A seed has the potential to become a tree

Like a gardener. As a seed turns into a tree, a change initiative can meet success if you take care of it as well.

Changes can come in many forms. You can have a new job opportunity, a new strategy you want to perform at work or maybe a new exercises routine, because changes are not only limited to your professional career. It also involves, your private and social life, as well. The greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus said that “there is nothing permanent except change”. So, in a reality where you are facing constant changes at different levels, how can you cope with these processes in a successful way?

In my career, I have met several leaders that, in occasions, failed during a change initiative. And I wonder why did that happen? What did they do wrong? A Leader of Change is a person that foresees new possibilities in the future and acts in a way that succeeds to meet its vision and expectations.

In today’s article I will try to go deeper in the Leader of Change subject and explain it with some examples.

Expressing the full potential of change

In previous articles, we have been talking about Sustainable Leaders and Sustainable companies, how they behave and what they are doing. We were also analyzing how they see the future and how they are leading the internal and external necessary changes to be perceived as excellent examples you can follow.

However, statistically, most change initiatives are not successful. According to an article published in 2019, by the Harvard Business Review, 70% of the changes that happened in the business environment failed to express their full potential. Moreover, it also occurs at a personal level. Besides your professional career, you may experience to leave a change process in your life that is not working out.

But why is this happening? Has it ever happened to you? And what can you do as a leader?

You know, today leaders learn about many different subjects. One of this should be biology not only because you need this to understand the harm that we can do to the planet if we do not take care of it, but also because it teaches you that “a seed has the potential to become a tree”.

That is true, because when a seed is in the soil, by using the available resources like water, it will start expanding its roots, blooming its leaves and flowers and developing until it becomes a big full of life plant. And, if it has the right nutrients, the right amount of sun light, humidity and the correct temperature, it can eventually become a tree.

However, many times, the resources are just not available. The water is scarce, a heavy storm breaks the plant or the ground does not have enough minerals to help the plant grow. External agents like bugs or fungus could also try to eat it and take its energy, killing the plant in the end. And that is not all, because there might be other several barriers that you can imagine by your own.

In this case, if you were a gardener looking after a plant, you will follow and check its growth periodically. You will thrive to unblock the barriers it is facing by watering it when needed, protecting it from the ants that want its fresh flowers and sheltering it against the terrible cold or hot weathers.

You need these two abilities

Well, this is exactly what is happening with the changes that appear every day in front of you. In your personal life as well as at work, the identification of a potential change and having the vision of its full potential are two essential abilities to evaluate new opportunities and to anticipate the many inconvenients you should avoid in order to “help a seed to become a tree”.

The Leader of Change (as well as the gardener) is constantly identifying the barriers that make difficult a change to fully develop. A change at work can present many tricky difficulties, from the acceptance of the needs of your team to the financial needs of the project including time scarcity or a real unexpected external event like what we are living now with the Pandemic.

On a personal side, I can tell you that life can radically change from one day to another, as well. If I was not mindful about the obstacles that could appear in my life, I wouldn’t be able to address them in the proper way.

What can you do as a Leader of Change?

A trained Leader of Change will identify all these barriers and work constantly to overcome them, thus letting the change arrive to its maximum potential. This kind of Leader will not kneel down and beg to a seed things like “please grow”, “do an extra effort to growth” or “just change”. No, it will look and find any difficulties during the process of change from the very beginning and during the time it lasts, in order to identify what is limiting its potential and what could be a threat in the future for that change to reach its maximum state.

You do not need to be the ultimate boss, or someone famous to be a Leader of Change, just being mindful and conscious about this will help you to lead your own Change.

By being mindful, your seed will turn into a full-grown tree.

And now I would like to listen to you…

How do you manage your own changes? What do you do when you have to make new choices? Are you able to foresee new possibilities and changes?

Thank you for reading.

Muchas gracias

Grazie mille.

Sergio