Tag Archives: Status Quo

Leadership, Leadership Behaviors, Status Quo

Four Ways to Overthrow the Status Quo

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pumpkin-cage“I’m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.” —Niccolo Machiavelli

By Elizabeth Stincelli, DM

 

No one ever succeeded by simply maintaining the status quo. The key to success is to constantly be growing, be changing, and be improving. In order to do these things, you must learn to not only question, but as Niccolo Machiavelli stated, overthrow the status quo. Here are four things you can do to get started.

New questions

One of the most obvious ways to overthrow the status quo is to start asking new questions. Ask questions about yourself, about your team, about your processes, about your goals, about the marketplace, and about your competition. Asking new questions helps keep you from falling into unproductive habits. Ask questions of others; encourage honest answers. Ask about plans and projects. Ask about the organization. Why do we do things this way? Does it work? Is there a better approach?

New people

You must understand that your own biases drive the way you view situations and the decisions that you make. To overthrow the status quo, try surrounding yourself with new people, the right people who can help you see through your biases. Build new relationships and get other people involved. Build yourself a team of subject matter experts and then learn to rely on their expert advice.

New information

You can’t know everything. To overthrow the status quo, embrace curiosity and learning as part of your daily routine. Seek out new and valuable information, not just what you want to hear or information that substantiates what you already believe. Evaluate your failures and mistakes. What can you learn from them? What new information do they provide you with?

New point-of-view

The world we work in is changing at breakneck speeds. In order to remain competitive, you must learn to look at situations from a new point-of-view. You must learn how to have a perspective that is fluid and flexible. A fixed position will no longer serve anyone’s best interest. Use a new vantage point to help overthrow the status quo.

Overthrow the Status Quo

Don’t default to the status quo; it won’t address the challenges to success that you will face. Use new questions, people, information, and points-of-view to reexamine situation, goals, processes, and ways of thinking. It’s a new world, one in which the environment you are operating in is changing fast. If you want to keep up, overthrow the status quo.
© 2015 Elizabeth Stincelli

 

Liz Stincelli is passionate about recognizing and inspiring the leader in each of us. She is the CEO of Stincelli Advisors where she focuses on helping organizations engage employees and improve organizational culture. Liz holds a Doctor of Management degree with an emphasis on organizational leadership.

Learn more about Liz by visiting her website, stincelliadvisors.com and connect with her on Twitter @infinitestin, Google+, and LinkedIn. You can contact her by email at stincelliadvisors@gmail.com.

 

 

Diversity, Leadership

Four Big Reasons You Need Diversity at the Table

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“Strength lies in differences, not similarities.” —Stephen Covey

By Elizabeth Stincelli, DM

 

Diversity

How do you come up with new ideas and solutions to problems? How do you make sure your thinking is representative of the real world? You bring diversity to the table, that’s how. There is so much value in bringing people with diverse experience, backgrounds, and perspectives to any situation. If you want to optimize your problem-solving; ability to challenge the status quo; adaptability; and perception of inclusion, build respect for diversity into your core values.

Problem-solving

Don Tapscott said, “Learning to collaborate is part of equipping yourself for effectiveness, problem-solving, innovation, and life-long learning in and ever-changing, networked economy.” When you learn to collaborate with others who DO NOT share your same perspective, you dramatically increase the odds of finding innovative solutions to problems. Diversity promotes creativity and opens the door to a world of new questions. It encourages healthy debate which leads to better decisions. It provides a new point-of-view from which to examine and tackle problems.

Status quo

Ronald Reagan quipped, “Status quo, you know, is Latin for ‘the mess we’re in’.” Diversity supports disruptive ideas and, disruptive ideas can be good. Some of the best ideas come when you disrupt the status quo. When you continually turn to those who share your same background and experiences, you get the same perspective and thus, the same results. Continually turning to the same perspective just reinforces the status quo. Diversity challenges and pushes back against this stagnation. If you want the best future, it needs to look different from the past. This requires embracing diversity, considering new points-of-view, and challenging the status quo.

Adaptability

According Marc Andreessen, “Adaptability is key.” Having diversity at the table is a significant factor in your organization’s ability to innovate and adapt to today’s fast changing operating environment. Adaptability has always been, and always will be essential to continued growth and prosperity. Diversity breeds innovation and adaptability which breed success. It brings with it a deeper level of understanding, experience, competencies, philosophies, and perspectives. Chances are that your customers are diverse and becoming more diverse every day. Bringing diversity to the table helps ensure that your thinking reflects the real world so you will be able to adapt as necessary and thrive.

Inclusion

Gary Hamel explained, “Today, no leader can afford to be indifferent to the challenge of engaging employees in the work of creating the future. Engagement may have been optional in the past, but it’s pretty much the whole game today.” Your workforce is diverse, and every employee needs a sense of inclusion. You need to ensure that the people who are going to be affected by decisions and will have the responsibility for implementation have a voice. If you are not intentionally including diversity, you are unintentionally excluding it. Inclusion removes perceived barriers and empowers employees. It increases buy-in and builds relationships. These relationships are the vehicle with which you get anything done as a leader.

Reap the Benefits

Albert Einstein believed, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” As great of an asset as your experience, knowledge, and background may be, these assets cause you to have biases, blinders, and a focus from one perspective. Bringing diversity to the table improves problem-solving, challenging of the status quo, adaptability, and inclusion. Learn to embrace diversity and you will reap the benefits.

How can you start bringing diversity to the table today?

 

 

© 2015 Elizabeth Stincelli

 

Elizabeth Stincelli is passionate about recognizing and inspiring the leader in each of us. She is the CEO of Stincelli Advisors where she focuses on helping organizations engage employees and improve organizational culture. Elizabeth holds a Doctor of Management degree with an emphasis on organizational leadership.

Learn more about Elizabeth by visiting her website, stincelliadvisors.com and connect with her on Twitter @infinitestin, Google+, and LinkedIn. You can contact her by email at stincelliadvisors@gmail.com.