The best leaders continually seek to grow in order to become even more effective. They seek new skills and they seek to build their character so that tomorrow’s version is better than today’s.

As a part of growth comes change. In delving into our self-awareness, we often find traits that do not serve us well and need to be improved or replaced. These traits might be anything in our character or personality or in the way that we function. Some common examples might be a fear of conflict, a tendency towards self-criticism, some weakness in listening skills, an inability to accept feedback, lack of respect for others, being too quick to offer solutions, or many other things. (If we are not finding opportunities for growth and improvement, then we are not being truthful in our self-assessment.)

Some people relish change. Some people fear and run from change. Most of us are in the middle. We know that change is necessary and helpful in the long-run but challenging or unsettling in the short-term.

Change requires sustained effort. It is said that it typically takes six weeks to build a new habit and six months to make that new habit a lifetime change. During those first six weeks, change requires a constant awareness and intentional effort. During that period between the six weeks and the six months, we need to be on guard that we don’t revert back to the old habit in a moment of stress or weakness.

In the book, The Servant Leader, authors Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges offer seven reactions that people often have to change:

1. People will feel awkward, ill at ease, and self-conscious when confronted by change.
2. People will feel alone, even if everyone around them is going through the same change.
3. People will think first about what they will need to give up.
4. People will think that they can only handle so much change at once.
5. People will be concerned that they don’t have enough resources in terms of time, money, skills, energy, etc. to implement the change.
6. People will be at different levels of readiness for any particular change.
7. If pressure is taken off, people will revert to old behaviors.

When first identifying the need for change, we might feel a negative energy. We become aware of the trait or practice that is having a negative effect and we feel regret or a desire not to be held back or suffer the consequence of this weakness. But mostly we just want the effect to go away or to be negated. Once we come to terms with the cause and effect, we might accept that change is necessary. If so, we identify the old pattern and define a new desired behavior. Then we define a plan for change. This plan must include a way to recognize and short-circuit the old behavior and to consciously replace it with the new, desired behavior.

Change is best accomplished as a team effort. The actual change process requires resources, often the greatest of which is energy. Recruiting an accountability partner or pursuing change in a group setting, such as a peer advisory group, adds energy from others around us and holds us accountable to continue the effort necessary for change. Without such a support team, it is often too easy to give up when we are partially up the slope towards the new behavior.

Change is often uncomfortable and requires considerable effort. But if we desire to be the best that we can be, we will constantly be in a state of change as we grow.

Where do you need to grow? How can you make change effective and lasting?