Mindset matters, particularly with how we view change. Some people hate change, they resist it, complain about it, fight it. Others love change, seeing opportunities, excitement, productive challenge, and growth. Yet others neither love it nor hate it; instead; they embrace it without judgment. Each perspective is a choice! None are right or wrong but each does come with a corresponding result.
January kicks off a new year. Let’s take a look at how embracing change can help us progress, perform at our best, grow, learn, reflect and thrive. Change = Opportunity!
Leadership in the Face of Stress
In the December HBR article by Ron Carucci, “How Leaders Should Handle Public Criticism,” he provided eight practical tips to help leaders navigate the minefield of criticism when under stress. It’s no secret that leaders are watched 100% of the time. It’s also no secret that leaders are evaluated by everyone watching them, 100% of the time. This isn’t an indictment about being a leader; it’s just the reality of human nature and our tendency to judge. If the situation itself is stressful, it increases the importance of both self-awareness and embracing change.
Whether your normal disposition is to love or hate change, the advantage of embracing it without judgment is that it provides a platform for you to be grounded in CHOICE. To be honest, change happens every minute. Change is the very process of living and going about our day. Accepting change as something that happens all the time, as sure as the sun rising and setting, enables self-awareness which then puts us in a great position to choose how we want to respond. I’d like to highlight a few points from the article with the application of embracing change.
One of Carucci’s tips: “Don’t expect fairness as a gauge to respond.” The theme here is that you cannot control what other people think and feel. You can only control how YOU think and feel. Part of being a leader is taking on the responsibility of always shouldering the responsibility of not only your role, but the performance of your group/team. Is that always fair? Nope. It is the reality of leadership. Lighten that burden by embracing change. In this example, embrace your ability to choose your energy, attitude, outlook…BEFORE responding to those who are being critical of you.
Another point Carucci makes: “Look for Kernels of Truth.” When you feel yourself becoming defensive, recognize that it is a normal self-protection response. Hit the mental pause button, take a few deep breaths, and THINK. In the pile of poo being slung around is very likely a few gems of truth that you can genuinely leverage. To see those gems, you must embrace the change…owning your thoughts and feelings rather than allowing others to dictate them. In the moment, grab the gems and use them to create solutions and improvement.
The last tip I’d like to share from the article: “Take Action and Report Back.” A more simple way to say this is COMMUNICATE. Embracing change and focusing on process enables you to elevate out of catabolic energy, take things less personally, and view the situation objectively. As you identify steps toward a solution or take steps of the solution, communicate widely, frequently, honestly and with humble confidence. There is no better way to earn or regain trust than with transparency.
So, let’s tie a bow on this subject. If you embrace change (the process of living) with non-judgment by increasing your self-awareness and leveraging your ability to choose your attitude and outlook (energy), you increase your leadership effectiveness by operating from a platform of objectivity with a mindset of growth, learning, and improvement. THIS is how you thrive, no matter the circumstance! Remember, change = opportunity!
6 Main Elements of Health
Some days you feel motivated to tackle everything on your list while other days it’s a struggle to even look at the list. Why is that? There are 6 influencers of our energy/outlook that can either boost us upward or drain us downward. Since January is world Health Esteem month, let’s peel back how each plays a vital role as an element of health.
1. Physical. Being aware of what your body is telling you. Feeling vibrant, energized, thriving; performing and functioning well in everyday activity occurs when you are proactively taking care of yourself.
2. Emotional. Feeling a full range of emotions and expressing them appropriately. Being able to control how you respond versus react to any given situation will depend on how well you are engaging in things that address your needs and desires, activities that you find interesting or exciting.
3. Mental. Being alert, focused, competent, and thoughtful. Being able to learn, remember, and solve problems well. Multi-tasking or stretching yourself too thin can push clarity into a fog. Conversely, feeling bored because the activities are not challenging or stimulating can result in a lack of attention.
4. Social. Being connected and authentic with others, in all types of relationships. Feeling supported and experiencing belongingness can occur when surrounded by like-minded people who are excited by the same tings you are.
5. Spiritual. Feeling aligned and authentic in your every day activities with your core beliefs, values, desires and purpose.
6. Environmental. Knowing that your everyday surroundings support your health, life goals, and well-being and enable you to complete or enjoy the task you’re about to do in the way that you’d like to.
These 6 elements of health are fundamentally influencers of your energy level. These factors can work FOR you or detract from your ability to perform at your very best. The first step is increasing your level of awareness of how they are affecting you in the moment. The next step is embracing the change, what IS, and choosing to leverage one or more of these 6 elements to boost your perspective and energy upward so that you can think, feel and behave at your best in a given situation. “Best” may be relative depending on the element(s) in play. For example, if you are feeling physically sick, several of these elements will be pulling you down in energy; however, you can leverage these elements to boost you up to the best that you can BE, under the circumstances.
Sources: iPEC Core Energy Influencers; BODi Happy Gains 2023
Create Tomorrow
In every minute of today, you create and influence the tomorrow you will experience. The question is, are you creating what you WANT?
The foundation of your growth, learning, improvement as well as your well-being, joyfulness, and performance is your perspective of how you respond to everything you experience throughout your day. Are you centered enough to always be at choice? Do you find that you often react rather than respond, later replaying the event in your mind thinking “I coulda, woulda, shoulda?” Overall well-being is comprised of mind, body, and soul; alignment of these working together results in a sense of acceptance and gratefulness of who you are, why you are, and where you are. Acceptance doesn’t mean approval, it simply means accepting what IS without labels or judgment.
For many, January is a logical month to begin anew, create new goals, new expectations, new dreams. In truth, EVERY day is a good day to reset and move forward! You can partner with me to create your tomorrow one step at a time by clicking on the image and joining my free, private, support community.
Diane Wilhelm
BE the Change you want to See!
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