Moving from a large corporate business to a smaller business was always going to offer a number of challenges. I was ready to push myself and bring ideas that would drive growth and quickly embed myself into the business. I wasn’t quite ready, however, to learn how fixed my mind-set had become. It had never been an issue (or so I thought) and definitely have never been challenged. So here I am, a couple of months into an amazing new journey, being educated that I need to develop a growth mind-set.
Processing what this journey of personal change would look like, I really struggled to even pass the Awareness phase of the ADKAR model. I couldn’t even communicate internally what this change would look like. I sat on the first, of 3, 1-hour sessions with a business coach and nearly sacked it off after 10 minutes. This is bullshit, I don’t need this holistic nonsense! Then the realisation came, I’m a bloody change terrorist!
The phrase was taught to me byPaul Clavering, an expert and brilliant Change Manager. He always advises to find the one person who is most likely to disrupt change (the terrorist) and work closely to involve them in the process. Keep your friends close and your enemies (strong I know) closer.
Fighting all of my inner urges, I completed all 3 sessions with the coach. The coaching was a wider personal development course, but links beautifully with my journey to develop a growth mind-set. I realised at this point that I had to treat the next 90 days as a change management process and use all of my learned skills from change networking, theory and tried and tested change management tools to succeed.
If you’re working on adopting something new in your personal life, here are my top 3 tips:
1. Remove the terrorist from your journey; my example is clear, I challenged self-sabotage. If you’re looking to remove a habit (smoking/alcohol for example), don’t let other people sabotage your journey.
2. Use 2 change agents; by proxy the person you live with will be a huge part of your change, but also loop someone else in. My dad is my 2nd agent (my wife is the1st) and I explained what I’m doing with him in detail, as I know he will ask how it’s going every time we speak. The re-enforcement, support and questioning from 2 people is much stronger and won’t lead to change fatigue.
3. Visual cues are essential; I have 10 things to achieve every day and use cues around the house to remind me to complete tasks. Post it notes are king! Life is busy and you may forget, but a post it note will be dedicated in reminding you.
Personal change is difficult but rewarding! I may be a change terrorist, but I’m also a change manager and adoption is king. I’m well on my way to growth mind-set and loving it.
