- Ownership. Ensure that there is sufficient ownership and commitment in the transformed and new you. Ask yourself, are you passionate about the new found you, your desired state, do you have the right support and structure, are you taking the right and meaningful actions. How are you feeling about yourself, your dear ones. Are there any challenges you are facing – Do you need any help? Do you need to go back to your coach? Etc. You need to be accountable and own personally your transformational journey towards you set BIG desired goal.
- Resources – In this case - Patience is a very important resource. Being aware that you may fail – If Yes – What happens if you fail – Are you prepared to be in the valley or learning and discovering – then recommit yourself, take action and continue on your transformational journey.
- Rewards - How will you reward yourself when you hit your milestones? How will you acknowledge yourself? Give yourself a gift every 3 months of staying on course? Anything which keeps you motivated.
- SMART goals – Any journey needs milestones and goals. When we talk about transformation we are taking about the BIG purpose in one’s life – The BIG Desired state. How do you ensure that you are getting there? For this you need to have smaller milestones and goals throughout the journey – This way you are always aware of the progress, where and when you are off track and how to get back on track. Set Specific Measurable Attainable Realist and Time bound milestones and goals.
- Practice Points
- One reason why we fail to bring about transformation is that we are poor finishers. Very often we begin with a grand idea and leave the work midway. Transformation requires great finishing skills and perseverance.
- Transformational leadership requires a transforming mindset. A transforming mindset is ready to question established rules and procedures. A transforming mindset is not swayed by theories but by results. Cultivate a mind that is always ready to go against its assumptions if reality so demands.
- Make learning an important organizational issue. Instead of asking: "What I did today?" you can ask: "What did I learn to do differently today?" When we ask this question, we are putting ourselves on the transformational path.
- Transformation is essentially a commitment to stay alive. Life is inherently transformational. A good question to ask at the end of the day`s work would be: "Did I excel and grow as a person today?" I did, I am already on the transformational path. Practicing the above EVERYDAY – puts you not just on a transformational path but helps sustain your transformation as you are practicing this everyday and are committed to this journey.
Conclusion
We take on new things in our personal and professional life – Projects are work. We implement new processes, new products, new systems, and new solutions over the life of the project. Most of the projects can last from 1 month to 12 months or slightly over. You do a great job with the implementation. And believe me – This is the easy job. The tough job begins after the implementation – How do you sustain it, maintain what was put in place, use it in a successful manner and continue to improve it. All this is not easy and need a structure, process, leadership, ownership, commitment, passion and ACTION.
As part of this paper I am just touching the tip of the iceberg. As transformation is a journey of continuous improvements, evolution, and human development. Prepared to taking on new challenges through more and more awareness of one’s self and others, reflecting, taking actions and being able to see things using a different perspective, from different points of view or vantage points. Generating an ability to detach and re-attach you to a situation.
Being in a state of Action and a responsive state instead of a delay and reactive state. True to self. Having an internal mirror and being able to see Who is in the mirror (whosindmirror) which helps you see your true self and continue with your journey.
References
Power tools – ICA
Peaks v/s valleys –biwid power tool
COACH to CREATE a new you – biwid coaching model
Maurer & associates – Leadership and Change commitment
Transformational paper (Transformation: The Dance of Change) written byDebashis Chaterjee and recognized by Harvard business school.
Survey across Coaches by Khalid Nizami