The fastest way to grow is to be where change is happening. When you can meld multiple strands of change together, the opportunities multiply. Consider, for example, the explosive growth that big data and artificial intelligence generate in businesses from financial services to health care.
Let’s focus on what you need to do to respond successfully to change. When you view change as the fuel for growth, it will help you thrive. In order to capitalize on change, however, you need the right mindset, set of circumstances, and skills. Here are three keys to help you capture the potential that change offers.
- Change is inevitable. How you deal with it is a choice.
Are you change-able? As an entrepreneur, I love change because it creates opportunities. That said, change isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Some people have a greater appetite for change than others. It’s useful to identify your “change tolerance” and find circumstances that fit for you.
- Build your change “muscles” to boost your agility.
Strengthening your ability to respond constructively to change requires practice. Just like you would not expect to lift a big weight successfully without working out beforehand, you need to build your change “muscles.” You can start simply with shifting your daily routine. Take a different route to work. Engage in a project or group responding to fast-moving changes. Identify people in your organization or network who are adept at handling change. Ask them how they built their skills and what helps them cope and thrive.
- Keep yourself lean and able to pivot.
Some people become so burdened by mortgages, expensive lifestyles, and things they “can’t do without” that they have few degrees of freedom to respond to change without high levels of pain. We are in times of rapid and unpredictable change. When you are running the rapids, don’t weight your raft down with a lot of rocks. Give yourself plenty of cushion financially and personally so that you can pivot as needed.