Leadership Conversations: Challenging High Potential Managers to Become Great Leaders

CHAPTER 19

If You Can’t Change, Retire

The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.

—MUHAMMAD ALI

After making a big decision, most executives tend unconsciously to gather information that justifies their decision and then to make other decisions that support the first: “Let’s stick with this approach until it has had a chance to work,” or the classic “We’ve always done it that way.” Sticking with the status quo may feel safe; yet in a rapidly changing world, “safe” potentially means missed opportunities, lost market share, and stagnation. Your challenge as a leader is to avoid defaulting to safe decisions.

You might consider change to be complex and risky—something to be undertaken only in ...