Personal Mastery · Module 1.2
You can lead a change you have real reservations about, without those reservations leaking into how you lead. That takes knowing the difference between two selves you are holding at once.
Know the difference
The difference this module is about is the one between you as a person, who has a real reaction to a change, and you in your role, who has obligations that do not disappear just because of that reaction. Most leaders run these two together without noticing, and that is where the trouble starts.
Alex Johnson is a Dean. The provost’s office has decided this year’s budget cuts will come from Alex’s college, and specifically from one program within it, a program Alex had no say in choosing. Alex disagrees, both with which college was picked and which program inside it, but has been asked to implement the cut starting this semester.
Alex the person has a real reaction to this. It feels unfair, and it does not sit right. That reaction is legitimate. Pretending it is not there tends to produce the exact signaling behaviors that undermine a change from the inside.
Alex the Dean has a different set of obligations. The role carries responsibilities that do not dissolve just because Alex personally disagrees, representing the decision to the program’s faculty, and helping the college move forward, even while Alex the person still has a real reaction sitting right next to that job.
These are not the same self, and confusing them is one of the most common ways leaders lose their footing.
You are both of these people too, in whatever change you are currently leading, the person with a real reaction, and the leader who has to make it real. Follow Alex through the rest of this module, then do the same for your own situation.
Name what you actually disagree with
Bring to mind a specific change you are leading right now, one you have real reservations about. Hold that particular situation in mind. You will carry it through the rest of this module, the same way Alex’s budget cut carries through here.
Here is how this looks for Alex. Stripped of how the decision was announced and who delivered it, what is the actual substance of the disagreement?
Stripped down, Alex’s actual disagreement might be this: the program was singled out using enrollment data that does not capture what it actually contributes, and no one asked Alex’s input on which program to select before the decision was final.
Now do the same for your own situation. Strip away how the decision was announced and who delivered it. Underneath that, what is the actual substance you disagree with?
What do you actually disagree with about this change?
Capture your answer in your own notes.
Check your assumptions
For Alex, some of what feels like disagreement is actually assumption, a fear about an outcome that has not happened yet, or a story about someone’s intentions that cannot actually be confirmed.
Alex might be assuming the provost’s office never considered alternatives at all, when that has not actually been confirmed. Alex might also be fearing that faculty will blame Alex personally for a decision made above Alex’s head, when many of them may already understand it was not Alex’s call.
Now do the same for your own situation. Some of what feels like disagreement is actually assumption, a fear about an outcome that has not happened yet, or a story about someone’s intentions that you cannot actually confirm.
What are you assuming or fearing here that you do not actually know to be true?
Capture your answer in your own notes.
Sort what is personal from what is formal
For Alex, not everything named needs to become a formal position, and not everything should stay silent either. Some of it is Alex’s to carry personally. Some of it deserves a real conversation, in the right venue, at the right time.
Alex might decide the anger at being blindsided by the selection process is personal, something to sit with or bring to a trusted peer, while the concern about the enrollment data methodology is worth raising formally with the provost’s office, since it could affect other programs’ decisions too.
Now do the same for your own situation. Not everything you named needs to become a formal position, and not everything should stay silent either. Some of it is yours to carry personally. Some of it deserves a real conversation, in the right venue, at the right time.
Of what you named in steps 2 and 3, what is yours to carry personally, and what deserves to be raised through the right channel?
Capture your answer in your own notes.
Give the personal part somewhere real to go
You have sorted what is personal from what deserves a formal channel. The personal part still needs somewhere real to go, not just a page of notes, or it tends to leak out sideways in a meeting instead.
Sophia practice
Sophia can be that outlet, a place to say the reaction out loud, fully, the way you would with a trusted peer. Bring whatever you marked personal in step 4 and talk it through.
Talk it through with Sophia