Change at a high speed

Changes are present every time and everywhere. It is part of life and it is part of our own identity as we know we will be changing and our society system is based on that, supporting different stages of our lives.

However in the last few decades, that change has been accelerated and that system has failed, which explains very successful people at a young age and people who were supposed to be retired, still working.

Changes are happening in a fast speed and there are many theories about it. Regardless, they are happening and it is time we prepare ourselves for that. By facing a fast-paced change unprepared, we are destroying our health and compromising our own reality. Stress, a high rate of divorces, loneliness, mental disturbances… all of that is a way of coping with this type of change.

I was very touched by one case that happened in Colombia, where the main bank CEO decided to resign due to a letter he received from his daughter where she claimed her father back and this news showed the extent changes are affecting our lives.

However, there are many things you can do to keep pace with change, as much as possible anyway. If you feel overwhelmed by an omnipotent and omnipresent change, try these:

• Make sure the things you value are not lost in change. You can’t avoid traditions and structures to disappear under the fire of change, but you can prevent whatever you receive from them to get lost. For instance, maybe you used to have dinner every night with your family or go to your temple of devotion all Sundays; if change is too fast you can’t do even that, but you may create other slots of your time and keep them no matter what: a family meeting on Sunday night and a good daily routine of prayer or meditation would help you to recharge your life, keeping intact the experiences you value.
• Whatever you do should be aligned to your values. So, understand your values and check if your actions match those. If not, think of a way to do it. Values are important and they will help you dealing with changes without pain. Look for something else to do that is aligned to your values and change it, or develop values that are aligned to what you are doing.
• Is your present position, profession or career fulfilling your purpose in life? Do you even know your purpose in life? There is a very easy way to know if you are accomplishing your purpose, even though you don’t know it, and that is your level of satisfaction. Not talking here about joy or enjoyment; if you eat a nice food, you would enjoy it, but after a while you would be hungry again, but if you are satisfied with something, that sensation does not leave you and you don’t get tired of it either. Reflect on your present life and look for a way to satisfy your purpose.
• You have a future, a subtle edifice you have been building all these years. Right now you are doing it! However, due to change fast rhythm, you sacrifice that to have something unrelated in the present moment. Find in your present situation opportunities to attain that future vision and invest time and energy on those.

About Transformational Leadership...

And there is the story of this little dog, one of those that look quite common.

According to that story, his (it is a "he", after all!) masters were transferred to a wild zone of Africa. As soon as he saw the openness, the trees and all that field, he got crazy and went away from his masters' house.

After some wandering here and there, he got to a fatal conclusion: he was lost! Not only that, he reached a very creepy place, full of bones everywhere. To increase his fears, he noticed a terrible panther slowly approaching him...

What would you do in this case? Well, if you are a typical person, you would look for some help from outside, which is not available. It is in moments like that you need more than an external leader: you need to be a leader yourself.

Predictable leadership has taught us you just need a vision, a mission and values would be helpful too, to be a leader and overcome situations like this one. However, the question is: what would a vision help this little dog in this case?

Ok, you are not a little dog, but I am sure you have faced already several situations that were beyond your control, like a nasty divorce, a sever illness or the lost of a friend. And I am sure your leadership probably helped you, but I am not that certain you checked your vision and mission and kept moving...

The dog thought to himself, "what should I do?" Then, looking at the scattered bones, an idea come to him... He took a few bones and started chewing them as if they were a feast. After a while, he spitted them out and said, loud enough for the panther to hear: "Ah, that panther was fabulous! But I am still hungry, where can I get another one around?".

The panther didn't know what animal was that, an advantage for the dog, which, due to several hours watching television, knew all about panthers. The panther halted and ran away from the scene, fearing for her life.

Contemporary leadership is all about being realistic in relation to the situation we all live at present. It combines personality, skills and other aspects of a traditional (predictable) leader with a very good manager.

An example: a predictable leader, when reaching the top position of a company, will be only interested in giving the company a new route to follow, influencing everyone around, not much interested in the present route. A manager on the other hand will avoid at any costs a change in his company route.

A contemporary leader will see the process in a holistic way, by understanding the present situation and helping that company to scale up to a new route in a way that allows the leader to show his or her power, but not damaging the company as it is at present.

Any examples in your mind? Maybe you still can't sleep after being downsized or you are still angry with the post company in your country as they were not able to adapt to an Internet world.

A contemporary leader would probably try to help you in case your position wouldn't be needed any more, preparing you for some different work, and she or he will definitely think deeper to help a post company to keep their pace and work.

However, it is still not enough. Just imagine that besides you are being downsized, your child is going to college or after solving the problem and saving a post company, something else totally different emerges and all that planning is now useless...

The dog was very happy with the result of his creativity, however something awful happened: a monkey was hearing the whole exchange. Upset with that... thing... deceiving another proud resident of the forest, the monkey went towards the panther, using the branches to move faster.

After a short talk, the panther realized how foolish she was and went running after the dog, followed by the monkey. The dog now was terrified!

But after a short paralysis, another idea came to his mind. Again, he started to chew some bones and at some point, he practically yelled in a way that both, panther and monkey would hear.

"I AM STILL HUNGRY! WHERE IS THAT MONKEY THAT PROMISED ME ANOTHER PANTHER??"

A transformational leader is a new concept. In the past, it was considered to be a leader who enabled people to go through very complicated periods of crisis.

About change, we will see it later including crisis. The most important aspect of a transformation leader is that he or she will be able to help a situation to move towards its final result (transformation), preventing the effects of crisis and chaos on the way.

A real transformation leader deals with downsizing much before it happens, facilitating the process to her or his people. A transformation leader is aware of the changes that can affect the business in advance, proposing daring ways to overcome that future that will happen at some point.

For instance, a transformational leader will stimulate learning skills by the people in the company, even though those skills are not directly related to their present job; in this way, people will be more confident when downsizing comes as inevitable. At the same time, a transformational leader will be aware of the future scenarios, keeping a think tank in the company, so that the business does not go out dated or cease to exist.

How to become a Transformational Leader? Well, we can talk about that later. By now, just check your own leadership style and the different scenarios related to your business or community, and this will help you to provide solutions that will prevent the damage caused by crisis and chaos.

And after such an adventure, the little dog was able to find his way home, and he lived happily ever after, to the end of his days...

Accepting others' ideas

A few years back, someone explained to me the difference between discussion and dialogue, taking as an example science. According to that person, science used to be an example of dialogue, a field where people used to work on someone else’s work enriching it and providing different perspectives.

Today however what we see – in science and in every other field – is that instead of a constructive dialogue, there is a competition; dialogue has changed into discussion, a word that comes from discus, an old weapon used to kill others…

It is hard to accept other people’s ideas for the simple reason that we are like different universes trying our best to live and work together. When I talk to someone I am using my own intelligence, perception, experience and skills for that and I am expecting a certain type or response, according to my intelligence, perception, experience and skills. Unfortunately the other person will use their own intelligence, perception, etc.

And never in human civilization was an agreement needed as it is needed nowadays. We have to take some very important decisions in relation to environment and migration, and other subjects that one person or one country cannot solve.

There are three simple techniques or tactics a person may use to embrace others’ ideas:

• As you know others are different than you, check for some common ground. It can be football, nature or meditation, but there is always something you and others agree upon. Start your conversation with that and use it as an anchor, going back when it is needed. This kind of talk strengthens the bond between you and others and may help to reach a consensus.
• Before refusing another’s ideas, accept them in your mind, see the probabilities of success and how they will work. If you can’t accept them in your heart, explain to the other person why and move on to another subject. You can use visualization to understand another’s point of view and talk with them from that approach.
• There are always lessons to be learnt. After a discussion with someone, sit quietly and understand what happened. Focus on what you have learnt and what you could not accept, and why. Don’t be afraid of going back on your decision and accept what others said, even after refusing it; you are becoming wiser by doing that.

A tale of leadership

Sometime ago, at a church in a small village, a crisis emerged. It was a small monastery and for many years, the priests have been serving that community. However, slowly people stopped going to church and things have reached an unusual low point when at the last mass, on Sunday, there was absolutely NOBODY attending it. It was frustrating for the Dean, the chief of those priests; exactly that day he prepared such a nice sermon!

That led him to a deep reflection on what was. Although some of his colleagues accused other religions, sects and even the television to have stolen the faithful, he did not believe it. After all, many places are not being affected and crowds go there. And that was the case of a synagogue located in another town. On his desk, a leaflet invited him for a lecture to that rabbi.

When time came, he dressed nicely and went to the venue, which was packed. He listened attentively to the lecture and even though the rabbi’s style was different, he couldn’t see much difference in the content he used to deliver in the sermons. Again the reflection: why weren’t people going to the church? He took a decision on that, something that would be hard and it was very daring, but he was sure it would work.

At the end of the lecture he waited patiently and at last he could talk to the speaker. After introducing himself, he summarized the crisis: low number of people, discouragement and conflict among the priests, bad financial situation, etc. The rabbi listened with lots of attention, then looked at him and said: You know what? I think this situation is not that difficult. Can I live with you for a while, let’s say, until Saturday?

It happened that some of the rabbi’s appointments have been cancelled and he had extra time to spare. The priests’ leader accepted the idea and without further discussion, he took the rabbi to stay with them, at a quite comfortable – and not used – guests’ room.

It was war! Or almost… after all, he was bringing a stranger from another religion to their sacred space. The leader dedicated himself to the new guest; a little afraid some of the others would speak harsh words. It happened the rabbi was a very nice guest: he was able to appreciate all he saw, every food was exquisite and he treated everyone with extreme respect.

The days went away fast and in the last day, the small community of priests has been conquered by the humble rabbi. When he was about to leave back to his city and synagogue, the leader decided to ask him, in front of everyone, what was his opinion about  the present situation and if he saw a solution for that.

The energy changed and everyone was paying attention to the rabbi’s words. The man just smiled and said in a very smooth tone: I didn’t see anything as a reason of the present crisis, really, but I just have an intuition… I think, well, I think that one of you is the Messiah…

He left, after dropping such a bomb, and everyone went to their duties with that thought in their minds. Of course, the leader thought, if that was true it would be Peter, our cook, who is always working hard. And the leader of the priests had a few ideas on what to do to encourage people to come. He left and he went to visit some of the members of his congregation.

Peter thought it should be James, the gardener. Those roses are fantastic and he does with much love. And like a contagion, everyone started to feel someone else was the Messiah. And that day, the food was really good, the garden was extremely clean and the leader came back with a huge smile.

 In fact, this can happen in crisis within a family, company or NGO. Here are some points for your reflection:

• How much courage would you have to bring an outsider to give opinion about a crisis in your place of leadership?
• What would the priests' leader have to do to not see the necessity of bringing the rabbi in?
• Is there any situation that pops into your mind where you can be the rabbi for other people? Which one and how would that be?

Values: how to accomplish your goals

Values are normally kept to be used as a preaching method: when something goes wrong, we tend to talk about values to others, showing how good we are (or our parents, partners, relatives, etc.), and how things should be done.

In fact, values are very powerful tools. The reason is they are connected to the core of a human being. This is why when we work on something that is linked to at least one of our values, we feel enthusiasm and motivation, and it is as strong as that value is for us.

Then just imagine about the impact of values in the economy and a country development. Yes, it has lots of influence, but we normally don’t pay that much attention to them.

An easy way to bring values to our mind is connecting them to our goals. It is a very easy process…

1. Think about your goals – all of them, or just one.
2. Ask yourself: Which values I have that will help this goal to be fulfilled?
3. A second question is necessary: Which values I don’t have in my personality or they are not well developed and that would help this goal to be fulfilled?
4. Related to the former questions: How do I check whether my values are present in the actions corresponding to the goal? In which way can I develop the values I am missing?

That will help particularly in the area of emotions and motivation. After all, achieving a goal is not that easy; if it were, it wouldn’t be necessary to be a goal; we would just go and do it.

A few more tips:

1. Be very clear about your goals and it is better to focus on just one at a time.
2. Be very honest about the values you have, no moral judgement will help you. An easy way is to think about the last time you have used that value in your life; if it is more than one year, you should think of including it in the list of values to be developed.
3. There are several ways to develop a value. If you are a religious or spiritual person, your practice will help you. You may also check on another person you feel who has that value and check with him how he does it; don’t try to copy her or him, but just use that life as a foundation for your own development.
4. Checking is fundamental here. If you are serious about this, you could get someone else as a coach, mentor or a good friend, who may help you doing it.

By doing this a few times, it will become natural and you will develop your own way of doing it too. I am sure it will work for you as it has worked for me.