Right from the formative years of my career, one thing has been abundantly clear – ‘Change’ fascinates me. I find myself leaning-in to it, I relish seeing things with a lens like no other available in this survivalist world.
Early on, the biggest challenge was to understand why is it difficult to get others to see things the way I see it? What I did not realize at that time was, “Change” in a “Survivalist” world, is an organic contradiction.
With experience, maturity, reflection and leadership positions, the answer became evident. The standout cause was that I saw the companies I worked for from two very different lenses of opposite polarities – Employee & Owner/Leader. In ‘just do your job and say no more’ sonorous organizational cultures that brand single-vision as focus, this was CHANGE, a really big one, a change that threatened corporate dogma and survivalist mindsets.
The mere thought of conforming to such status-quo revolted my fastidious taste. To me, not seeing the company from all angles through various lenses was like taxiing an airplane on a freeway during rush hour – filled with nothing but blindspots. These blindspots can be catastrophic for leaders & companies alike.
I realized I am at a fork in the road – to walk away from such jobs or to become the leader who can STRATEGICALLY TRANSFORM companies with such friction & survivalist mindsets against change into accepting it.
I chose the latter.
My quest for the essence of ‘Being the Change I want to See’ led me on an experiential learning journey in turning the following fundamental truths into time-tested testaments.
- To UNDERSTAND someone’s (Ex: Employees, Owners, Customers, Regulators) behavior, I had to, see the business/product/company as they see it
- To CHANGE someone’s (Ex: Employees, Owners, Customers, Suppliers) behavior, I had to, change the way they see the business/product/company
My toolkit to strategically identify, eliminate these blindspots and lead change includes careful study of the organization’s psychology, inclusivity, transparency, communication, curating the mindset (fixed to growth), changing the organizations’ culture top-down and bottom-up, creative marketing and more.
Now, when most of my clients ask me, ‘We thought this was very difficult. How do you do it?’, I smile and say – “Simple, have no blindspots”, and quote Jack Dorsey – “Success is never accidental”.
As a leader, what are your blindspots? What are you doing to eliminate these? How are you leading change?
