For the last 2.5 years, most mornings when I’m working in my office at our lake house, I get up, grab a coffee and go for a 30-minute ‘power walk’ around the neighbourhood, past the marina, and down to the lake. This gives me an opportunity to organize my thoughts and get ready for the day.
This morning, I was reflecting on a speaker development workshop I attended a few weeks ago. It was fascinating for me to watch myself go through it. One thing I started doing was comparing myself to the other speakers there. Oh jeez. Not a good thing. Yet it’s something that many of us do.
While I think it’s good to determine and plan where you want to go – it’s another to say “I’m not there yet”. Or, in my case, I’m ‘there’, but my ‘there’ is different than yours. I had to remind myself of that a few times.
Comparison can sometimes get you nowhere!
You may have heard about the research on why bronze medalists in sports are happier than silver medalists.
When we measure forwards and compare ourselves to an ideal we haven’t met, we get discouraged, like the silver medalists. Whereas, when we measure backward and either say, ‘Oh thank goodness I at least got here’, like the bronze medalists, or examine our past successes, that’s when we are able to build our confidence and ultimately take action to move forward.
How does this apply to your work? Whenever you get ‘stuck’, or your team gets stuck navigating and initiating the rapid amounts of change, consciously remind yourself and others how far you’ve come. Identify past successes – and apply the skills to the current changes you have to implement.
Here are 3 questions to guide you:
- In what situation in the past did you handle change well?
- What specific skills and abilities did you use?
- How can we apply those to the current situation to keep the momentum going?
Asking these questions will help you not only anticipate change, but be strategic change leaders so that you are future-ready.
After all, being future ready means being change ready.
Have a good month!