In this age of technology, things are moving fast.  A leader’s job has changed.  Never before has business been so global and unleashed such creative innovation. In today’s world of immediate connectivity, any business has a greatly expanded market potential, but also a greater base of competition. A leader must keep up.  A leader must be fluid. Many leaders find themselves constantly managing change and struggling to keep the momentum going with their team.

Despite the marketing advantage of using the Internet and Social Media, there is one clear disadvantage to be aware of, a problem that can diminish your impact as a leader. According to Nicholas Carr, author of: Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, “Using the Internet pushes us to a skimming and scanning form of thinking. A lot of our deepest thoughts only emerge when we’re able to pay attention to one thing.” In other words, the constant barrage of information causes our brain to think at the surface rather than identify deep, creative thoughts and ideas, the kind that lead to change. According to a recent study, the distraction of constant e-mails, text messages, voice mails and instant messages are a greater threat to IQ and concentration than is smoking marijuana.

In order to change your organization’s behavior and deliver the business vision, a leader must first change the way they think. Any business is as innovative and focused as the thoughts of its leader.

In coaching business executives and entreprenuers, the first tool I recommend for leading change is journaling. Journaling allows you to make your technology work for you instead of against you. By journaling, you slow down and pay attention to one thing…your thoughts.  You will step away from email, pop ups, Facebook, the news crawl, the stock market app, the telephone…and give yourself some time. Journaling is a mini-meditation or retreat in which you can clearly:

• Explore your dreams, personally and professionally
• Account for your daily thoughts and habits
• Make decisions and solve problems
• Release excess and negative energy
• Maintain the focus to achieve any goal
• Improve your enthusiasm and energy level
• View your situation objectively

The science of Quantum Physics, Neuro Science and Neuroplasticy tell us that your brain’s neural pathways can be changed. New thoughts create new neural pathways which mean new habits and new results. Journaling helps you create those new thoughts. Journaling develops strategic thinking.

“A great leader is an agent of change who has clarity of vision and knows how to make that vision a reality. Such a person comes from a level of core consciousness, which is what we call the soul. Great leaders take time every day to reflect. They ask themselves meaningful questions. They are conscious of what they are observing. They’re feeling what is needed and know how to fulfill those needs.”  Deepak Chopra, world-renowned mind-body healing pioneer, author, public speaker and medical doctor.

When you journal, you create the time and space to reflect. Journaling is a tool for cultivating your highest self, as applied to any area of your life. It is a way you listen to your intuition and clearly identify what you actually think and feel.

Thoughts determine behaviors and habits. Any business is only as healthy as the habits of its leader.  The habits of the leader dictate the behavior of the entire organization. In his book, “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business,” Charles Duhigg reminds us that “at one point we consciously decided to take an action, but then it becomes automatic behavior.” A 2006 Duke University study determined that more than 40% of the action’s people perform each day were not actual decisions, but rather habits. Journaling allows you as a leader to change your thoughts which change your habits which change your entire organization.

In addition to impacting your business, your thoughts greatly impact your own health. The Journal of the American Medical Association sites findings that journaling and expressive writing can reduce symptoms of asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic illnesses.

Research shows that journaling can also:

• Improve Immunity
• Reduce the negative effects of stress
• Provide clearer thinking through improved cognitive functioning
• Promote more restful sleep

A peaceful mind generates power and positive energy. By journaling, you will quiet your mind and strengthen your leadership thereby clearing a path for your family, friends, employees, colleagues and clients to follow.

Journaling develops emotional resilience, the ability to quickly deliver results and the agility to navigate life’s changes. In any situation, journaling elevates your success.

Leah Lund is an Executive Health Coach with a holistic approach to energy, mood and weight. With over two decade’s sales and marketing experience, Leah founded One Whole Health with the understanding that the success of a business directly correlates with the energy, focus, and balance of its leader. She teaches executives to manage their energy not time to achieve personal and professional success.

Leah uses a proven system to help clients repair chemical/hormone imbalances that unknowingly sabotage their efforts, while harnessing the power of their thoughts and beliefs through journaling. Corporate Wellness Solutions and Wellness Retreats are also available. To learn more about how One Whole Health can help you be an inspiring leader and sustain momentum in your organization go to www.onewholehealth.com or contact Leah at leah@onewholehealth.com

Designing the future organisation with Sue Jenkins.
Click the play button below to listen to the full interview:

Key points in this interview are:

• Top leadership teams need to be visibly committed to how the organisation is shaped to deliver major change and that the design is really aligned behind the vision.
• Resist the pressure to produce a new organisation structure before the requirements are fully understood.
• Understand the Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline) continuum of engagement and encourage leaders to commit to a more collaborative, consultative style of organisation design.
• Managers are pivotal to successful change in a) testing the organisational principles and framework b) creating the organisational design detail using their local knowledge and c) engaging their own people to build confidence around the change.
• We are moving from a hierarchical, traditional, silo organisational style to an increasing dependency on cross functional teams brought together to fulfil a strategic objective.  Approaches to organisational design need to reflect this.
• Some hints and tips to great organisational design and some familiar death traps to avoid.

Hear about the 8 factors of the Fluid Change framework and how each element is answering a question that’s pertinent to any individual impacted by change.

Listen to the interview with Emer:

In this interview Lorna’s shares her opinions on how organisations are approaching the people aspects of large change; the challenges and the opportunities.

The aim of this booklet is to set the challenges of managing people through business
change and offer some clear and simple principles, based on our experience at Fluid
Change, which will ensure smoother, richer and more successful outcomes.

Why manage people through change and why is it important in business? Businesses
manage people all of the time. Executives set the direction and line management
listens and responds accordingly? It is a line manager’s job to manage their people
with the support of HR when required. It’s common sense and straight forward. We
hear senior management outline these challenges regularly. If it so simple why does
so much organisational change fail? Is it because those who needed to change most
just didn’t do it; didn’t get it; didn’t buy into it; didn’t understand it; or just resisted?

We are talking here about business change where success depends upon people
changing what they do and how they do it. Organisational change typically involves
People, Process and Technology largely driven through a programme environment.
The remit is to design and implement a solution that will deliver the stated business
benefits. The business benefits are described in financial terms: Return On Investment
(ROI), increased customer benefits, improved productivity or efficiency savings etc. So
what is the cost of not managing people through change? We suggest it is the cost
of diminishing returns. The less focus on what is needed to manage people through
large-scale organisational change the smaller the ROI and efficiency savings become.
It is as simple as that in terms of direct, measurable, financial impact. In addition
there is a loss of leadership credibility when change fails; programmes peter out in
an embarrassed whisper; productivity drops; employee loyalty and engagement falls;
and talent is lost.

Having established the business reason for managing people through change what
problems are solved? You want to change the way 10s, 100s, 1000s of people work.
What those changes are differ depending upon level and department function. In
our experience, the changes will range from delivering a new service, to using new
technologies, to learning new processes for workflow changes, to changing jobs, to
losing jobs. So there is a challenge here to paint the change landscape in a way that
will lead to an efficient and successful change strategy.

Over the course of our 20+ years experience we have learned that there are guiding
principles that truly enable sustainable, healthy change that will secure the stated
business benefits. Fluid Change advises and guides organisations to adopt these
principles in their change approach. These are:

Download our free “people change” ebook here »