Transformational Leadership: leaving the safe harbour of the known

From time to time you’ll find that what you’re doing is no longer working. I have worked with technology executives for many years. One of the hardest things they have had to do is leave behind  the  enjoyment of the technical side of their work.

They entered the technology field because of an enjoyment or skill in what they are doing and have become enamoured with the intricacies of their technology. Although loving what you do and being good at it is essential to success at work, they’ve lost sight of the business value technology brings to an organization.

When I suggest they forget their technology and instead focus on the business and economic value to their technology, I’m rewarded with deer-in-the-headlights looks. How do we leave the safe harbour of the known? Let's explore...


Thought Provoking interview on Perseverance 
Grit - Angela Duckworth
https://youtu.be/1TQ4gezRQh4

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome back everyone. Last week we were talking about living
a purposeful life rather than an accidental one. Now we're
talking about leaving the safe harbor of the known. That's
the comfortable confines of the safe and predictable. From time

(00:28):
to time, you'll find that what you're doing is no
longer working. And I've worked with really many many executives
over the years, primarily in the oil and gas, petrochemicals,
and maritime areas. One of the hardest things I've found

(00:51):
that is to leave behind is their enjoyment of the
technical side of the work. That's it. When they've been
on the virtually the shop floor or the design teams,
they enters really the technology feel because of an enjoyment
or skill and whatever they were doing, whatever the technical

(01:13):
skills that they had. Although loving what you do and
being good at it is essential to success at work, However,
they've lost the sight that the business value technology brings
to an organization When, for example, I suggest to forget
their technology and instead focus on the business and economic

(01:38):
value of their technology and rewarded really with a deer
or a rabbit and headlight looks you have thought that
asked them to put the first child up for adoption,
the separation anxiety, the experience is rooted, and the carefully
constructed value crime to themselves. If they're an expert in

(02:03):
their technology, they will be seen as valuable and so successful.
When I asked them to focus on business and economic
value to technology investments, they don't know how to do that.
They've never learned how to calculate return investment on technology

(02:24):
spending and experience to fight freeze or free response. Importantly,
until they know how to do what I'm asking, until
they see the value in doing it, they're stuck and
they know the safe and predictable. The same can be
found in higher education, where many professors never lead the

(02:47):
safe and comfortable confines of the Ivory Tower to know
what's truly the best interests of the world of works
of work that students are entering, touched from the real
everyday trials and tribulations. My daughter finds the same and
primary education at she's in the head teacher is maybe

(03:12):
once a week pops ahead into the classrooms. Things are
changing so dramatically nowadays the ladies are of touch what's
needed in order to leave the safe and comfortable confines
of the known unpredictable. If you want to get the
results you dream of, be prepared to step into the

(03:35):
crucible that leadership is and recognize their four key motivators
for leaving the safe comfortable, and they are dreams, choices, beefs,
and action. Firstly dreams. The clarion call for these podcasts

(03:57):
was to prompt you to think bigger about your leadership
and to connect your thinking with plans. To have the
power to convert your work life from a job into
the highest expression possible of what's most important to you
and know on certain terms. My dream was for you

(04:18):
to become a catalyst for let's call it human flourishing
in the world of what. But that can't happen accidentally.
It can only happen purposefully. When a leader is no
longer satisfied or content with his or her leadership and results.

(04:40):
When you have a dream for your professional life, there
will be times when you experience high levels of dissatisfaction.
Dissatisfaction is a sign that your dreams are been thwarted
or at risk have been compromised. If you're never dissatisfied
the current state of the change you're taking around you,

(05:00):
your dreams are either too small, or you have an
unprecedented tolerance for maintaining the status quo. You're going to
die when you're dissatisfied with how your trousers feel, and
when your dreams are of feeling comfortable in your clothes

(05:20):
are in jeopard day you replace your card when you're
dissatisfied with the upkeep of your current vehicle, or a
dream of driving and your model pervades all your thinking.
Each of our dissatisfactions are rooted in a dream. We

(05:42):
have the same holds true with your leadership. What part
of your leadership are you dissatisfied with? What part of
your leadership do you think needs to be dreamed of
differently so that you can enjoy what more and all
will have a bigger impact on others dissatisfaction. It's not

(06:05):
a negative, it's a catalyst that you need. We need
in order to start the process of dreaming bigger in
order to leave the safe, comfortable and known. Second point
is choices. Each and every one of us has the
capacity for floundering or flourishing. Is it a choice we

(06:30):
get to make? And is ours alone is a choice?
What have you chosen today? Let's talk about that again.
It's a choice that we get to make and is
hours and hours so much alone. It's about choice. To

(06:52):
choose to flourish takes courage. Courage comes from front Word's
care and means had. For you to choose to step
out outside of the safe, known and predictable into uncharted
territory is a hero heroic choice. The dissatisfaction you feel

(07:18):
compels you, oftentimes a a wee bit reluctantly to venture
outside the safe, known and predictable to pursue something different,
even the face of not having a clearly charted part.
Dissatisfied propels us to make choices based in the full
knowledge that remaining the same is no longer an option,

(07:42):
that making a tentative choice we step forward into the
unknown will be supported in time with faith and courage. Aye.
The journey to transformational leadership is in the very linear
and requires all of the seven principles. Each principle can
help you to be more courageous and turn away from

(08:07):
what has made you successful in the past to what
going forward will make you successful towards it running towards
your success in the future. Aye. The third one, it's
about belief. The stories we tell herself. Let's became a

(08:29):
clear To be a transformational leader, you must believe that
you're not a victim. You have the power and capacity
to make decisions, to make plans, to learn new skills,
expand your experiences so you can be more and more
valuable to your organization, your customers, and your workers, your colleagues.

(08:53):
With very few exceptions, the senior leaders and your organizations
believed in something and were purposeful as to what they
wanted to create, either in the roal scope or impact.
They believed that what they they envisioned, what they could
see in their mind's eye, was possible and that they

(09:15):
were responsible personal responsibility for creating it. There's a may
story about Starbucks about how the founder and CEO, Howard
Schultz started working for Starbucks as a marketing manager and

(09:35):
left four years later to start his own coffee company
because of a disagreement with the owners. He believed to
be better off leaving and starting his own company. Four
years later, he brought the company from the original owners
and now is an empire of over well over twenty

(09:57):
five thousand coffee shops around the world, and weekly monthly
it is growing and growing. Starbucks is led by CEO
believes it's better to walk away from situations that are
not right and don't hold the potential for doing great work.
Was there a risk for hor Shultz to lead most certainly? Definitely?

(10:21):
Was there a benefit? Certainly? What was present and loads
and loads of amounts for Howard Schultz was a belief
that living and leading a life of his choice, his
choosing is never dictated by circumstance. He believed and chose
to live his life in ways where he had greater

(10:44):
control the influence, and not to delegate that to others. Well,
all of your decisions pay is handsome a dividend for you,
as Howard Schultz's decision did for him. Aye will, they'll
just look a wee bit differently. But you have the

(11:04):
power within you to make that courageous step. If you dream,
choose and believe it's the likelihood is that you'll commit
to moving outside the safe comfortable knowing the safe harbor.
The commitment that snicks is to continually put one foot,

(11:24):
one foot steady eddy one foot in front of the other,
without wanting guarantees or to know everything will be perfect.
It's making slow, slow, steady progress every day toward that
that's most important and inspiring for you. And that brings
us to the fourth key motivator. I you've got it.

(11:49):
It's action. What one idea have you learned so far
from the prompts you to do something different? What is
it that get your juices flowing, that wants you to
do something different, something scary, something bold, or something exciting.

(12:11):
Leadership it's primarily a sole activity, and that no one
can dream, make choices for you, or believe for you.
You must you must do all of that in your
own that once you've dreamed and made a decision, fastered
and unshakable, leave doing something each day that moves the

(12:32):
needle of performance, so it becomes naturally. It's what every
successful leader has cultivated. It's a bias for action. It's
getting that motivator, getting that fire burning deep within your belly,
knowledge that every day, every small step you are taking

(12:54):
gets you closer to greater success and satisfaction. My experience
is that the motivators and the shortest supply are dream
and belief, and the motivators the greatest supply is action.
And there's lies a dilemma for many leaders. They find

(13:16):
themselves compelled to act but I haven't clarified their dreams and,
by extension, cultivated the belief necessary to be successful. I'm
not naive nor my heir inessand when I consider the
man's face by most leaders today, the rate of change

(13:40):
has accelerated the point that most leaders feel dizzy, overwhelmed, overburdened,
and over schedules. What should you plan in doing? You
should prepare yourself for a breakthrough. If you like the
idea of a breakthrough performance and what it means professionally,

(14:02):
let me also prepare you for what precedes a breakthrough,
a breakdown. It's not coming for breakthroughs to be preceded
by breakdowns and communication breakdowns and resource alloy case breakdowns
and worker leaders trust and respect. Wherever you envision a breakthrough,

(14:25):
getting it requires overcoming your biggest barriers, leaving the safe
and comfortable behind, and embarking on a hero's adventure. Although
your breakthroughs are aided made easier with the certain principles
of transformational leadership. Next week we'll learn a three step

(14:46):
process for taking the Dreaming, Choosing, Believing in action framework
and making it relevant to your everyday work life. Till then, dream, Dare,
and dazzle you work good. Buy that in big and

(15:08):
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