Who are we waiting for...

While I was walking this week, my mind kept repeating the same question – ‘Why is it that as soon as there is some sort of crisis, or circumstances that force us to change, we can move mountains, but until we are required to change, we are basically powerless to shift anything??

I work with many organisations who really struggle to implement transformational shifts and often complain about how change resistant their organisation's are. Funnily enough, along comes a good crisis and those same companies can change everything and they can do it overnight!?

So my call out to leaders/organisation's is – there is nothing wrong with your ability to change, what you are missing is your ability to create commitment to change.?

Think back to Martin Luther King giving the ‘I have a dream speech’, imagine instead if he had stood up and said "I have a powerpoint presentation for you today". Imagine if he had gone onto say "my presentation today also launches a restructure of society, but don’t worry ladies and gentleman, you will get the chance to provide feedback before any final decision is made".?

I say this in jest but if we were being honest, the latter approach is often how we are dishing up leadership to our people nowadays and we are wondering why there is a great resignation in play at the moment!! I will let you in on a secret - I don't think anyone really cares about your fancy powerpoints and slick slogans or your return on investment calculations. They care about stuff that really matters to the places they work and live in, and they care about what happens to their own futures and the futures for their kids etc.?

The way I see it is there are two types of change, circumstantial (i.e. waiting for the burning platform) or generative (creating or being driven by a burning ambition). Most of the time we are good at circumstantial, as we don’t have much of an option but to react. Being generative is harder because creating a burning ambition requires a leader to take an unrelenting stand on the future, ensuring others are sufficiently committed to that same future, and then ensuring they are supported to take massive action – no easy task.

If we only have the ability to change when the circumstances are given to us leaves us waiting – waiting for the next crisis, waiting for something or someone to demand improvement or change, waiting for your board to give you clarity – just generally waiting. Responding to circumstances is not necessarily easy, but generating things to happen that otherwise wouldn’t have happened, and are often done without necessarily know how, is challenging and is the domain of leadership.??

The ability to create a compelling future and enrol others in that future is the cornerstone role of a courageous leader. People don’t want to hear your plan, your initiatives or the way you measure success – they want to be enrolled in a future they care about, where they know what’s expected of them and they know what’s in it for them. Don’t tell your people what you do, inspire and enrol them to why you are doing it and the impact you are going to make on their lives and those that live around them.??

Enrolled people who are generating the future make shit happen – they are not waiting for the circumstances to be right, they are boldly making change, learning, adapting and going again.??

So here’s the leadership challenge to you – stop focusing on creating change plans and focus on creating the commitment to change – be the change by taking a stand on something that matters, even if you don’t yet know how to do it – and then sit back and enjoy what your organisation creates – it might just surprise you how much talent you have in your organisation when you unleash it rather than trying to control it.??