Change is growth
High performers want to improve every day and they know that sometimes they’ll have to change things.
Top performers also use change in their conditions to drive improvement or stay relevant.
Whatever the motivation, embracing and dealing with change is an essential skill.
What goes on
High performers constantly look to get better at what they do. They might pause, though only in their pursuit of improvement.
They create change and they predict change they expect even though they may not know the details.
Then they do what they need to do to be ready.
Five Performance Truths
- Too often the focus is on what’s changing rather than getting ready to perform in changed conditions.
- If your organisation is looking to grow, reach targets and compete, the chances are you will have to do all these things as well. Change is part of the deal for most people at work. Most change is predictable and necessary.
- Choosing your attitude and controlling what you can will help you stay motivated as you change.
- You don’t always get immediate benefit from change. You need to be patient and remember why you’re changing.
- Embracing change is often uncomfortable. It’s about managing that discomfort, not expecting it to be easy.
Three things to do
- Expect change and accept it as part of life. Keep perspective, knowing that often a lot of things stay consistent when other things are changing. Support others to change by helping with this.
- When things change, know what qualities you bring that will help make that change work well. Learn to value your strengths here.
- Practise getting proactive with change. Look to do things differently. See what you can improve by changing something.
Farah’s story
Farah’s full of ideas, always looking to change things and test new things out, even if the old things still seem to be working OK.
Julian who’s in the same team, likes tradition. He takes consistency in roles, responsibilities and relationships seriously and he likes things tidy and in order. He wants a quiet life.
Farah and Julian have been on the same team for 3 years. They find each other hard work, especially when things change. One change they both found useful was starting to understand how they could use their personality differences when it comes to change.
Julian has started to value Farah’s approach and mindset when the inevitable change happens and how everyone can gain from testing out new ways of doing things and more curious, flexible thinking.
Farah can see how Julian’s detailed knowledge of the past can help them stay relevant in the face of change without losing all the important things that have got them to this point.
The chances are that they’ll never be at each other’s homes for a barbeque, though the prospects for embracing change next time round are encouraging.