[ad_1]
\n<\/p>\n
Although it may be true that we can\u2019t \u201cstep into the same river twice,\u201d as Heraclitis said, once we step in, we are part of that river\u2019s flow.\u00a0 Since birth, we have been swept up in a raging, constantly changing never-ending flow of experience.\u00a0 Sometimes we love the flow of life, sometimes we hate it and resist it.\u00a0 But because the flow of the river is constant, we have no choice in the matter.\u00a0 We have to change.\u00a0 It is part of the price of admission to life.\u00a0 Every moment our cells are changing; our thoughts are changing; our emotions are changing; our relationships, our marketplace, our finances.\u00a0 Change is endless and relentless.<\/p>\n
We have no choice in the matter except for one aspect\u2014accelerating our growth through change by adapting and learning.\u00a0 Most leadership research illustrates that as we go up the executive ladder, we need to become increasingly comfortable with uncertainty and sudden change.\u00a0 As leaders, we have to have the \u201cintegrative ability\u201d to weave together and make sense of apparently disjoined pieces, crafting novel and innovative solutions.\u00a0 At the same time, we need to have the self-confidence to make decisions on the spot, even in the absence of compelling, complete data.\u00a0 The qualities needed at the top\u2014courage, openness, authentic listening, adaptability\u2014also indicate that leaders need to be comfortable with and able to embrace the \u201cgrayness\u201d that comes from multiple points of view coming at us at once.\u00a0 In other words, we have to master our adaptability mentally, emotionally, strategically, and interpersonally.<\/p>\n
Dr. Daniel Vasella, Chairman and CEO of Novartis for 17 years, named \u201cthe most influential European business lead of the last 25 years\u201d in a poll of Financial Times<\/em> readers, and one of Time<\/em> magazine\u2019s 100 most influential people in the world, told the graduate at Mumbai\u2019s Indian School of Business, \u201cBe comfortable with seemingly contradictory situations, feelings, and actions.\u00a0 You will of course encounter many people who cannot deal with ambiguity, people who always want simplicity and clarity.\u00a0 So, you as leaders will have to create the clear direction for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Based on a multi-year study by the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), the number one issue facing senior leadership is \u201cDealing with Complex Challenges.\u201d\u00a0 This finding has many connections to our own research that the number one most important competency in shortest supply today is \u201cDealing with Ambiguity.\u201d\u00a0 CCL defines complex challenges as problems that:<\/p>\n Learning to be open to the potential learning contained in all change is no small task.\u00a0 Quite often we are dragged \u201ckicking and screaming\u201d to every lesson.\u00a0 As my colleague, Janet Feldman likes to say, \u201cPeople change more often because they feel the heat<\/em> than because they see the light<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Learning Agility is a key to \u201cseeing the light\u201d to accelerate change on-purpose.\u00a0 In fact, research studies by CCL, Mike Lombardo and Bob Eichinger of Korn Ferry\/Lominger, Robert Sternberg and his colleagues at Yale University, and Daniel Goleman, all point to Learning Agility as being more predictive of long-term potential than raw IQ.\u00a0 Learning Agility is a complex set of skills that allows us to learn something in one situation and apply it in a completely different situation.\u00a0 It is about gathering patterns from one context and then using those patterns in a completely new context.\u00a0 As Stephen Hawking put it,\u201d Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.\u201d\u00a0 Learning Agility is that intelligent ability to make sense and success of something we have never seen or done before.\u00a0 In short, Learning Agility is a change accelerator versus a change manager\u2014the ability to learn, adapt and apply ourselves in constantly changing, first-time conditions.<\/em><\/p>\n With the Korn Ferry Assessment of Leadership Potential (KFALP), it is possible to measure Learning Agility across five dimensions: Mental Agility, People Agility, Results Agility, Change Agility, and Self-Awareness.\u00a0 While results vary between different groups, quite often the Core Development needs fall into two areas: People Agility and Change Agility.\u00a0 The core skill needed for People Agility?\u00a0 Listening.\u00a0 The Core Development need in Change Agility?\u00a0 Bringing clarity to ambiguity.\u00a0 Another study yielded similar results correlating high engagement with the combination of Learning Agility, empathy, tolerance for ambiguity and a social leadership style.\u00a0 Executives with this combination of traits were more likely to be engaged than those with other combinations.\u00a0 As my friend and former colleague, Bob Eichinger puts it, \u201cThere are \u2018just\u2019 two problems left to solve in business: PEOPLE and CHANGE!\u201d<\/p>\n Learning Agility is one core factor in intelligently accelerating change.\u00a0 In addition, the underlying architecture of agility\u2014our neurophysiology\u2014is fundamental.\u00a0 David Rock, management consultant and author of Quiet Leadership<\/em>, and Jeffrey Schwartz, research scientist and author of The Mind and the Brain<\/em>, co-authored an article, \u201cThe Neuroscience of Leadership,\u201d published in strategy+business<\/em> magazine.\u00a0 The article sharply connects the latest research on the brain with leadership imperatives, especially effecting successful change initiatives.\u00a0 In fact, Rock and Schwartz go so far as to say \u201cManagers who understand the recent breakthroughs in cognitive science can lead and influence mindful change: organizational transformation that takes into account the physiological nature of the brain and the ways in which it predisposes people to resist some forms of leadership and accept others.\u201d\u00a0 The authors identify three reasons change initiatives fail:<\/p>\n Based on neuroscience the authors identify four key elements for successful change:<\/p>\n Through thirty years of helping leaders, teams and organizations to navigate change, we have codified change accelerators to optimize value-creating change on-purpose:<\/p>\n In short, Benjamin Franklin summed it up well, \u201cWhen you are finished changing, you are finished.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
\n
\n
Transformative leaders tend to perceive and to innovate the opportunities inherent in change.<\/li>\n
Transformative leaders don\u2019t lose sight of their long-term vision in the midst of change.<\/li>\n
Transformative leaders maintain a clear sense of purpose, value, and meaning to rise above an immediate performance focus.<\/li>\n
Transformative leaders understand that control is a management principle that yields a certain degree of results. However, agility, flexibility and innovation are leadership principles that sustain results over the long haul.<\/li>\n
Transformative leaders buffer their teams and organizations from the stress of change by managing, neutralizing, and\/or transcending their own stress to serve the team\u2019s needs more effectively.<\/li>\n
<\/em><\/strong>Transformative leaders stay open and practice authentic listening to stay connected to others and to consider multiple, innovative solutions.<\/li>\n
<\/em><\/strong>Transformative leaders are more secure in themselves; they possess a sense that they can handle whatever may come their way; their self-awareness and self-trust are bigger than the potential threats of change.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n