Keep growing learning and changing……..if we are to feel relevant in our own lives then we must be willing to see our development as a journey not a destination. So often people believe that they have arrived at their destination because of a degree or title and then they make the fatal decision to stop learning and growing. When we cling to what we know rather than opening our minds to new knowledge then we are allowing fear to make our decisions.
When we say this has always worked for us….or this is how we do this here – then we are stifling creativity and we are most definitely not getting the best from ourselves or anyone else. Albert Einstein reminds us that “the thinking that got us to where we are is not the thinking that will take us where we are going.” and so we must be open to new ideas, new concepts, and trust that new knowledge will not be our undoing but rather it will contribute to us evolving and growing.
Unenlightened leadership controls and represses the spirit and performance of valuable people; it relies on top down management structures that are based on a militaristic model that is meant to maintain control and what it achieves instead is fear and repression. We cannot change what we do not acknowledge so as leaders we must set clear expectations for ourselves and others as to how we can develop and grow and that won’t happen unless your mind is open to it. Change really is an inside job first…….
Stephen Covey said “Change – real change comes from the inside out. It doesn’t come from hacking at the leaves of attitude and behaviour with the quick fix personality ethic techniques. It comes from striking at the root; the fabric of our thought, the fundamental, essential , paradigms, which give definition to our character and create the lens through which we see the world.”