the eight step process of successful change

 Set the Stage

1. Create a Sense of Urgency

Help others see the need for change and the importance of acting immediately.

2. Pull together the Guiding Team

Make sure there is a powerful group guiding the change – one with leadership skills, credibility, communications ability, authority, analytical skills, and a sense of urgency. 

Decide What to Do

3. Develop the Change Vision and Strategy

Clarify how the future will be different from the past, and how you can make that future a reality.

Make It Happen

4. Communicate for Understanding and Buy In.

Make sure as many others as possible understand and accept the vision and the strategy.

5. Empower Others to Act.

Remove as many barriers as possible so that those who want to make the vision a reality can do so.

6. Produce Short-Term Wins.

Create some visible, unambiguous successes as soon as possible.

7. Don’t Let Up.

Press harder and faster after the first successes. Be relentless with initiating change after change until the vision is a reality.

Make It Stick

8. Create a New Culture.

Hold on to the new ways of behaving, and make sure they succeed, until they become strong enough to replace old traditions.

John Kotter

Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions. St. Martin's Press. 2005. p.130, 131

listen all the time

Listening to what other people say is the most important skill for a leader to develop

That's especially true if you're trying to change your habits.

Here's Marshall Goldsmith:

"The only difference between us and the super-successful among us — the near-great and the great — is that the great ones  [listen] all the time. It's automatic for them. For them there's no on and off switch for caring and empathy and showing respect. It's always on. They don't rank personal encounters as A, B, or C in importance. They treat everyone equally — and everyone eventually notices."

Shana Lebowitz 

"5 insights from a classic leadership book by an executive coach who's helped over 150 CEOs" Business Insider.  Aug 26, 2016

perceptions of you

What you think of yourself doesn't matter as much — so stop trying to conform to some arbitrary notion of your unique self.

Here's Marshall Goldsmith:

"It's an interesting equation: Less me. More them. Equals success.

"Keep this in mind when you find yourself resisting change because you're clinging to a false — or pointless — notion of 'me.' It's not about you. It's about what other people think of you."

Shana Lebowitz 

"5 insights from a classic leadership book by an executive coach who's helped over 150 CEOs" Business Insider.  Aug 26, 2016

when your people know why

Answering why is an act of empathy and adds a layer of persuasion to your communications. When people know why they’re being asked to do something, they’re much more likely to do it.

Nancy Duarte

"Good Leadership Is About Communicating “Why”" Harvard Business Review. May 6, 2020

retrain yourself to chase happiness

 

“Unhappy is he who depends on success to be happy,” wrote Alex Dias Ribeiro, a former Formula 1 race-car driver. “For such a person, the end of a successful career is the end of the line. His destiny is to die of bitterness or to search for more success in other careers and to go on living from success to success until he falls dead. In this case, there will not be life after success.”

American culture valorizes overwork, which makes it easy to slip into a mindset that can breed success addiction. But if you’ve seen yourself in my description, don’t lose hope. There is plenty you can do to retrain yourself to chase happiness instead of success, no matter where you are in your life’s journey. Let me suggest that you consider three steps, whether you are at the peak of your career, trying to work your way up the ladder, or looking at success in the rearview mirror.

The first step is an admission that as successful as you are, were, or hope to be in your life and work, you are not going to find true happiness on the hedonic treadmill of your professional life. You’ll find it in things that are deeply ordinary: enjoying a walk or a conversation with a loved one, instead of working that extra hour, for example. This is extremely difficult for many people. It feels almost like an admission of defeat for those who have spent their lives worshipping hard work and striving to outperform others. Social comparison is a big part of how people measure worldly success, but the research is clear that it strips us of life satisfaction.

...Find the right metrics of success. In business, people often say, “You are what you measure.” If you measure yourself only by the worldly rewards of money, power, and prestige, you’ll spend your life running on the hedonic treadmill and comparing yourself to others. I suggested better metrics in the inaugural “How to Build a Life” column, among them faith, family, and friendship. I also included work—but not work for the sake of outward achievement. Rather, it should be work that serves others and gives you a sense of personal meaning.

Arthur C. Brooks

"‘Success Addicts’ Choose Being Special Over Being Happy" The Atlantic. July 30, 2020