every leader today must be a change agent part four

part four

As you embark upon your change management journey, here are ten things that will challenge your capabilities as a change agent and potentially become defining moments along your leadership success path. (Read Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Now)

9.  Thought Leadership
Today’s leaders must be bold, articulate and courageous visionaries that are not afraid to speak-up and change the conversation and/or introduce new ideas and ideals. Being a constructively disruptive leader is important and if you are not pushing your organization, its employees and the industry at large to think differently, you will not only grow complacent – you will forget how to think like a leader and as a consequence your organization will become more vulnerable to its competitors.

Complacency is the silent killer that comes with success.  If you don’t wake up every morning hungry and thinking how you are going to compete and win, you are already in trouble — because that is exactly what your industry challengers are doing.

Thought leadership is about thinking differently and not being afraid to express those differences to keep people honest – to enable fresh-thinking and thought-provoking dialogue that challenges people to perform better and more creatively.   Unfortunately, most leaders use the thinking and ideas of others, rather than challenging themselves to create an original leadership identity/personal brand that has sustainable impact and influence.   In fact, leaders that lack the expression of original thought will soon find themselves losing their competitive edge, power, and decision-making authority – and the doors their job title once opened for them will begin to close.

10.  Evolution of the Business Model
In this 4-part series, we have described a business environment that is changing rapidly and that requires its leaders to change just as rapidly to keep up. The result of these changes is the natural evolution of a company’s business model that now demands that its leaders serve as change agents to lift and lead the entire company.

As change agents, you must know how to sell change and this requires a set of skills that you may not have been originally asked to have when you first got the job.   As such, you must now learn how to be a change agent and assume the responsibilities that go with it.

My name's phil mora and I blog about the things I love: fitness, hacking work, tech and anything holistic. Here's my contact info. ​

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