A WHOLE NEW WORLD

For business, June is a time for reflecting on the past 12 months and a reset for the year ahead. Questions are being asked -  have we made budget? Are we still in business? What need to re-evaluate or change? – I’m sure you know how it goes.

With this in mind - my focus for June is on Leadership Principles for a new world.

A Whole New World

The world has changed dramatically over the last few years – for some, things will never go back to the way things were. People have found new workplaces and uncovered different ways of working – realising just how important spending time with family is. Businesses have found a new way of operating – talent can be found around the world, people can live in the country and fly in for meetings once a month. Businesses have found new opportunities for growth and have become more flexible in the way their people show up for work. I have seen more project-based work rather than work done on an hourly rate. Do you have to rethink the way you run your business?

Principles of growth and change

Businesses and their employees have experienced a fundamental shift in thinking after experiencing a life-threatening crisis, and suddenly priorities are seen in a different light.

In times of great change, individuals look at their lives based on their beliefs and model the world and their own principles of fairness. Businesses have a different view based on survival, the mission and vision of their company, and fight for their own principles of fairness.

Both want to and need to make changes – what principles are needed to day for both to survive?

Inside out

There is no real excellence in all this world which can be separated from right living - David Star Jordon

When I re-started running my programs after a Covid spell, I checked the content of the workbooks that I had been using and tweaking, and realised they needed a complete upgrade. Some of the content was no longer relevant with the changes in the workplace today. People have become more tech savvy and spend a lot more time communication on line, and that comes with a whole new set of rules and a communication style of its own. How we do it here has changed!

Not only has the world as we knew it changed, but our perception of it has changed too. How we see things governs how we behave. We look through our lens of how the world is, as well as the world as it is, and our lens shapes how we interpret it. We look at the lens through which we see people, and so we interpret the behaviour, and not the person. We assume who they are, based on our own experience of their behaviour.  When we go inside and change the way we look at what’s happening, it changes what we are seeing – our perception. Two people can look at the same situation and see something completely different. Here is an example of perception.

What do you see in the picture below - an old woman or a young woman?

The Power of the paradigm shift

We tend to think we see things as they are, that we are objective - we see the world not as it is, but as we are – or as we are conditioned to see.  Stephen Covey in book the 7 Habits of Highly Effective people says, “perhaps the most important insight to be gained from the perception of what you see in the picture - the paradigm shift, what we call an Aha moment- when someone finally “sees” the picture in a different way. The more bound we are by our initial perception, the more powerful the Aha! experience is.” The light is suddenly turned on inside.

Paradigm shifts move us from one way of seeing the world to another. And those shifts create powerful change. Our paradigms, correct or incorrect, are the sources of our attitudes and behaviours and ultimately our relationships with others.

Covey speaks to the principle-centred approach – they are self-evident and can be understood by any individual. These principles or natural laws are part of the human condition, they exist in all human beings. 

Covey refers to the principal of fairness- the concept of equity and justice – even though there are differences in definition, there is a universal awareness of what is fair.

The principles of integrity and honesty – which create a foundation of trust and co-operation and long term growth.

The principle of human dignity – the beliefs that hold a special value that is tied to their humanity.

The principle of service, – making a contribution and potential to develop and grow.

Principles are the guidelines for human conduct, they are deep fundamental truths – they apply to individuals and organisations and when internalised into habits they empower people to create a practice that can deal with different situations.

People and businesses are a partnership, and each has a role to play.

When both sides apply the principles of fairness, honesty, integrity, dignity and service - you have a win/win situation.

As Marie Folio says in her book Everything is FIGUREOUTABLE – both sides have a part to play in collaboration and co-operation, conversations and transparency and hope for a new way of doing business.  Business doesn’t exist without people, and people cannot exist without business.