After years of training in organizational change management, my conclusion is that we can’t really “manage” the kind of rapid, complex change our world is experiencing right now. Managing has the connotation of taking control, creating a plan, moving pieces forward and parts together in a linear progress. With the kind of change we are facing right now, we can plan, shift, adapt, envision, but we may have more influence than control over many of the situations in which we find ourselves.

With the constant stream of information that is coming in at all times from all sources, people who lead and manage are hit with a new level of complexity in decision-making, time  management, and simple focus.

Think for a moment of Alvin Toeffler’s concept of “future shock,” which takes the idea that some change has become too rapid and too complex to deal with from a place of calm and rationality. The results of future shock are like a shock to the body or the nervous system; we are unable to process the information and adapt quickly enough. That is when fear kicks in and fear based behaviors wreak havoc.

Within our organizations, we need leaders and contributors, who are balanced, thoughtful, willing to take risks in telling it like it is, and acting based on what’s right, not what will protect them from being fired or challenged. We need solid, engaged teams that are productive and excited about coming to work, and we need innovations that can drive us to the next level of excellence and relevance in rapidly changing times. We need the tools and capacities to get out of the fear responses of fright, flight, and paralysis, and to use fear wisely and consciously to inform our decisions rather than to make our decisions for us.

 There’s no time to lose—our world is on the brink of enormous change. As our world population explodes into numbers too enormous to imagine (from six billion now to nine billion in 2050), we are consuming resources at six times the rate of what we can regenerate. Oil reserves are dwindling, political upheaval and unrest threatens global safety, and climate change is barreling toward us with unthinkable consequences. Food riots have begun around the world because of global shortages of staple crops. Forty percent of land-based species are threatened within thirty to fifty years, depending upon whom you listen to, and both natural and man-made disasters are affecting more and more people. How are our businesses going to cope with rapid change in materials availability, consumer demand, safety and security issues, and a truly global economy?

My book, UNFEAR Facing Change in an Era of Uncertainty, addresses the specific needs and desires of a new generation of leaders and organizational citizens who need to think on their feet and use their wits and street smarts, to use everything they’ve got in order to make their companies, and their world, a better place to be.

Join me on a virtual tour over the course of the next 10 days, as I visit blogs across the internet to discuss the principles of my new book, UNFEAR Facing Change in an Era of Uncertainty. I invite you enjoy the articles, interviews, reviews, and excerpts and to join the discussions by commenting on what you read and hear. The underlying message of UNFEAR is a vital one and your voice needs to be heard.  Each stop on our tour will focus on aspects of fear based behaviors and how they can be overcome through practicing the four principles of UNFEAR. When we return to Success Television at the end of our tour we will bring new friends and a deeper understanding of what it will take to face change in an era of uncertainty.  March 2, 2011, our first virtual tour stop will take us to the Internet site A Successful Woman, for an article about three steps to being complaint free.

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Karlin Sloan is the founder and CEO of Karlin Sloan & Company, Ms. Sloan provides organization development consulting, training and executive coaching to clients the U.S., Europe, South America and Asia.  She is the author of Smarter, Faster, Better; Strategies for Effective, Enduring, and Fulfilled Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2006) and Unfear (January 2011).

Many of us believe that our attitude shapes our destiny – well, that’s also true on a grand corporate scale. What we focus on becomes our reality. And if we as leaders are tired, stressed, and uninspired, that focus can be detrimental to the entire organization. Remember that the key to focusing on the right thing is beginning with the right question. Instead of “How can I manage another day of this?” Start asking “What can I gain from today? How can I hold onto my Appreciative Eye?”

“ It could be argued that all leadership is appreciative leadership. It’s the capacity to see the best in the world around us, in our colleagues, and in the groups we are trying to lead. It’s the capacity to see the most creative and improbable opportunities in the marketplace. It’s the capacity to see with an appreciative eye the true and the good, the better and the possible.” – David L. Cooperrider 

What is the appreciative eye you ask? It is the perspective of valuing, of awe and inspiration. When we visit a museum we often look at a set of paintings for their beauty, for their meaning, or for the value that they can bring us, in a different way than we might look at say, our blank computer screen on a Sunday morning.

In order to activate the appreciative eye, ask yourself the following questions:

1.) When have I been inspired/ excited/ amazed by my work? What are the details of that story? How did I feel physically and mentally? How was I impacted? What effect did I have on other people around me?

2.) What opportunities for inspiration are available to me today?

What does it mean to be an inspirational leader? ASKING QUESTIONS of yourself, of others, exercising your appreciative eye, remaining curious and excited to learn, wondering what our life has in store for us in the next city we visit, the next person we meet could have something unique and wonderful to offer. Being inspirational means remaining inspired . . . which is no small feat.

Best of luck!

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If you believe someone would enjoy and benefit from this post, please share it. Just click on the + Share button and you will see lots of options for sharing it with friends including email, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Thanks!

Karlin Sloan is the founder and CEO of Karlin Sloan & Company, Ms. Sloan provides organization development consulting, training and executive coaching to clients the U.S., Europe, South America and Asia.  She is the author of Smarter, Faster, Better; Strategies for Effective, Enduring, and Fulfilled Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2006) and Unfear (January 2011).

Are you familiar with the Hans Christian Anderson fable of The Emperor's New Clothes? It is a lovely cautionary tale about vanity, in which the emperor is hoodwinked by two scoundrels into parading through the capital in clothing made of cloth that can only be seen by those who are intelligent and competent. Basically, he was naked but no one had the courage to risk giving the feedback.

The story demonstrates the importance and need for honest feedback in leadership and the very human fear of appearing ignorant or incompetent in the face of opposing opinions.

360 Feedback

As a leadership consultant I am often asked to put together programs for executive 360s, which are assessments that enable people to give useful feedback on how the executives are perceived in their leadership roles. That feedback can be surprising, infuriating, exciting, and daunting to leaders who only hear what they are doing right, what they’re doing wrong, or who don’t hear anything at all about how they are doing.

Having honest feedback is essential to good leadership. Preserving optimism while receiving feedback is the topic for today's blog.

Preserve your optimism!

In order to help others believe in the possibility or probability of a positive future, you need to believe it yourself. How can you build your optimism, even in the face of great adversity or while receiving negative feedback?

The key to preserving your optimism in the face of feedback is to build optimism on a regular basis. Optimism makes you happier and more content with your life —and makes you a more effective and resilient leader. It also helps you avoid personalizing negative feedback.

Remember feedback is about perception.

It’s NOT about who you are deep inside; it’s about how you appear to others. As a leader, how you appear is very important, but it’s not who you are as a human being. Also, people project their own needs onto leaders. Your people may have very different needs. One may want you to be directive; another may want you to be personable and to ask them more questions. Listen to the feedback for the tools you need on your tool belt, rather than for the “one perfect way” for you to act in your role.

Try this

At the end of each day, write down three things that went well that day. These things can be small in importance (“My computer booted up right away this morning when I turned it on”) or large (“I was offered the job I had interviewed for today”). After each positive event, answer this question, “Why did this good thing happen?” When we visit and revisit the “why,” we begin to see our impact on positive outcomes and to repeat positive behaviors.

Take a moment and think of three good things that happened today. Attribute that positive to something and see how it changes your perception of your own power to make positive things happen. Repeat daily! Optimism is infectious.

Fear closes us down and positivity opens us up.

If you believe someone would enjoy and benefit from this post, please share it. Just click on the + Share button and you will see lots of options for sharing it with friends including email, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Thanks!

Karlin Sloan is the founder and CEO of Karlin Sloan & Company, Ms. Sloan provides organization development consulting, training and executive coaching to clients the U.S., Europe, South America and Asia.  She is the author of Smarter, Faster, Better; Strategies for Effective, Enduring, and Fulfilled Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2006) and Unfear (January 2011).