My message to each of you for the New Year is a single question: “What will it take to move you one millimeter beyond your current comfort zone?” Just. One. Millimeter.
I ask myself the same question. Each day.
You see, by making a small change in the way you are used to doing and thinking about things, you accomplish quite a lot by year end. The net effect is nothing short of professional innovation. For you and for your employees.
So, just what will it take in 2018 for you to move one millimeter beyond your current comfort zone?
Undoubtedly, this past year has provided you with enough real and fake information, discovery and reported events which moved you beyond what you were comfortable with. In fact, you are not alone. We all took that journey together, in one way or another.
Consequently, you share a common context and frame of reference. As a result, you become a joint witness to systems turned upside down and convention and propriety turned into chaos. You have more in common with people than you think.
Think about it. The impact of anticipating “what is going happen next?” is what you carry into the workplace each day. You bring it to your clients’ workplaces and transport it home with you, as well.
Except that is not Who You Are, as a Leader of Worth, is it? Someone else’s idea of superimposing that type of new normal on you is not normal at all. And it certainly is not comfortable. Ever.
- Yet, how can you take what challenges your leadership and turn it into something better than it was at the start of each workday?
- How can you address, rather than ignore, workplace communication disconnects and subsequently create synergy through respect, rather than reinforce separation?
- Consequently, how can you create an environment fostering a culture of professional innovation that connects your organization’s culture with those of your customers?
Just what will it take throughout 2018 for you to continuously move one millimeter beyond your current comfort level?
If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know we deal with Big Ideas, broken out into bite-size chunks of possibility. As a result, you are better able to disrupt yourself, take new perspectives and recombine ideas in new ways, for the benefit of your customers.
In order to bring innovation to customers, you must become more comfortable with innovation, yourself. Taking that small – but substantial – step, each and every day, leads to professional innovation. The type of professional innovation that engages colleagues collaboratively and retains customers, strategically.
When you move one millimeter beyond your current comfort level, you traverse the boundaries of biased mindset and departmental baggage. Instead, you discover what you have in common with colleagues you never before could understand. Until now.
Just what will it take for you to decide to take that first step, one millimeter forward, beyond what’s holding you back? You see, that is the only way to move forward.
Have I got you thinking that “it’s time”? Will you email me, so we can have that remarkable conversation? Or will you continue to rationalize why being comfortable is, well, so comfortable?
Next steps towards professional innovation:
- Read these related posts. Discover how risk aversion impacts professional innovation, workforce engagement and customer retention.
- Has what you read today started you thinking about tomorrow? Contact me and let’s discuss.
- Subscribe to my blog. Share your email address in the red box in the right column. Never miss another insightful post.
Babette Ten Haken serves organizations as a corporate catalyst and innovative speaker, strategist, coach and storyteller. Babette’s One Millimeter Mindset™ Workshops and Speaking programs leverage collaboration to catalyze professional innovation, workforce engagement and customer retention, especially in challenging Industrial Internet of Things environments. Babette’s playbook of IIoT team collaboration hacks, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon. She is a member of SME, ASQ, SHRM and the National Speakers Association.
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