Leading through change: The struggle is real!

March 2020.

The world has been taken to its knees in front of the biggest, most socially isolating, change agent of our modern times: COVID-19.

As we sit behind our laptops and embrace more than ever the idea of a full-time virtual business world, I am compelled to reflect on the one thing that's got my heart pounding for longer than I can remember: the human experience of change.

Before I go on, I want to clarify that I will not refer to the concept of change management that corporate sales strategies invent as the new flashy thing that will save your business or project. Neither to the magic pill that will make you gain “buy-in” from your followers. Or as I recently heard a leader convey to his management team: this "easy to get" education that you can obtain out of a "Google Search."

My thoughts are in the vulnerable sense of leading change. That experience that is felt in your core, and can be paralyzing and excruciatingly tangible. And why do I want to focus on that? Because it is enough of the Kool-Aid. I am tired of the workplace downplay around the experience of change is if it isn't about feelings and emotions - when that is ALL change is! Change isn't hard. In fact, as the world has proven, nobody can stop, manage, or control change from happening. Leading change, on the other hand, and I mean meaningfully, THAT is the real deal.

There are many (like hundreds, really!) perspectives on change leadership out there.

I have settled for my own take on the topic after exposing myself and supporting other leaders being put in situations when driving change is a matter of organizational life or death. Haven't you also felt as though you have been left to figure out on your own how to do so effectively, sometimes against your own will? Yes! that very time. That is the ultimate test. True leaders of change shine their light through chaos and uncertainty, and they (me, YOU!) do this beautifully by practicing this only thing: personal choice.

Choosing to own your responsibility for being a growth impact for others. Choosing to model moral behaviors that mobilize everyone to doing the right thing. Choosing to live a life that is all around congruent inside the workplace and even more inspiring outside of it.

Change leadership is a very courageous choice.

Behind the change leader’s choice, there comes a struggle that looks something like this: a genuine, yet vulnerable confidence in speaking up on behalf of other people who are not in a position for doing so; a crazy-fast heartbeat at the need to take an unpopular stance in the intent to open up conversations that are tough and real. Putting yourself out there with all of who you are (the assertiveness and the stumble) and own up to that, so that your showing up ignites in others to do the same. Perhaps, some of you can also relate?

This is pure bravery to expose yourself to all kinds of contradictions and standing up sometimes alone. Taking a chance on an intangible idea that travels from your heart, through your head, until it can be articulated with your words for others to see. I curl up to the challenge that it means to step into a change leader’s personal power, fine tune their convictions every day, and show up the most grounded way possible for others. But in the heart of the change leader it is all worthy as they pass the baton to others who will shape up and continue to evolve the organization over time.

This career roller-coaster of leading change is probably the best choice I've made. Amusing, with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. It has given me the most elevated way of ridding the struggles of the complicated times. And this is what I've learned:

Change leaders own their platform.

We honor our positional power for good, understanding that is granted to impact the experience of others. Call it a job title. Call it parenthood. Call it a movement. Call it preaching. Call it LinkedIn. Everything that is in us speaks the word of our most ingrained convictions. Everywhere is a platform. And that is a very cautious place to be. Our words are the most powerful competency of change leaders.

"Words don’t just give voice to one’s mindset and beliefs; they also evoke images of what people hope to create with others and how they expect people to behave” ~ Kouzes and Posner

Change leadership choices are around the personal risks we take everyday.

Our shadows are the first thing people can see through when we are under pressure. As paradoxical as it may sound, true leadership if often found more in the dark of times. It is a constant (sometimes exhausting) work in understanding what makes us dysfunctional, so we don’t allow it to control us, thus we can choose to tap into our strengths instead. It is about how we face our ingrained shame, than it is showing off our brilliant minds. It is also more about consciously choosing how not to harm, than it is about how to heal. It is more about battling our self-serving ambitions and fears, than it is our pursuit to achieve. It is more about understanding the shadow sides in our mind, our twisted motives, our rooted false beliefs, than it is creating a fa?ade that others would like and follow. 

Change leaders find a unique voice.

If we agree the word is a powerful competency, it is natural to accept that a unique voice is the ultimate mastery of a change leader. A voice that is genuinely in purpose with helping to mobilize people towards a change that brings meaning and purpose. A voice that is brave to escalate dysfunction, mistreatment, and risks as opposed to remain by-standing. A change leader lives the daily struggle of choosing where his or her words will make the best impact. A change leader who keeps his or her word is a credible leader, for the word is where courage to lead change can be heard, and...

"Without courage you can’t make a difference. Without courage you can’t have the right conversations that lead to change. Without courage you won’t even get off the starting block as a leader. But it’s how you show courage that’s the important point here… courage is acting in the face of fear. Sitting with the discomfort but working through it, not around it. Showing up fiercely and completely, bringing your vulnerabilities, imperfections and inadequacies, but not being driven by them.” ~Susan Pearse 

Change leaders make it all about leaving a legacy.

Self-serving motives are destructive. In the ideal world, these should be addressed as soon as possible to minimize the potential of being replicated behaviors in any organization. Change leaders instead put principles of self-development and self-accountability in their driver's seat. It is important to not see us as leaders in the context of individual gains, for we can’t be leaders without impacting the world around us. A change leader has paid his or her dues when their impact has transformed other people's lives. If a person is only in a position of leadership to serve oneself, this cannot be called leadership. That is plain narcissism. Leadership as a responsibility is a generational stepping stone that creates a foundation for others to build off. It never ends. It reiterates. A change leader is renewed every time a new person with inclination and passion for change steps up to the plate. We owe new change leaders a solid ground of actions and choices as we have understood well that thriving in change is fundamental for our human evolution. 

Change equals struggle. Thus, "struggle" needs to be validated and given its well-deserved pause in our business vocabulary, alongside with feelings, emotions, and humanism.

Change leaders mostly juggle through challenges and setbacks, unfortunately more than they see days filled with successes. What makes a change leader without the ability to push through a complex system and get to the other side? What makes a change leader without the capacity to adjust the journey they are on? What makes a change leader without the awareness to embrace failure as a way of doing? It is the obvious state of change leadership: adapt to the change while helping others with the same along the process. A growth mindset is important, but having a strong mental condition and clarity of the experience of change is at the core of enduring difficult and uncertain times.

Leave me your comments! Is leading change a struggle for you too? How do you embrace it?

~ Lindsay