Keep Stepping to Master the Challenges of Change

by Joy Marsden

Influential change advocate, Joy Marsden, shares her philosophy on the importance of stepping up and stepping out for leaders of today.

What behaviors do you need to adopt to grow and achieve success in a fast moving ever changing environment, where the people you lead are facing challenges month after month?

Recovering quickly from unexpected change is what separates the expert from the novice. The novice seeks to force new experiences into existing frameworks, confuses luck with personal skill, and relies on routine when a situation changes from simple and stable to complex and challenging.

By contrast, the expert never takes success personally, is always aware of their personal and technical limitations, and uses change as an opportunity to review, improve and innovate.  Whist the novice strives for stability; the expert accepts instability as the only status quo.

Overall, expertise means that we are capable of leading through change with an open mind and resilient attitude.  It means we ‘Keep Stepping!’.  The philosophy behind the Keep Stepping principles don’t just provide a superficial blue print for success but focuses on something more realistic.  When change comes, planned or unplanned, in any area of life, it is going to be difficult.  For the novice, this difficulty means clinging onto routine for comfort.  For the expert, this difficulty means a chance to innovate, to improve. Experts don’t stay still, they Keep Stepping.  So how do you become an expert in personal leadership?

Being the best means engineering the steps that you take in order to become all that you can be.  In order to do this, you’re going to need to ‘Step Up’, ‘Step Out’ and ‘Stand Out’ at different stages of your day, week and year.  It’s a never ending process, but a fulfilling process if you’re prepared to take the steps necessary for success.

As a leader, it’s up to you to make sure that you not only achieve your very best, but that you inspire the people you lead to achieve their very best too. The way you carry yourself, the person that you are, speaks volumes.

Do your employees see you as someone that inspires them? Or are you someone they simply work for that pays the wage at the end of the week.

I’m privileged to use the Keep Stepping program to help leaders and their teams throughout the globe to develop key skills that allow them to be more authentic in the office and at home and to enjoy their daily routines more.

The result, happier workers serving happier customers as they serve them better and see obstacles as opportunities.  This makes for a vibrant working environment where respect, honor and integrity are just a few of the values that start to shine through in the workplace.

Here are some steps from the Keep Stepping program for leadership success:

SERVE

The way you see someone affects the way you serve them, and the way you serve someone affects the way they see you.  Serve your employees and your customers in the best possible way.

BE NICE

Simple, but not always easy to do, especially when you don’t even like the person you’re dealing with.  Here’s the thing, people respond to the person you are and the way you interact with them way before they respond to what you can do for them.

TUNE IN

Make sure you understand what’s really going on. Do you get home from work and completely zone out? You’re in relax mode but not tuned in to the needs of the family?  This is a situation we can often look back and recognize quite quickly in a home situation, but do you notice when you haven’t tuned in at work? Are you missing important conversations, reactions, team dynamics that are essential for getting things done.

STRETCH

When was the last time you stepped out of your comfort circle and learnt something new?  Moments like these are essential for our growth and development.  This is often where the best creative ideas are born. The stretch is where great things happen.

TOOLKIT

A skilled carpenter gathers tools for his toolbox over time.  Time after time he has to draw on that experience and will use specific tools for specific jobs. How many of these skills do you use? It a wonderful thing when managers learn to draw out all the skills of their employees, when this happens, they will be leading a more fulfilled workforce for sure.

Keep Stepping!® is helping employees to do the things that matter most and make a positive difference both in their professional and personal life.

About the Author

Joy Marsden is an internationally recognized leadership expert, keynote speaker, and workshop leader, with extensive experience in working with leaders and their teams.

Joy is the author of Keep Stepping! Essential ways to lead yourself and others through challenge and change (Stepping Books, 2015). A leadership ambassador for the Chartered Management Institute, a Fellow of the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management, a Fellow of the Professional Speaking Association and Regional President in Staffordshire.