To Ponder: Why Do You Lead?
A few weeks back, while recording an interview with Kevin Eikenberry on the Remarkable Leadership Podcast, I was asked about my career journey. During the discussion, I was able to put into words something that I’ve always intuitively known but never clarified: The reasons behind my career choices.
Essentially – Why do I work in change?
There’s some interesting contextual elements in play here, but on the whole, my career has been shaped by two internal values:
1) A desire to make a positive difference in people’s lives, and
2) A desire and longing for continually different contexts, people, and challenges.
It was the second point that initially led me to project management all those years ago – and it was both values that led me to found the Valuable Change Co.
Change is this wonderful space of both hope and uncertainty.
And Change meets my career values to a T. The simple act of clarifying my own internal WHY has led to a beautiful clarity in my day to day decision making and a new level of resilience in what I’m doing on those days that aren’t so sunny.
So this week, I invite you to do the same. Ponder:
WHY are you a change leader? What values shaped your decisions to this point — and what can you do today to better meet those values?
To Reflect: An Obsession With What
Something I commonly see across clients is an obsession with the ‘What’ of your change efforts. By this I mean, an obsession with what I call the ‘Delivery 6’’.
- What exactly are we doing?
- How will we do it?
- How much will it cost?
- Who will we need?
- What could go wrong?
- When will we do it?
Each is an important question.
But each of the Delivery 6 is meaningless unless the change is actually useful.
As a Change Leader, ensuring that usefulness is your job.
