Daily Leadership Thought #153 – Nine Tips to Spur Leadership Reinvention
Leadership reinvention isn’t optional. You redefine and recreate, or you get left behind.
The pace of business has increased dramatically in recent years. Markets no longer carry the complacent. In this environment, leaders must operate under a 5–7-year arc, and then they need to completely reinvent themselves and their companies. If there is a game-changing event or circumstance, the pace of this change may need to accelerate even further. Moreover, this process is an ongoing cycle that continually repeats itself, and there will be no respite from it. Given this reality, it’s not surprising that leaders frequently experience burnout and rarely survive more than a few cycles. In public companies, they may not even make it through one full cycle, which creates an ongoing sense of business confusion and turbulence.
Having watched this dynamic for quite some time now, I offer the following recommendations for leaders who want to stay ahead of their reinvention curve:
1) Strive to venture beyond your intellectual comfort zone. Seek opportunities to broaden your knowledge and perspective as often as possible. Be careful not to surround yourself only with people or other information sources that confirm your worldview. Just like a muscle, your brain will atrophy if it isn’t exercised.
2) Regularly try new things both personally and professionally. Avoid settling into a routine or consistently choosing activities within your comfort zone. It’s okay to have some level of predictability and ritual in your life, but that should never be the goal. We mostly grow through new experiences.
3) Ensure your organization is always on the lookout for new talent and innovative ideas. You should be in a constant recruiting mode even if you are not hiring at any given point in time. When you have the opportunity to upgrade your key personnel, do so without reservation or hesitation. Lifelong employment is outdated.
4) Embrace technology as a value driver for your company and for you as the leader. Leaders no longer have the luxury of being “late adopters” or taking a “wait and see” approach to technological innovation. You won’t always get it right, but at least you won’t be falling too far behind.
5) Make reinvention a regular part of your senior team discussions, including specific planning sessions where being proactive about the long-range future of the company is the sole topic for discussion.
6) Make it a point to visit your top clients on a regular basis. Engage not only in sales but also actively listen to their problems and obstacles, along with their ideas for possible solutions.
7) Make yourself publicly accountable by seeking speaking or other communication opportunities that encourage you to discuss the future of your industry or business. You’ll have to prepare to be effective, and this will keep you on your toes.
8) Stay fit and healthy by practicing positive lifestyle habits. Physical endurance and resilience are crucial when operating in a high-stress environment. The adage still rings true: “healthy body, healthy mind.”
9) Join a leadership peer group that is heterogeneous rather than homogeneous in its makeup. Having a firsthand understanding of others’ business issues and challenges, along with their approaches, provides an unparalleled leadership perspective.
It always saddens me when a leader has obviously stayed past his/her prime. You can almost see the organizational decay and impending business vulnerabilities begin to set in. Everyone’s prime is different, but you can at least try to be your best for as long as possible.
Related articles
- Reinventing Management Requires Systemic Change (blogs.forbes.com)
- Resilience and Reinvention (thehrjuggler.wordpress.com)
- Reinventing (eworth2011.wordpress.com)
- 5 Things Failure Teaches You About Leadership (forbes.com)
