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Insight from PROGRESS LEADERSHIP by Dean Lindsay

 

 

Change is inevitable, Progress is a choice!Dean’s newest book is PROGRESS LEADERSHIP: Say NO to Change Management

WINNER of the 2021 Business Class News Editors’ Choice Award for BOOK OF THE YEAR

  • “Important and timely book” – Forbes
  • “I recommend this book to HR professionals, business leaders, sales leaders, and anyone who is trying to not only navigate the business world today, but also succeed in it.”  – Julie Weber, Vice President & Chief People Officer, Southwest Airlines
  • “Leaders can’t keep change from happening. The only thing we can do is transform how we think about it—and help our teams do the same. Progress Leadership from ‘America’s Progress Agent’ Dean Lindsay is a much needed kick in the pants for every leader. If you would rather be leading progress instead of managing change, read this book!” – Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager® and Servant Leadership in Action
When a new opportunity comes our way, we internalize it, and size it up as Progress or Change.  This new opportunity could be starting a new relationship, buying an electronic gadget, working extra hours on a project, getting up to speed on a new product line, working to meet quota, anything.  All progress is change, but not all change is progress.
Let’s say I have an upset stomach. “Man, I’ve got a stomachache.  Ouch!  My stomach is killing me.  This has got to change.”
Somebody hears me, walks over, and punches me in the nose.  Is that change?  Yeah, it’s change.  But it’s not progress.  Well, maybe to the person who punched me, but not to me.
 
What may seem like progress (good) to one person or group of people may seem like change (bad) to another. Propaganda, book burning, even war and murder are all thought of as “progress” at some point in the minds of the perpetrators (scary).  Because progress is subjective, there is no single factor that clearly determines whether an event represents progress or change.
progress-is-choiceHowever, we can say that we:
  • Start businesses to progress, not change
  • Hire employees to progress, not change
  • Work on teams to progress, not change
  • Make the tough choices and the tough phone calls to progress, not change
  • Keep our cool when dealing with belligerent customers to progress, not change
  • Cross the road to progress, not change
  • Answer the phone to progress, not change
  • Spend our hard-earned money to progress, not change. (We would rather keep our change than change, but will offer our best to progress.)
  • Diet and exercise to progress, not change
As we age we realize that slowing change can be progress.  Think of the forty-year-old swimmer who manages to equal her performance from five years before. Maintenance is progress in that it avoids change for the worse.
We do not want life-changing products, services, experiences, ideas, and opportunities. We want life-progressing products, services, experiences, ideas and opportunities.  We should be careful not to mistake mere change for progress.  Just because something is new or flashy does not mean it is right or adds meaning to our lives.  And as my friend and fellow author Shama Hyder says, we do live in a “next big thing” world.  However, because all progress is change, people who claim to be 100% “resistant to (any) change” are often choosing to be resistant to the possibility of progress.
Be Progress.

Change is inevitable, Progress is a choice!