Leadership is influence. Though that influence is constant, there comes a moment where every organization must disrupt itself to change the times or change with the times. When this moment comes, an organization’s culture is either a catalyst or a hidrance to change; most of the time it’s a hidrance.
Oftentimes the biggest obstacle to change is the leader her / himself. Yes, you are a blocker because you may not be up to the challenge to shift course for your company. For many, this is a hard pill to swallow because their ego will take a hit. I’ve heard it before, “I have loads of experience; I can’t fail”, “There’s a reason why we’ve gotten this far, we’ll double down on what we know and continue to succeed”.
When I was an employee, I was never a part of a culture where people were empowered to act on ideas without asking for permission. Anything out of the ordinary I ever did as an employee happened because I acted on my instincts without considering whether or not I was going to get in trouble for doing so; I just did it.
When you celebrate failure, you encourage innovation. Does your organization celebrate failure? If your answer is yes, I’d like to know what that looks like and how that’s going for you. If your answer is no, read on.
Think about a time when you had to introduce a new process, concept, or project to a friend, a manager, or an entire team. How did it go? What were the challenges? To carry out the change management process in an organization, you often have to effectively influence others.
How do you consider what advice to take? Just because you like and / or respect someone? At this point most everyone will take Elon Musk’s advice just because he’s Elon Musk; but you shouldn’t. The same goes for when you have a mentor or are seeking advice from various people.
We all have moments where we lose track of things, where we lose our mind and say things we should’t say. A few months ago, during a call with a client, the CEO of the organization did just that. For the last 6 months I’ve been consulting for this organization, helping them think and develop a new strategic direction, and culture to support that direction.
