by Mike Myatt, a leadership advisor to Boards and CEOs, the author of Leadership Matters. The CEO Survival Manual and am the managing director and chief strategy officer at N2growth.
At one time or another all great leaders experience something so big
and so impactful it literally changes the landscape – it’s what I call a
“Game Changer.” A game changer is that ah-ha
moment where you see something others don’t. It’s the
transformational magic that takes organizations from a slow idle to
redline. In today’s column I’ll provide you with a blue print for
manufacturing ah-ha moments. I hope this piece is a game changer for
you…
Ever wonder how people come up with the proverbial big idea?
They work at it. Put simply, the best leaders proactively focus on
looking for game changers. They’re never satisfied with the ordinary or
mundane. Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos
and other CEOs recognized for their big ideas didn’t just get lucky –
they were/are committed to the constant pursuit of game changers. They
aren’t just dreamers – they are doers.
One of the things wrong with today’s marketplace is there’s far too
much rehashing of old ideas spun as new. Great leaders aren’t copycats –
they abhor me too business methodologies. Leaders who pursue game changers have no patience for the status quo – they focus their efforts on shattering the status quo.
Leaders who create or inspire game changers are nothing if not aware.
Not only are they self-aware, they’re aware of the emotions and needs
of others, and they are also clearly aware of what will be embraced in
the market. They possess the perfect blend of intrinsic curiosity and
extrinsic focus.
Take the qualities I’ve mentioned above and apply them to the
following framework and you’ll find ah-ha moments a bit easier to come
by. The following 6 steps represent my personal process for finding and
implementing game changers – I call it SMARTS© (Simple-Meaningful-Actionable-Relational-Transformational-Scalable):
Simple
While not all game changers are simple, the best ones usually are. It was Albert Einstein who said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
In most cases simple can be translated as realistic, cost effective,
quick to adopt, and fast to implement. Don’t get entangled in
complexities – become heavily invested in simplicity.
Meaningful
Game changers meet a need, solve a
problem, serve an existing market, or create a new one – they are
meaningful. Most leaders get sucked down into the weeds and spend too
much of their valuable time majoring in the minors. If it’s not really
meaningful, if it’s not a game changer, why do it? Ideas, products,
services and/or solutions that focus on value creation fare better than
those that don’t.
Actionable
It’s not a game changer if whatever
“it” is never gets off the drawing board. If you cannot turn an idea
into innovation, if you can’t put thought into practice, then it’s not a
game changer. By definition game changers happen, they exist, they have
life. They don’t lurk in the shadow-lands of the ethereal and esoteric,
they become reality.
Relational
I have found game changers enhance,
extend, and leverage existing relationships, as well as serve to create
new ones. When you get down to brass tacks, all business boils down to
people (employees, customers, partners, investors, vendors, etc.), and
people mean relationships. Real game changers understand the power of
people and relationships, and they embody this in both their
construction and implementation. If you forget the people, you cannot
have a game changer.
Transformational
I have yet to see a static game
changer. By definition, a game changer causes change. If nothing
changes, if nothing is created, if nothing is improved, if nothing is
transformed, then you don’t have a game changer. A lesson that I learned
long ago is that you simply cannot experience sustainable improvement
without transformation.
Scalable
If it’s not scalable it’s not a game
changer. An idea that offers no hope of a future will more often than
not turn into a nightmare rather than fulfill a dream. True game
changers are built with velocity and sustainability in mind. The best
thing about real games changers is they build upon themselves to
catalyze other accretive opportunities.
So there you have it…now that I’ve shared my thoughts on creating
game changers, my SMARTS if you will, it’s your turn to share. Share an
ah-ha moment, an experience, an observation or thought, but share. This
piece can be a game changer to many people if those who read it are
willing to share their collective wisdom.
kumaran nadaraja
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