By Tom Rhoads, GRCA Member, Instructor & Ambassador for Effective Leadership
Chances are you are amid a transition of one kind or another. Career transitions, promotions, new leadership, implementing new business or organizational initiatives, changes in customers, economic conditions, strategies and successions are a small sampling of common transitions. In transitions, all endings become new beginnings, whether they are rapid pivots or gradual. “The way it was” becomes “the way it shall be.” Improving the experience and outcome of transitions, ultimately, has more to do with one’s inner environment than outer environment. Your awareness, commitment to growth, strength of character, understanding and competence in leading transitions have so much more impact than “hoping for the best” or soliciting tips, tricks or a quick list of dos and don’ts.
An effective process for transitions, incorporating key distinctions and authentic caring can make all the difference between the experience of upset and resistance to change or exhilaration and thriving. In truth, transitions can be amazing learning experiences. For many, the real difference in the range of possible experience and outcomes of transitions lies in one’s capacity and willingness to transform and trust. The following insights may be just what you need as an inspiration regarding something you are experiencing or committed to improving.
TRANSITIONS
Transitions involve change, and change can be perceived differently similar to how different people experience conflict. Change itself is a conflict between the past and future — triggering an automatic “danger” interpretation or alternatively appreciation for opportunity. Your perception of things happening to me or things happening for me is a learned interpretation that tends to repeat across a myriad of scenarios. For transitions in which there is a lot at stake, emotions may be strong, and there may be multiple varying opinions regarding the transition. Yet, even the most difficult transitions can serve as the greatest opportunities for one’s growth and expansion. Transitions can trigger a sense of loss, grieving the “old ways” of doing things, benefits, relationships, etc. Change can also stimulate a sense of hope, ambition and wonderous curiosity to learn and influence the value of the experience. Accepting the facts of change is an essential trait for those who make the most of their circumstances and have the greatest sense of calm and power to affect change. Without acceptance of the facts of change, there is resentment and resistance that is palpable, and it absolutely undermines one’s well-being, integrity, accountability and credibility.
Recognizing stages of transitions, committing to a discipline of reflection, honoring the past (our teachers, mentors, accomplishments, partners, learning and the joy in the shared experience) is part of the “acceptance” of change and getting complete with the past. Completion welcomes clarity in communication, accountabilities and the keys to success in moving through the stages of transition and the current experience and the trajectory of your transition journey. Speaking to the vision of the transition, and the value on that the transition intention creates new interpretations and a “picture” of the desired. You must “talk the walk” and walk the talk to build momentum, relationships, collaboration and desired results.
TRANSFORMATIONS
Transitions can be experienced differently. Transitions may be a protracted period of resentment, struggle, languishing or anxiety. In contrast, some people will accept the challenge to adapt, adjust and learn as a truly magical time for personal, professional and organizational growth. While transitions are not always well planned in advance, welcomed or easy, transitions have the potential for strengthening character, challenging long-held assumptions and beliefs (that may not have been true or serving well), and provoking thinking patterns that held people trapped in archaic and limiting mindsets and stagnant results. By challenging and deeply examining those “inner” narratives and stories that arise in transitions, people access new choices and ways of looking at things. As new choices emerge, so also human potential expands through an open mind, clearer heart and emboldened willpower. The realization of new possibilities becomes inevitable.
A noteworthy cause-and-effect relationship exists between humility and accountability for those who transition well. The openness to allowing for alternative legitimate views (aka, the fertile mind) is a primary and essential character attribute for “changing” our views, our inner dialogue, taking the actions, building relationships and enjoying the results that follow. Humility may be the single most important attribute preceding and during transitions.
A fascinating insight on accountability is that it is primarily about learning, not perfection. Perfection paralyzes, whereas accountability is our game-changing key to learning, well-being and accomplishment. When change occurs on the inside, (i.e., accountability transforms us). It feels good. The happiest people are the most accountable. When accountability is limited to a to-do list and excludes awareness, emotions, language, thinking and our way of being, accountability is incomplete. It lacks integrity, and we would have less influence to create desired change. It would surely be one’s “truth” that life happened to us. From the point of view of life happening for us, it is through our full accountability that change begins within us, and then we cause the change we seek. As Mahatma Ghandi said, we “be the change we want to see in the world.”
TRUST
The significance of trust as a primary influence and ingredient for transitions and transformations cannot be overstated. Extraordinary insights on the interdependent and inter-related nature of trust requires stillness, silence and space, which is not often the familiar or comfortable zone for “Type A” doers. There is great confusion, conflict and limitation in the experience of low trust and that is especially on full display in the experience of transitions. To illustrate, consider the nature of transitions. There is a lot going on in the inner world — the 60,000 thoughts per day, the internal critic, and the penchant for reacting in old patterns — and throw in EGO for good measure. There is a tendency for many, even highly successful professionals to rely primarily on their rational mind, and that may appear prudent and justified, yet what most do not realize that it is often insufficient to deal with the complexities, uncertainties and ambiguities of a transition experience and navigating to desired outcomes. The paradox, “in order to speed up, slow down” aptly applies to many successful transitions.
Building and fostering authentic trust is the antidote to “busy,” blind spots and self-sabotage. Our own trustworthiness and our capacity for building and fostering trust are self-sabotaged at a time when trust is integral to the results we desire. Trust is key to accessing our intuition, which is often the superior companion and compass during transitions. Albert Einstein once wrote, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
A pre-requisite for trust is the capacity to forgive, for without forgiveness, especially self-forgiveness, we invalidate and ignore our intuition as well as our “real” capacity to tap into wisdom that exceeds that derived from the rational mind alone. We are so attached to being certain, we move forward only when we are certain, and thus forfeit opportunities of expansion, synchronicity and collective synergy. The need for certainty gives rise to mankind’s greatest fear. As Nelson Mandela said, it is not our fear of failure, but “our fear of success.” Without trust, we are deprived of our power in the realm of the unknown, it is in the experience of prudent risk, vulnerability and uncertainty, which is where our true potential lies, not the comfort zone of the familiar.
AN INVITATION TO AN EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY
Transitions are a journey and so much more than a singular destination to reach. Along the journey we change (transform), and we gain confidence through directed practice, the discipline of setting small goals, the strengthen bonds from requests, partnerships, the joy in collaboration and shared experience, and the wisdom gleaned from the discipline of reflecting, examining and learning from applied experience. With practice, we become competent in the journey itself. Competence leads to confidence, reliability and trust. With trust, we tap into greater awareness, intuition and possibility. These are also the potential fruits from participation, contribution and engagement with the Greater Reading Chamber Alliance.