252 | How to Think Differently and Lead Better In a Rapidly Changing Culture

You don’t need to be convinced that our world is constantly changing - it feels like we’re navigating endless change. Some of you are the early adopters pushing us to consider new ideas and new technologies.  Others of you are the late adopters concerned about whether all these changes are a good thing or not. As leaders we must move from being stuck to being curious. When we choose to shift our perspective, we think differently and we lead better. 

Join Jenni  Catron, CEO of The 4Sight Group, and be part of the conversation that could redefine the way you lead, engage, and inspire your team towards endless potential. 

3 Shifts To Consider:

1. From stuck to curious
2. From reactive to proactive
3. From pointing fingers to taking ownership

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

The Art of Leadership Network. Hey leaders, welcome to the Lead Culture Podcast, part of the Art of Leadership Network. I'm your host, Jenni Catron, CEO of the 4Sight Group. We're a company dedicated to helping leaders develop thriving teams. Each week, I'll be your guide as we explore practical strategies to equip you with the tools you need to lead with clarity, confidence and build unstoppable momentum in your organization. My mission is to be your trusted coach, empowering you to master the art of self-leadership so you'll learn to lead yourself well, so you can lead others better. Each week, we'll take a deep dive on a leadership or a culture topic. You'll hear stories from amazing guests and leaders like you who are committed to leading well. So let's dive in and keep learning on this leadership journey together.

Speaker 1: 1:16

Friends, today I want to talk about a topic that is, I think, particularly important for most of us as leaders, and so the subject today is how to think differently and lead better in a rapidly changing culture. How to think differently and lead better in a rapidly changing culture. I don't think I need to convince you that our world is constantly changing, right? Like it feels like it's just constantly swirling and we're having to adjust and figure out how to survive. It feels like we're navigating endless change. Now some of you are the early adopters, pushing us to consider new ideas and new technologies. You kind of thrive in that space. And then others of you are kind of the late adopters, concerned about whether all these changes are really a good thing or not. So there's this thing called the law of the diffusion of innovation. Kind of a mouthful! But, the law of the diffusion of innovation and it's a theory that seeks to explain how, why and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. So just how quickly do ideas spread? It outlines five different categories people land in, related to their propensity to adopt or to resist change. So how quickly or not so quickly do we embrace change? So that's what this law does, is it kind of helps just kind of map that out. And from most receptive to least receptive to change, the categories are: innovators, early adopters, the majority, late majority and laggards. So just somewhere on that spectrum. I think they typically showcase it as like a bell curve. So from left to right, most receptive to least receptive you land somewhere on that bell curve of innovators, early adopters, majority, late majority or laggards. And so most of you sit in one of two seats within your organization.

Speaker 1: 3:25

You're either an innovator or an early adopter who's eager to use new ideas and new technology effectively. Like you're the first one out there for the new idea, the next new gadget. You get frustrated when your ideas aren't eagerly received and implemented. Do you resonate with that? You feel like your organization is lagging behind and it frustrates you. So those of you that you're just quick to adopt the next new thing, you're probably an innovator or an early adopter. And then others of you are probably in the majority or the late majority. By definition, you're part of the majority, and so you're slower to embrace change, you're quick to ask questions about the need for it. You might spend time with, like customers or congregants who are most likely in that late majority, and sometimes even the laggards, and so you're the one who gets peppered with questions about why change is necessary.

Speaker 1: 4:19

So most of us inside of organizations fall into one of those two camps. You're either on that early edge of the innovators, early adopters, or you're more like in the majority or late majority, where you kind of come along with new ideas over time. And so, with an understanding of this theory, I want to equip you with three perspective shifts that you can make that will help you lead your organization to engage change in ways that enable you to move the mission forward. Because we know that change is just a part of our world, and, particularly as leaders, we have to be on more of the front edge of change in order to help move people with us. And so I want to give you just a couple things ways to think about this that will help you edge toward that more- being quicker to embrace change and help lead through change. And so the first perspective shift that I want you to consider is I want you to consider moving from being stuck to being curious. From being stuck to being curious. Now, before you tell me that you're not stuck, let me ask you a few questions: Tea or Coffee? Apple or PC? Coke or Pepsi? Now, I bet the majority of you listening had a quick response to all three of those questions. I'm Tea, Apple and Coke. And so, very quickly, I have a response to those three questions.

Speaker 1: 5:53

I know what I prefer, so we all have preferences, and when you double down on your preferences, you have the potential to be stuck, right? Like, it's not that preferences are bad, it's just that our preferences can lead us to getting stuck. So do you drive the same route to work every day? Do you eat the same thing for breakfast most days? If you have a predictable routine, you might be stuck. And again, I'm not saying that the preferences or routines are even bad. I'm just bringing them to your awareness or to your attention to help you see that you're more prone to getting stuck than you might want to believe, and I think we all are more prone to this the more years of experience we have under our belt. We just have more preferences.

Speaker 1: 6:38

So we like the comfortable and the familiar, don't we? And again, that's not all bad. But as leaders, we must be aware when we are stuck in the comfortable and familiar rather than being curious about the unknown. And so I recently had to learn some new software for one of the clients that I'm working with, and I noticed that I had gotten stuck in the systems that I was familiar with, and just the fact that I had to learn a new software like really stretched me. I was like, oh my goodness, like I used to be, I think, a little quicker to adopt to things, and I noticed that I had just gotten really familiar with the tools that I typically use, and by having to use something new, it stretched me.

Speaker 1: 7:28

So, for those of you who are innovators, this idea of move from stuck to curious comes a bit more naturally to you. You're just naturally a bit more curious. You're more inclined to seek out new and innovative ideas. You're more energized by opportunities. Again, you're just more naturally curious. And what I want you to recognize is that the majority of people you serve are not innovators like you. So where you get stuck is being frustrated that others don't get it. Can you resonate with that? And so I want to challenge you to become curious and understanding of the fact that others don't embrace new ideas as quickly as you do. It takes them longer, and so that understanding that curiosity around how other people experience new ideas or change is really helpful for those of you that are on that innovative edge. People just won't see a new idea or opportunity with the same sense of enthusiasm that you might. And so understanding this will help you be more patient in casting the vision to them and helping them understand how new ideas can be helpful to the mission. So be patient and help others cultivate curiosity too.

Speaker 1: 8:43

Now, for those of you who fall in the majority. I want to challenge you to be a bit more curious. Rather than having fixed ideas about what works and what doesn't. We all do that sometimes, don't we? Ask questions and learn from your innovators. Like, I love having innovative people around because it keeps me on my toes, it gets me thinking, it helps me stay curious and not get stuck. So, as leaders, we must move from being stuck to being curious. Realize when you are set in your ways and when you need to be curious about new opportunities or new ideas. Okay, number two I want you to move from being reactive to proactive.

Speaker 1: 9:28

Another shift that's helpful to us, especially in engaging change, is to move from being reactive to becoming more proactive. With an understanding of how slow people are to accept change, it's just the nature of it. We have to take responsibility as leaders to proactively lead them through change. Oftentimes we incorporate new initiatives without thinking through how others will receive them and react to them. Like, we're so enamored by it or excited about it that we just kind of go blazing into change without understanding how it might affect others. So we need to lead them well in accepting the new and we need to be proactive about that, right? Proactively anticipating the questions, concerns, fears, frustrations that others might have and, more proactively, helping respond to those. Think about this for a minute- If you're launching a project or an initiative, your team has spent months thinking about it, budgeting for it, designing it, launching it, like,

Speaker 1: 10:32

you've given a lot of time and energy to it. You spent considerable time getting comfortable with the new thing. It's not foreign to you, but for the people you serve it is new. Like they haven't had the same amount of time to kind of get comfortable, to process, to ask their questions, to wrestle it all through. So it's different and they haven't had time to absorb it.

Speaker 1: 10:56

So we often, as leaders, expect resounding applause for a wonderful new initiative we're about to roll out, and then when we hear grumbles about what's changed, it's pretty defeating, isn't it? So we find ourselves reacting to the criticism and start to believe that people just don't like change. Isn't that easy to do, right? Like you're all energized and excited and you just assume everybody else will be as well, and then they start to ask questions or they start to pull coals in it, or they start to criticize it, and what they're doing is they're reacting to the unknown. They're reacting, maybe, to some fears or just impending change, and they just haven't had the same amount of time to embrace it as you have. In reality, they just didn't have time to adjust. So this is where we, as leaders, need to think more proactively in leading people to new initiatives and ideas.

Speaker 1: 11:49

Could you have invited more people into the designing and the planning just to help them become more aware of what's coming? Could you have prepared them for the transition from the old to the new, right? Is there more that you could have done? Instead of maybe just, like you know, launching it out there to them? Could you get ahead of the criticism instead of reacting to it? And that's really just anticipating. Okay, what questions are they going to have? Kind of playing devil's advocate a little bit for just getting that feedback of you know, okay, what could trip people up? What could cause fear or frustration? And really anticipating that, right? Proactively anticipating that. Really think through, how can you more proactively prepare people for change? What will this feel like to them? How can you prepare them? What questions will they have? Because the more proactive you are, the less reactive you'll need to be.

Speaker 1: 12:43

And then the third shift I want you to think about is shift from pointing fingers to taking ownership. From pointing fingers to taking ownership. All of us can have a tendency to point fingers and blame others when things are difficult or challenging. You ever feel that? Like you just you want somebody to blame. You want somebody to point the finger to. Well, they just didn't tell me this, or I just didn't know this was coming, or you did this, or like we quickly want to deflect, don't we? So all of us can have a tendency to point fingers, blame others when things are just difficult or challenging. The innovators point fingers at the majority who are slow to embrace new ideas or new technology, right? Like, they're just so slow, they just won't come on board. The majority point fingers at the innovators for disrupting their world, right? So we're kind of pointing fingers back and forth to each other.

Speaker 1: 13:37

But leaders take ownership and wherever you sit in your organization, you need to think like a leader and take ownership for the change or take ownership for where you are. The best question I can challenge you to ask is, "what can I do? That is such a powerful question. In any circumstance, whenever you're facing something, what can I do? I might not be able to change things overnight, but what can I do? If you see opportunities for your organization to engage in a new initiative, what one step can you take that would help people get more comfortable with the idea? Perhaps the step is as simple as assembling a group of people from all ages and stages to hear their ideas and have a conversation about how this idea could further your mission.

Speaker 1: 14:29

When we choose to shift our perspective, we think differently and we lead better. That's the power of just, and these are three simple shifts that I think we, as leaders, can make in helping lead through change and lead through a rapidly changing environment. So, when we choose to shift our perspective, we think differently and we lead better. And this shift in perspective opens up ideas, it opens up conversation and it opens up doors. So I want you to think about these three shifts. I want you to think about how do they apply? Where do they apply? From being stuck to being curious? Do you need to move from being stuck to being curious? Do you need to move from being reactive to proactive? Or do you need to move from pointing fingers to taking ownership. Those three shifts any one of those could open up new opportunities, new influence for you as a leader.

Speaker 1: 15:25

So, whether you're one of our innovators and early adopters, or you're in that majority or late majority, or even a laggard, like you just know, I'm really late to change and adapt. I just don't love it. But I am a leader. So I've got to be conscious of that. I've got to be aware of that. Know where you land on that spectrum and then just be conscious of it, because you're going to feel tension, especially on the extremes. If you're one of the innovators, you're going to feel the tension because it takes so long for people to come along with you. And if you're a laggard, you're going to be slow to adapt and slow to adjust, and you know that as a leader you've got to get to push yourself to embrace new ideas sooner.

Speaker 1: 16:02

So I hope these shifts got you thinking. Am I stuck or am I curious? Am I reactive or am I proactive? Am I pointing fingers or am I taking ownership? Just a couple of things that we can do to lead better, especially in a world that's constantly changing. Because, guys, we have this amazing privilege of leadership. It's a sacred opportunity to change and affect the lives of others, and so the more awareness we have of where we land on some of these things, the more intentional we can be in how we lead. So I want to encourage you to think differently, to lead better.

Speaker 1: 16:38

All right, gang, I hope that was helpful, gave you some things to think about, caused you to just shift your thinking in some way or another. Let me know what you thought of this week's episode. Email me at jenni@ get4sight. com, j-e-n-n-i, at G-E-T the number four S-I-G-H-T. com. Connect with us on Instagram or Facebook at Get 4Sight, or on LinkedIn The 4Sight Group, and, of course, I'm at Jenni Catron on all the socials. So be sure to let me know, reach out, send me a DM, let me know how we can keep serving you better, because that is our heart at 4Sight is to cultivate healthy leaders, to lead thriving teams, and so we want to keep equipping you to lead well. Thanks for listening today, friends, and we will see you next week.