This is actually a follow-up on my previous short post from december 2016. Since it's that short I'll just repeat it here. :-)
As a person I've always been highly interested in new (ICT) technologies, but more characterizing is that I'm mostly interested in the opportunities that these new technologies can bring and what the positive impact can be on either an organization or an individual. That said I feel like we’re living in very interesting times. Technology, communication and digitalization is evolving faster than ever before and forces us to learn to adapt and adopt new ways of working, organizing, living, thinking, being. This new era of digitalization and automatization comes with a lot of opportunities that one can only dream of. The trick is in recognizing the dream instead of fearing the unknown.
But technology isn't the challenge that we face today. It's the adoption of this technology and how we deal with the pain of change. Technology forces us to have a critical look at what we have been doing the past 50 years and it raises questions on the current way of working.
I see a lot of fear. Strong characters in leadership-positions across companies and sectors are reluctant in seeing the problem and are unwilling to take ownership of the change that is required. That brings me to the defining skills that makes someone a leader. For me it's about caring, commitment and enthusiasm.
You have to care about your people, about yourself and about your company or employer. You have to be committed to your job, but mostly to yourself and your main competences. I see a lot of C-levels who are committed to their job, but who are blind to see that today that job requires other competences that sometimes do not match with your personal skills anymore. And you have to be enthusiastic about your job and about your life.
Blindness is the biggest challenge and the first hurdle to take in order to be able to change. And it isn't blindness for our surroundings, our colleagues, our employer, our neighbours, our politicians, our friends, our family, ... It's the blindness for ourselves, who we are, what we do. Luckily there's a solution for that. Just one action you have to do en 3 short questions you have to ask:
Look in the mirror & ask yourself:
Do I care?
Am I committed?
Do I feel enthusiastic?
If at least one of the answers is negative you have some work to do.
The future starts now. And we need to be ready for change if we want to survive. Each and everyone of us will have to endure change at some point. This isn't always a pleasant thing, but in the end each and everyone of us will come out stronger. Start looking in the mirror.
Everyone can manage change.
Everyone is a changemanager.