Challenging Reality

Most of us do not feel positive or excited about change, especially when it has been forced upon us. We might consider it a threat to our stability, perhaps especially so at the precarious senior leadership level – or even our life as we know it.

This is the second in our change series of articles. We’re at the second step of the Complete Step Change Wheel – Challenge to Reality.

As a reminder, the Complete Step Change Wheel has four phases each with three steps – giving us 12 steps in the leaders’ journey. The four phases correspond to the process of human development – waking up, owning up, growing up and showing up or Discover, Decide, Develop, Deliver. Each stage builds on the last, helping you overcome obstacles to help you deliver at a new level. By understanding where you are on the wheel and what steps you need to take you can more effectively move your way through the developmental framework at greater pace.

How to know you’re at step two of your change journey

We might experience step two as a crisis or challenge. It’s often unexpected and surprising. You might be at step two if you’ve been given some new information that has shaken you, or perhaps you’re generally suffering from anxiety, depression or exhaustion and are in a moment of crisis.

You may have tried a classic distraction techniques like flatly ignoring the problem and refusing its existence, or dulling the senses with a glass of wine, usually in excess, but this is just masking the fact that you’re facing a ‘wakeup call’.

As a leader, we may be tempted to look for someone or something to blame. However, we need to recognise the discomfort of step two as a signal. If we are alert to the signal, we can move forward and escape the pain.

The need to change

Stay too long at step two and we will suffer the consequences of the stress hormone, cortisol. If we fight the pain we feel, we pump out adrenaline, which, when added to cortisol, significantly increases our risk of heart disease and in the long run even cancer. If we surrender to the pain, we add acetylcholine to the cortisol and that drives us into feelings of helplessness, impaired immunity and the risk of depression and the downward spiral continues.

We need to move forward from step two to avoid these consequences and secure our place in calmer waters. That means being ready to listen. It means acknowledging the pain and avoiding the ‘anaesthesia’ of alcohol, hardcore gym sessions or even retail therapy. We need to face the brutal truth, no matter how unpalatable.

How to move forward

It’s not easy to face the pain and move on. The right coach can help leaders navigate towards calmer waters. The coach might start by suggesting a diagnostic and developmental assessment – such as the Complete Values Profile.

That can not only help identify your current step in the Step Change Wheel but what the best course of action is to help you move on. Not all assessments can be helpful when it comes to change, the best ones are developmental, providing the direction you need to move forward.

The benefits of change

Waking up to the need for change and recognising the pain we are facing in that moment is the only way to trigger the forward momentum for our own development.

When we explore the steps ahead of us, we can open new levels of happiness and performance. We have a more complete perspective on change and as leaders we become ‘more complete’. We are better able to meet those demands of fast-paced business environments.

If you’re change curious, you might want to read Dr Alan Watkins’ book, Step Change: The Leader’s Journey. It explains why pain can in fact be a positive as we challenge our reality. It also takes you through all 12 steps on the change journey.

If you’re experiencing any of the pain we’ve touched on in this article, perhaps it’s a wakeup call to change. And don’t hesitate to get professional help if you need it, embrace the need to change.