Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Dan’s Biz Bookshelf: Change is Good… You Go First: 21 Ways to Inspire Change

Authors Mac Anderson and Tom Feltenstein say, “Change is the key that unlocks growth,” and “You don’t have a choice about change, but you do have a choice about how you and your team react to it.”

Change is Good… You Go First: 21 Ways to Inspire Change focuses on this dichotomy: Everyone acknowledges that businesses must evolve, but no one want to be the first to change. We all know that change is not easy. In fact, it is one of the hardest things that we face in business. Most of the time people hate change because what happens after the change is unknown, and the only thing we fear more than change is the unknown.

But change, like death and taxes, is inevitable.

Which is what makes this book so valuable. It is actually a primer on how to handle change to the point of actually even welcoming change.

The way a company or any organization handles change is dictated by how the leader leads it through that change. Actually, a true leader will see into the future enough to see change coming and then prepare a strategy to handle that change. A true leader will also instill their team with enough faith in their ability that they will trust their judgment enough to confidently follow the plan to not only survive change but take advantage of it as well.

The authors quote Francois de la Rochefoucauld who said, “We never do great good or great evil without bringing about more of the same on the part of others.”

Or in the words of one of our generation’s greatest philosophers, Lily Tomlin, “I always wondered why somebody didn’t do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody.”

History has shown us that great innovation and great fortunes have been made in times of change. Personally, I believe we are in the middle of one of those times right now.

From this valuable book are tips to handle change through your leadership:

1. Change what needs changing, not what is easy.
2. Re-recruit the best people and keep leading them like you’re still recruiting them.
3. Forget for success: Get rid of the useless or passe information.
4. Make them believe in you and your systems.
5. Focus on your strengths and use them as tools to success
6. Remove all barriers to change.
7. Lead with speed. Speed is the best way to move to the other side of change.
8. Let your customers call the shots. Giving your customers what they want is your business plan.
9. Let your actions speak: Actions speak louder than words.
10. Measure your progress. Measurement makes results

And one last bit of advice from the book, “Stand with them, not above them.”

The measurement of a truly great leader is the courtesy with which she treats those under her.

If you want to learn to embrace change, this book is a great way to start. 

Change is Good… You Go First: 21 Ways to Inspire Change

By Mac Anderson and Tom Feltenstein

Publisher: Simple Truths; 2^nd edition (Feb. 1, 2019)

Hardcover/e-book/audiobook: 128 pages

Price: $16.99

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.