At VIM Executive Coaching, where we offer our business coaching services to executive leaders across the spectrum of North American organizations, we can’t begin to count the number of times we’ve heard the terms “Change” and “Change Management.”
As the world entered, endured and then began its post-pandemic “look,” no buzzwords were heard more frequently than those involving change. It often got to the point where those inquiring of our services would ask what “kinds of courses” we specifically offered for executive leaders undergoing change?
We’re Embarrassed to Admit…
I suppose we should be embarrassed to admit that VIM Executive Coaching does not have a series of formalized courses on change management starting with Change Management 101. We have not published a book entitled: Change Management for Executive Dummies nor do we offer change management strategy session get-away’s to the Bahamas (though it is somewhat appealing as winter settles over Denver).
What we do offer is business coaching to enable executive leaders to become more responsive and less reactive to change; to be more mindful of the changes that are occurring around them; to not lose their authenticity in the midst of change. But most important, we help executive leaders to not lose themselves in the midst of change.
Let’s explore that last point just a bit. The mere fact that executive leaders believe they should be caught up in coursework over change and change management is a bit worrisome. It is again like chasing the compass in an effort to find true north, rather than allowing true north to simply reveal itself.
Anyone who has ever been in scouting, or gone hiking or been on a boat will readily understand the analogy. If we chase true north, we will go in circles, bigger or smaller. If we accept, “Oh, that’s where true north is,” and follow it, we will get where we want to go.
True north is always there. We can’t chase it, we can only accept that we will find it, if we will but accept it is a skill within us.
Another Way of Saying It
If following a compass is an image a little too mysterious for you, look at it this way: in changing times, much like a changing sea, or being in a confusing organizational upheaval, the more mindful we become, the more we will figure out what needs to be done. However, change for the sake of change because we think we must constantly be changing, will lead us in circles.
Mindfulness asks us to be ourselves – only ever more so. Mindfulness is internal and is a skill honed by meditation, deep thought, reflection and knowing ourselves. It is getting rid of expectations, positive or negative, and accepting what is.
If we are fully in-touch with a situation through the lens of authenticity and mindfulness then we have our inner compass always set on our true selves.
The reason why some executive leaders are good listeners – or not, or are good with people, or with a major change confronting them, is not due to superhuman navigation skills, but in being fully mindful and open to whatever disturbances are confronting them.
There is absolutely no guarantee, that there won’t be another pandemic someday, or that we are in the sites for a hostile turnover, or if an employee has been found to be doing something unethical. What can be assured is that if we are mindful and authentic in the situation, we will respond as ourselves and solve the problems confronting us.
Change has always been with us; fortunately, so has true north.