Change - A Leadership Choice

You often hear people say, well I gotta do this, I have no choice. Usually when someone says that to me, my question would be "what if you didn't do it?" or "who says you have no choice?"

Often the reply would be, "well, then I ..." You fill in the blanks as you'd probably been there before.

I was listening to the audio training CD by John Maxwell on "Leading through Change" and I think he have an excellent point.

Usually when change happens, we have four choices actually. We can (a) change it, (b) leave it, (c) live with it, or (d) change self.

Give you some examples; (a) change it: when something happens we can choose to change it. For instance when you find that you are now tasked with more projects and hence have less time to do things then you used to, you could choose to change it. Don't say you have no choice, as if you choose not to change it; then already that is a choice! You choose not to choose! Of course, whether you are able to change it depends on your circle of influence. If your circle of influence is tiny and cannot delegate the work, then you may have to live with it or leave it.

(B) Leave it: when it becomes unbearable then you might want to leave it, meaning leave the job, the post, whatever. You may just have to walk away altogether. Of course some of us would say, but I need the job to pay the bills! Well, then maybe you should go for option (c) live with it.

I once heard an audio training CD and the trainer was saying just too many people whine about the weather. His response to them, blunt as it may seem, was; "well, when you get your own planet, you can do whatever you want, but as long as you are a guest on God's earth you'd just have to bear with it!" In other words, live with it! Of course then some people are still not happy; which leaves us with the final option of change self.

John Maxwell said "if I had to kick the person responsible for all my failures, I'd probably not be able to sit!" Michael Jackson said, "if you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make that change." What wise words (who says listening to pop music can't teach us anything?).

Hence our final option of "change self" is probably the most obvious, everyone knows it but why is it that so few of us are doing it? That's because if we raise our own "self-leadership" standards, we would then be able to do so. Until then, you'd just have to be happy with the choices you make.

Therefore, change is a leadership choice; that of self not your boss. Until then my friends, have a great weekend and for all educators, have a great holiday!

Respectfully yours,
Melvyn Tan
(Sent from my Blackberry Bold)