The Greatest Leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things, but the leader who gets people to do the greatest things.
During our lives and in our careers, we get to know leaders with a wide range of characteristics, either from close or far distance. Although practical experience is a great teacher, leaders who inspire us from wide distance do often become more influential, and more significant, in our growth towards leadership excellence. This is especially true if you, as a continuously developing leader learn through observation, a developing and learning technique that can include anything possible for higher development, evolving, and learning.
In some contexts, change management is referred to as something related to IT project management, process creation and development, but change leadership is a much wider context, and change leadership always puts either individuals, groups of people, teams, or complete organizations at the core, thus making it a people-centered approach. In its farthest reaching context and meaning, change leadership signifies the capability of thinking out of the box, seeing the problems, potentials, and solutions, stretching far beyond to what may be common day practice, and focusing upon creating completely new solutions.
Ultimately, change always begins within an individual. Although we are all products of our environments, and our societies, we do always have the possibility to see what is necessary, to create what is necessary, and to lead change that is necessary. To lead change, you must always be willing to change yourself first. To lead change that is significant to your values, you must first see, and visualize what is important to you, and what changes you want to see, and to lead, in your personal life, and possibly, in the lives of others.
Organizational change is a separate theme. The best, and most valuable organizations, do include and let everyone in the organization be part of the organizational development, and the change process. They do even include (wisely!), their clients and other shareholders in the process through a number of methods. In today’s world, in fact no organization can afford not including their employees, stakeholders, and shareholders to become a part of the change process, or change communication process. Organizations, in fact, should listen very carefully to how employees and other significant stakeholders respond to, and what changes they would like to see in the organization.
Effective change leadership, depending upon your mission and vision, includes:
- How you, as a change leader, perceive society, people, and organizations around you
What is your role, as an individual, a team member, a leader, and as “a part” of society? Are you ultimately happy with how things are, with your career, and with your life? Many people probably respond with a “no” to these two questions, while others are unsure, and others respond with a “yes”. If you responded with a no, or unsure, you know that something is not right, either in your career, or in your life in general.
- Becoming aware, as a change leader, of the changes you need to make, or the changes you want to pursue, in one of the areas of your life (or, in the lives of others)
Awareness is at the core of your personal awakening process towards the fact that something has to change. You will not only recognize that something has to change, but also WHAT has to change. Before leading others in the change process, you MUST become and create that change in yourself, and in your personal life.
Leaders do not only talk the talk, but also walk the walk
True leaders never ask others to do something they are not capable of themselves. Let’s say, you want the whole world to become vegan, but you keep on eating meat yourself. Is there not a huge dilemma, and a problem? Before expecting anything from other people, make sure to fulfill the requirements you demand in your personal life, career, and leadership practices. The most annoying thing is seeing leaders (managers?) who criticize and demand others to deliver, without having the capability or requirements themselves.
- Be authentic, and live according to your true values
Create and live the life you were meant to live. If you feel like you are in a rut in your current job, take the necessary steps to create the changes that you wish to see in your work environment. After all, we spend a significant part of our lives working, and everyone wants to do rewarding work. And, rewarding work includes much more than going to work and sitting around waiting for the monthly paycheck. There are other ways. Do not wait to fulfill your true dreams and desires until retirement. Instead, take the necessary steps in order to create the life you truly want, as soon as possible. True change leadership is about living according to your dreams and desires, and fulfilling the changes you wish to see in this world, and about making things happen, instead of waiting around, and building negative feelings inside you, and bad habits in your life due to the lack of satisfaction, and the lack of fulfillment, in one or several areas of your life.
Implement Change Powerfully and Successfully With Kotter’s Eight-Step Change Model:
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Anne-Maria Yritys 