10 Ways Lead Forward In Times Of Complexity & Change

Ten Ways to Live and Lead Forward In Times of Complexity and Change

© Irene Becker | www.justcoachit.com-The 3Q Edge™ | Improved Reach-Resonance-Results
Helping smart people and organizations lead & communicate forward smarter, faster, happier is what I do best  


Every human journey, career, life history is punctuated by experiences that defy human logic. Times when we cannot equate what has transpired with a sense of what is right, just or fair.  Other times, when we know that we have been complicit in some way with poor results, personal, career or business failure. Optimizing your potential to live and lead forward means changing the way you see and use the failures you face.  A great man once said that we must become the change we seek.  It is time to realize that we must also use the changes we face to develop the solutions, optimize the potential, that can help us live and lead forward. Doing do is counter-intuitive, but it is NOT impossible.  It is real, it is doable, and it is accomplished in ten simple but powerful steps you can decide to take…or not.

1.  Cultivate the power of the present moment.

Do not be a victim of what was, or what is not.  Stay focused on this minute in time, and your ability to use whatever you are facing to embrace your best self, optimize your true potential by becoming relentlessly solution focused.  Our greatest individual and collective strides forward are always the by product of our most difficult challenges.  Before you can use/transform a challenge, before you can develop a solution, you must become empowered by the present moment and its possibility.  We cannot see the possibilities before us when we are mired in stress.  The solutions we seek are buried in the challenges we face.  Finding solutions, optimizing our potential starts by learning to embrace the present moment as a window to possiblity by embracing the NOW.

2.  Give yourself a 90 second window.

Learn how to use it to catalyze mindfulness, whole brain thinking and the power of reflection.  Developing what I would call a more androgynous brain, improving whole brain skills and really optimizing your potential means taking time to reflect, time to put your brain in an alpha state.  Doing so, whether my prayer, meditation, chanting, time to simply reflect and stop the clock for 2-3 minutes is critical. Take time each day to pause.  Here is a simple, but powerful technique, The Pause, that anyone can learn and incorporate.

3.  Refocus on what really counts.

Drown out extraneous noise.  Get rid of toxic thoughts & reconsider relationships with toxic people and team members. Stop focusing on complexity.  Start realizing that the anchors, the timeless wisdom that can help us translate complexity into simple powerful solutions is real. Retrain default patterns so that you can start using what is to create what can be. Our brains are automatically trained to focus on the negative (a vestige from our days in the cafe, when were surrounded by predators).  What really counts?  The sum total of your accomplishments can only be seen in light of your own personal happiness; and true happiness can only be found in what we contribute, not what we acquire. Learning to determine your purpose and engaging it means feeding your head, heart and soul with what counts.  Garbage in, garbage out. The negativity that saved us from predators when we were living in caves, will now hinder our potential.  Refocus on what YOU can do.  Get empowered forward.  Our ability to contribute, our ability to use both our strengths and our challenges to build a better self, better world is real.

4.  Put your brain in the KNOW & Go Forward.

Understand how you can use YOUR mind to optimize YOUR brain. There are many excellent books to read.  A recent GREAT READ is Super Brain by Deepak Chopra and Rudolph E Tanzi.  Spend a weekend reading this book and exploring ways that you can use your mind to optimize your brain.  Understand that the power to circumnavigate change and challenges is real.  We have only touched the surface of our individual and collective ability.  Living and leading forward means understanding the power of your mind to learn, relearn and develop new ways of seeing, doing and communicating that drive amazing results in your life and the lives of others.

 

5.  Stop searching for security in the same old places

It cannot be found in what you acquire; it is a by product of what you believe not simply what you achieve.  It is your ability to walk, talk and act in alignment with your highest power; the greatest good that is your ultimate goal and greatest triumph.  Purpose = profit on a multiplicity of levels from our own personal wellbeing to the survival of organizations and our society as a whole.  Need, greed and ego have destroyed every life, fiefdom and empire in recorded time.  History teaches us, life also teaches us that the only security we have is in taking the road less travelled, the road that will help us optimize our ability to realize our true purpose to live, learn and contribute.

 

6.  Use the changes you face to LEAD forward-Yes, use them to catalyze potential!

Develop coaching skills because they are a critical management, self management and leadership competency.  If you want to optimize your potential and the potential of others you need to develop R-E-A-C=H.  Learn how to redirect focus, empower confidence, actualize potential, communicate effectively and harvest results.  Embrace new ways, better ways to help you optimize your true talent and ability.  Invest in yourself, invest in your people because hope lies in the power of people living and leading forward; hope lies in our ability to innovate and create solutions that drive results.

 

7.  Build a Community of Purpose. 

What does this mean?  It means that our individual and collective success will be based on our ability to collaborate, communicate with people and organizations whose values and vision are in alignment with our own.  A global marketplace demands real and virtual/digital/social communities that interact and collaboration together towards shared objectives.  Our individual survival amidst a sea of change, challenges that could make stress the number one worldwide source of disability means building strong relationships with kindred spirits, relationships with people whom we can trust and whose values and vision are in alignment with our own.  Leadership means building a community of purpose.

 

8.  Integrity, humanity, courage.  Say them, use them, and incorporate them in your life and work; use them to fail forward (a critical 21st Century Life and Leadership Skill!)

They are the only fabric that will hold together our lives, our work, our organizations and our world. You can pay lip service to all three and manage; but you will never lead forward without making integrity-humanity and courage the mantra that guides your life and your work. 

 

9.  Remember, going forward:  Purpose = profit.

Sustainability will only be achieved through our ability to know that success means creating value for others.  Corporations will be forced to embrace corporate social responsibility, because our definition of success and the way in which we develop customer, client and constituent engagement and loyalty will be based on the purpose=profit equation.  Use it, embrace it.


10.  Traditional might does not make right, it often makes wrong.

The might we need now, more than ever before is not the might of brilliance, or the might of physical force; rather it is the might of a collective conciousness, an awarness that we can become victims to what has felled every great life and empire or we can make RIGHT. Each day is a powerful opportunity to right the wrongs we face, because our ability to evolve, grow, learn, re-learn and collaborate forward is real..  The Secret to Peace and Prosperity is timeless.   We have a choice to reach past the victimization of need, ego, greed; we have the ability to stretch ourselves past complacency or reactivity to a new set point where Might=Purpose.  Purpose=Profit and Leadership=Creating Value for Others.  Each individual is part of a greater whole.  Your complacency, reactivity or stasis will make you part of the solution, or help you become complicit in the problems we face on an individual and collective basis.  One small positive step towards integrity, humanity and courage canl make an august ripple in the world. Ripple forward!

More On Surviving & Thriving During Times of Complexity and Change?  YOU Betcha!

Constructive Discontent:  Buildng A Critical Life and Leadership Skill
Making the Critical Shift Forward
Men & Women Leading Forward-Building the 3Q Leadership Skills You Need Now
Winning the New War-Surviving and Thriving Stress, Change & Challenges
The Secret to Personal Development
Rising to the Challenge Before Us-Leading Forward
Top Ten Leadership, Communication & Career Posts 2012
Against All Odds:  A True Story of Hope, Courage & Leadership
Community of Purpose
Leadership Means Building A Community of Purpose
The Happiness Compendium
The Pause

 

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Irene Becker, Chief Success Officer, Just Coach ItThe 3Q Edge™ | Reach-Resonance-Results
Toronto and Virtually Everywhere | Face-Face, By Tel, Skype or Video Conferencing
Tel: 1-416-671-4726 Email: irene@justcoachitcom Twitter @justcoachit Skype: beckerirene