s try it, shall we?

Try changing “I have to clean the house” to “I choose to clean the house.” Doesn’t it feel more positive and empowering? Saying “I choose to clean the house” may also highlight the “why” we are doing so.

The reason why we clean the house is so that we feel comfortable and at ease. A clean house reduces the risk of health hazards to our health.

Let’s try a few more.

You can apply this change in internal dialogue in ANY area of your life, from the minutest detail to the biggest challenges.

Saying “I choose to” empowers you to take ownership of your actions and decisions.

Saying “I choose to” helps you to transform obligations into conscious choices that are aligned with your values and aspirations.

3. Gratitude: the Gateway to Positive Change

In the face of challenges, how often is it that we immediately think of the negative aspects of change?

I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s pretty often.

Part of the road leading towards heart-based change is a daily gratitude practice. One should do this not in a superficial manner, like “I’m thankful for today” but in detail and from the depths of their hearts.

Here are a few examples:

“I’m grateful that I have good support in managing my household.”

“I’m thankful for my team members -- not only do they show up daily, but they also bring warmth and cheer to a dull workplace.”

“I’m grateful for challenges that serve to keep me on my toes and sharpen my skills and knowledge.”

“I'm thankful to myself for not giving up on the neverending demands of parenthood.”

“I appreciate the government for implementing policies that are favourable for international investors.”

Acknowledging daily moments with gratitude serves as a powerful method for shifting our mindsets. Studies show that our human brain is naturally inclined towards detecting threats and dangers, and therefore it leans towards noticing or dwelling on negatives.

As such, practising gratitude actively shifts our mindset from negative to positive. It opens us to new ideas and effective change management.

Cultivating a Culture of Positivity

In essence, Lead Change Heart Way is all about taking a holistic, inside-out approach to handling change.

It's about seeing how focusing on the positive, applying positive feedback, embracing empowerment, and practising gratitude can really make a difference in our daily lives.

When we embrace these positive practices, we not only become better at leading change positively for ourselves and our teams but also create more fulfilling and meaningful experiences in every area of our lives.

If you’ve enjoyed this article, subscribe to my newsletter here. Get more insights about Leadership, Happiness, and Change in my training, workshops, and consultation, or engage me for one-on-one HEART-centred Leadership Coaching.

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