I caught up with a good friend the other day. We ran through run-of-the-mill updates and then I asked about her spirit. How was she feeling these days? What was on her mind?

She paused for a second. Then she told me she was slowly settling into the idea that "normal" just wasn’t on the horizon anymore. That whether she thought about her family or her job or her home, there was no "finished" state waiting three months down the road. She wouldn’t be rewarded with stability after summiting the next kid-shaped or career-shaped or whatever-shaped mountain.

I could’ve been speaking with any one of my colleagues at The Ready, who are face-to-face with leaders steering their organizations through similar mindset shifts.

"Heal Thyself" time. 

Every operational environment is defined by change. It doesn’t matter if you’re steering a five-person startup or a Fortune 500. Occasional curveballs aren’t the norm anymore. We're all inhaling change 24/7. It’s tempting to deny that reality, but resistance isn’t a winning strategy. Neither is waiting for the pace of change to slow down to turtle speed.

The ability to benefit from change, not just bear it, is the advantage in front of every leader. But what kind of leader does that require you to be? How must you change to help your organization do the same?

That’s what Rodney Evans and Sam Rothkopf explore this week on At Work With The Ready: the leadership traits you need to execute your strategy and move forward no matter how shifty the ground is beneath you.

Because if you expect your organization to change, you've got to change, too.

Your old/new leadership superpower. 

Rodney and Sam cover lots of ground in the episode: the good cop/bad cop living inside every leader, why strategy and execution can’t be pulled apart, their ongoing beef with servant leadership. But the TL;DR principle I’ll put in front of you now is this: Embrace curiosity as a superpower.

When you reach the top of the food chain, it’s easy to lose personal touch with the market; to consume the beautiful mind-ed numbers packaged for the ELT every quarter; to over-index on the superpower you’ve relied on for 10+ years; and to believe the moves that led to your current success will always work, because... it's lonely up there. Hierarchy is great insulation.

But in moments of big and constant change, you need firsthand contact with the people you actually serve. You need a refreshed bench of experience and moves, because the "sure things" from even three years ago have already expired. You need to be willing to be surprised and change your mind. You need to see testing, failing, and learning as a critical part of your survival.

No sad bumper stickers allowed. 

Classic leadership advice might trend toward stay-the-course mantras like, "A good leader doesn’t need a Plan B" and "Only the weak change their mind. Double down, captain!" But those are sad, short-sighted bumper stickers.

Maybe you’re in a position where holding steady is safe enough for now. But if there’s a fluttery feeling in your gut whenever you meet with your team or board telling you there’s no more "getting over" the hump of change, you’re more ready to change than you think.

Take the first step by listening to Rodney and Sam’s episode. It’s waiting for you here. Then, meet with Sam to talk about animating these principles in your own team.

Get curious and meet with Sam ASAP.