Creating Your Own Change

SUMMARY

Do you fail to prepare for the future or do you recognise the need for change, take charge of your own change initiatives, and then remove the barriers to that change?

Hi, this is Grant Herbert, Emotional Intelligence Speaker and Trainer of the Year and Sustainable Performance Coach, and today, I want to continue our conversation around all things emotional intelligence by having a conversation around creating your own change, rather than waiting for others to do it for you.

So, what I want to do is I want to give you some tips that I've found have helped me and the people that I work with to navigate change, to take control of our own situation, and create the changes that we want to see in our world.

Number one is to challenge that status quo and rather than thinking, "Well, that's the way it's always been done.", have a mindset that says, "Just because it's always the way it's been done, is it the only way that we can do it? Is there a different way that will produce different results?"

Number two is to identify where and how we could do things differently.

Number three is to develop a plan for change, rather than just seat of the pants, "Let's just wing this and see if we can get a result here.

Number four is to make sure that your change is covered in terms of the impact that it has on other people.

And number five is to start making the change.

So, change is something to be embraced. It's not something to be feared. And now that we know that, we can be the master of our own change.

If you need to work with someone like me, if you need to do some sort of an online course that will help you to develop those skills, if you need to get other people involved, then do that and make the changes that you need to make right now. We're going to make changes anyway. Why not make them the ones that we want to make?

Well, that's it for me for another week. Make sure that you subscribe, that you go to my website grantherbert.com, you join the conversation, that you leave me some comments, that you share this on your social media. And join me again next week, when we continue the conversation around all things emotional intelligence, positive psychology, neuroscience, VUCA leadership, where we look at some key areas of personal leadership that will help us to actually be able to make the change that you're deciding to make today. I'll see you then.

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FULL TRANSCRIPT

Do you fail to prepare for the future or do you recognise the need for change, take charge of your own change initiatives, and then remove the barriers to that change?

Hi, this is Grant Herbert, Emotional Intelligence Speaker and Trainer of the Year and Sustainable Performance Coach, and today, I want to continue our conversation around all things emotional intelligence by having a conversation around creating your own change, rather than waiting for others to do it for you. 

We all know that 2020 has been an environment of change on a daily basis, and it's certainly been a major change in what our normal is right now. Over the last few weeks, we've talked about having more personal agility, being more intentional, and being able to remove those resistance roadblocks that are creating anxiety around all the change that's happening in our life right now.

However, this is not just a conversation for COVID-19, this is a conversation we need to have about the rest of our life. Our future. I work with people every day who resist change overtly and covertly. And they say things like, "Well, this is the way we've always done it around here." And the fear of change is stopping them from bringing out their personal best. 

Now, we've talked about the meaning that we put on change and our mindset around it and how that can either be empowering and help us to navigate change or disempowering and keep us in the status quo, fearful of being able to move forward.

And right now, I want to make sure that I'm doing what I can to keep the conversation going around being able to create the change in your own life, rather than letting it happen around you. Perhaps it's time to challenge the status quo, to stand in opposition to that fear of change, and to become a champion of change in our own life and the intrinsic effect that that will have on the lives around us.

 So, what I want to do is I want to give you some tips that I've found have helped me and the people that I work with to navigate change, to take control of our own situation, and create the changes that we want to see in our world.

Number one is to challenge that status quo and rather than thinking, "Well, that's the way it's always been done.", have a mindset that says, "Just because it's always the way it's been done, is it the only way that we can do it? Is there a different way that will produce different results?"

 So, the first thing that we need to do is open our mind to change. We've worked over the last few weeks about being able to make a change, something that we embrace, rather than fear, something that we look forward to, rather than resist. So, the first thing we need to do is challenge our own status quo.

Number two is to identify where and how we could do things differently. Now that we've got our brain in a state to think logically, now that we've done an audit on our thoughts, our beliefs, what we feel about change, what our status quo is, now we are in a position because of our open mind to look at things differently and go, "Hey, I could do this this way. I could do this differently." 

So, it's not about using "better", it's not about using the word "should". We're not being judgmental here. We're not saying what we've been doing is wrong. What we're doing is identifying things that could do with a bit of a change. Right now, here in Australia, we've just gone into spring. So, there's an opportunity for us to do a spring clean on the way that we're getting things done. So, number two is to write out a list to identify things that could possibly do with the change.

 Number three is to develop a plan for change, rather than just seat of the pants, "Let's just wing this and see if we can get a result here." Now that we've got a list of what needs to change or what we could change, the next step is to actually create a plan for change. So, it's something that we do intentionally, rather than something that just happens. 

So, in each initiative that you come up with, an area of your life, your business, whatever it is for you, that you could change, write out a plan. Write out a plan that says what needs changing, when it needs changing, by how it needs changing, who needs to be involved, how are we going to measure the change, et cetera, and have a written plan.

We then transfer into whatever it is that keeps us on track, whether it be, for me, my calendar. I use a program called Asana. I've got my team as accountability partners and put it into that system so that you actually go from it being something that you want to do to something that gets done. So, number three is to develop your change plan. 

Number four is to make sure that your change is covered in terms of the impact that it has on other people. When there's other people involved in the change, we need to make sure that we identify how they may need to change as well, or how what we're doing will affect what they're doing.

So, it's imperative to get those people involved in that change process, rather than what I've done many times over the years with my team is I just decided that was going to be a change. And then I just started changing and people are thinking, "What's going on here? This is different to the way we were doing it before." And then they wouldn't be able to support what it is that I was changing. So, number four is to make sure that you consider who else is involved in the change. 

And number five is to start making the change. Everything that we do in life starts with the first step. So, now, over the last few weeks, we've learned how to be more empathetic when we're working with others. We've learned how to communicate differently. We've learned how to handle conflict. We've learned how to be more adaptable and have more agility. We've learned how to be more intentional in what it is that we're doing. 

So, now we're ready to make some change that we might have been putting off in our life. There's been many times where I've been working with people who were resisting change simply because they didn't know what was the first step. 

So, now that we have a plan, we can break that plan down and take the first step. And my experience is that every time we take a step, it gets a little bit more clearer. The clarity comes. We know what we're doing. And that fear and that anxiety and the things that were holding us back before dissipate because we see the benefit of the change.

So, number five is now that we've got all the planning in place and we've got the mindset where it needs to be is do something today to move towards that change.

So, change is something to be embraced. It's not something to be feared. And now that we know that, we can be the master of our own change. Sometimes people get up and they just go to work. They just do what they did yesterday, and they wait for things to change. And I know I've been in that position in certain parts of my life.

But what I'm encouraging you to do is to become a catalyst of change. And catalysing change is one of the 26 competencies that I work with in social and emotional intelligence. And it's definitely one that's getting a lot of work right now. So, let me encourage you to be the change that you want to see in the world, to have a plan, to make those changes, to put aside all your fears and your doubts as to whether or not you can do it, and get some support, get some help. 

If you need to work with someone like me, if you need to do some sort of an online course that will help you to develop those skills, if you need to get other people involved, then do that and make the changes that you need to make right now. We're going to make changes anyway. Why not make them the ones that we want to make? 

Well, that's it for me for another week. Make sure that you subscribe, that you go to my website grantherbert.com, you join the conversation, that you leave me some comments, that you share this on your social media. And join me again next week, when we continue the conversation around all things emotional intelligence, positive psychology, neuroscience, VUCA leadership, where we look at some key areas of personal leadership that will help us to actually be able to make the change that you're deciding to make today. I'll see you then.