How to Develop a Change-Ready Mindset

Last week, I promised to answer your top questions about leadership in the age of AI. So, here goes! I’ll start with a foundational topic: What mindset shifts do leaders need to make during times of huge change? For me, it comes down to this — we need to go from being “map readers” to “explorers.” Map-readers rely on past routes and like knowing the destination. Explorers enjoy shifting terrain and thrive in not knowing the destination. They run experiments, stay close to the work and their teams, and earn trust by being present and being human.  They succeed because they are curious enough to learn. “Exploration is really the essence of the human spirit.” – Frank Borman (Apollo 8 astronaut) Minimize change → Ride the change Why it matters Change is not a phase. “Back to normal” isn't coming. Success is building resilience and helping teams thrive in turbulence. The mindset sets the tone: it has to be “let’s do this” versus “oh no, change”. What should leaders do Communicate with clarity relentlessly - what’s known, what’s unknown, and how you are making decisions. Make calls with incomplete information: run tests, adjust fast.    2. Certainty mindset → Scientist mindset Why it matters When so much is changing, doing what worked before won’t work. A scientist mindset means you have curiosity over certainty. You look for reasons you might be wrong, not just reasons you must be right and you surround yourself with people who challenge you. What should leaders do Set hypotheses and run experiments (more about this next week). Iterate, and learn as much from being wrong as from being right. Be a “learn-it-all,” not a “know-it-all.” 3. Manage from above → Get close to work Why it matters When you are exploring new paths, you need to stay close to the ground. You need to be a master of your craft Managing with decks and dashboards is not enough. What should leaders do Write prompts, embed within your team, get close to your team's processes. Triangulate with feedback from customers, partners and team members and don't rely on filtered reports. 4. Drive with control → Enable with context Why it matters The simple definition of context: it is what enables great work. Humans and AI both need it to deliver. It is the shared frame that makes the next action obvious and lets teams move with confidence and speed. What should leaders do Start with the “why” and “why now” behind strategies, pivots and decisions. Communicate it on repeat. Don’t dilute the message as it cascades down. Own it. 5. Me → We Why it matters No single leader can solve challenges alone, and being a lone explorer will lead to burnout. Choosing “we over me” puts team wins ahead of ego. And that’s how we win. What should leaders do Stay humble and recognize you may not have all the answers. Listen deeply across the business. Coach and help others grow. Let’s keep the conversation going in the comments, and I’ll share my second post in this series next week.

Here’s the one mindset shift that changed my life most. For the last 12 years, I’ve woken up every day with the thought that this would be the day I get laid off. It might sound harsh, but it’s the healthiest and most prepared approach I’ve ever adopted. This is particularly true in today’s world of staggering competition and overwhelming applicant numbers, especially in the most sought-after industries. Twelve years ago, I was laid off while living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I spent nearly half a year unemployed, around the holidays no less, with only my partner's $20,000 graduate stipend in one of the most expensive cities in the world. It was one of the most challenging experiences of my life. I felt like I had failed and spent a lot of time wondering what I had done wrong and what my career would look like moving forward. Then, I made a decision: from that day forward, I would expect to lose my job at any moment. Not out of anxiety or fear, but as a form of preparation and realism. Companies can change for a variety of reasons - leadership shifts, mergers, market shifts - and expecting these changes has made me feel much more calm, not less. Adopting this mindset has several benefits: - Preparedness: If you assume that today might be your last at any company, your materials (CV, LinkedIn) stay updated, your networking never stops, and you’re always thinking about the next opportunity. - Financial Preparedness: Along with your professional preparedness, always ensure your finances are in order. Have savings, know what you’d do for healthcare, and plan for any gaps. This mindset isn't just about your career - it’s about your entire livelihood. - No Surprises: When you’re prepared for anything, you’re never blindsided by layoffs or changes in company direction. - No Attachment: I appreciate my jobs, but I don’t attach my identity to them. The only things I’m wedded to are my family, my friends, and my values. Companies can and do change - this mindset keeps me grounded. - Personal Brand Development: Always be developing your personal brand. Your identity should stand completely unattached from the company you work for. Build something that is entirely yours, because when that company changes or you move on, your brand stays with you. *** When people think of your name outside your company does a clear, positive picture come to mind for most of them? If not, it's time to work on this *** Consider this mindset. While it doesn't eliminate all risks, it puts you in a much stronger position to pivot when things change. Your career, personal brand, and financial future will benefit, and you’ll feel happier and calmer as a result. This approach is also grounded in reality. As we’ve seen over the last three years, layoffs can happen at any moment, often with little more than a form email, and most people at the company won’t care the day after. You’re the one who needs to be ready to respond at a moment’s notice, because nobody else will.

Early in my career, I faced a moment many of us dread: A sudden, unexpected company reorganization. It seemed like overnight ➟ my role ➟ my team ➟ my daily tasks were all up in the air. I remember the anxiety. The flurry of rumors. The uncertainty. They clouded my thoughts about the future. But it was in this chaos that I found clarity. I realized that change, though daunting, also brings opportunities for growth. I wrote an article on this for Harvard Business Review. Here are 5 actions you can take when your professional life is unpredictable: 1. Embrace the Uncertainty Use periods of change as a catalyst for introspection. Reflect on what truly matters to you and your future. 2. Define Your Identity Think about who you need to be... Not just what you need to do. 3. Focus on the Process Establish and commit to positive career behaviors. It gives you a sense of control and leads to results. Examples: • Contribute in each team meeting • Expand your network every week  • Offer a strategic idea to leadership monthly • Take on a stretch opportunity once a quarter • Thank a coworker for something helpful every day 4. Cultivate Learning Agility Be ready to adapt. Stay curious. Embrace new ideas. This mindset isn't just to survive; it helps you thrive. 5. Ask for and Act on Feedback Regularly seek feedback. Take time to reflect on it. It's crucial to know where you're growing. And where you need to improve. Change can be scary. But it's also a chance to reset. To pivot. You may discover new paths you hadn't noticed before. Remember... It's not the strongest or most intelligent who survive. It's those who can best manage change. Lean into the uncertainty. Use it as a stepping stone. Build a career that's not just successful, but also aligned with who you truly are. Find this valuable? Repost ♻️ to share with others.  Thank you! P.S. What keeps you going when things get uncertain?

Want to thrive in uncertainty? Stop planning for every scenario and start rehearsing for the unexpected. GE's former CEO Jack Welch once gave the highest bonus to a leader whose division fell short of targets, even as other GE divisions had exceeded theirs. Why? The division had outperformed its competition in the face of extremely tough external challenges. In your rehearsal scenarios, practice which KPIs need to swing and consider setting a range within which they can do so. 🤔 Reflect on this: 1️⃣ What are the most critical skills and mindsets you need to develop to navigate ambiguity? 2️⃣ How can you create a "rehearsal" space to experiment and learn from failure? 3️⃣ What are the biggest obstacles to your ability to adapt, and how can you overcome them? 💡 Tips for leaders: 👉 Practice "improvisational thinking" to build your ability to respond to unexpected challenges: Develop the ability to think on your feet by engaging in activities that require creative problem-solving, such as brainstorming, role-playing, or even improvisational theater. 👉 Engage in "pre-mortem" exercises to anticipate and prepare for potential failures: Conduct hypothetical failure analyses to identify potential risks and develop contingency plans, allowing you to prepare for and mitigate potential setbacks. 👉 Focus on building your "change muscle" through regular experimentation and learning: Regularly challenge yourself to try new approaches, learn from failures, and adapt to new information, building your ability to navigate and thrive in uncertain environments. The key to surviving sustained change isn't anticipating every possibility - it's developing the skills and mindset to adapt and thrive in the face of uncertainty. #leadership #resilience #coachingtips #lifecoaching

As a high achiever, does change diminish your confidence, destabilise you or does it catalyse your success? The choice is absolutely yours. As a lawyer, throughout your career you will face constant, endless change with your role, cases, clients, expectations of you, new policies, processes, promotions, innovation, colleagues, leadership, firm growth strategy, etc. Anything could and will happen. The Queen's words can inspire you to not just cope with change, but intentionally embrace it to DEFINE the future success of your stellar career: 🌟 Intentionally embrace change head on, not as something to ‘cope with’ but as an opportunity to define your future success. 🌟 When changes at work trigger imposter syndrome or overwhelm, remember YOU have the power in how you respond. Use it as a catalyst to redefine your self-belief. 🌟 The path to partnership will bring many changes - don't shy away from them. Eagerly embrace your evolving responsibilities and roles as a way to deliberately STAND OUT, develop yourself into the firm leader you aim to become. 🌟 If work-life balance feels out of harmony amid changes, reframe your mindset. See it as an opening to proactively adapt your boundaries and priorities to shape your future wellbeing. 🌟 In moments of burnout from overwork, view change as an opportunity to rethink your personal definition of "success" to be more balanced and aligned with your values. 🌟 Continuously upgrade your strategies and habits for productively navigating change. Engage an expert coach to help you to customise a personalised "change readiness" plan. Remember, while change is constant, YOU get to choose how you embrace it. Will you let change diminish and destabilise you? Or will you leverage change confidently to manifest you the future you desire as a confident leader and uplifted human?

I'm pleased to share that my Harvard Business Review article "People Won't Grow If You Think They Can't Change" has been republished in a new HBR volume on Positivity and Growth. In this article, I used research on growth mindset and the self-fulfilling prophecy to explain how the assumptions we make about our employees can trigger behaviors that make those beliefs come true. When we believe a team member's capacity is limited, we unconsciously invest less in their development—creating the very outcome we anticipated. When we believe in their potential, we coach more, provide better feedback, and notice improvements we might otherwise miss. Leaders with a fixed mindset—believing people's capabilities are unchangeable—tend to write off struggling employees as "lost causes." But managers with a growth mindset don't just coach more effectively; they actually become more accurate at recognizing when someone is improving. Three ways to cultivate a growth mindset: 1���⃣ Reflect on a time YOU mastered something difficult—what strategies worked? 2️⃣ Think of someone who surprised you by learning something you didn't think they could. 3️⃣ Focus team discussions on how members learn, not just what they achieve. People may disengage if their growth goes unnoticed. But when we demonstrate genuine belief in people's ability to develop and then recognize their development, they become more motivated, more satisfied, and more likely to stay. What would change in your organization if every leader truly believed their people could grow? #Leadership #GrowthMindset #ProfessionalDevelopment

If training isn’t enough… what DOES create readiness? Simple: People don’t adopt change because you told them. They adopt because they’re prepared, supported, and bought in. Here’s what that actually requires 👇 ✅ 1) Truth — not PR Tell people what’s changing, why it matters, and what happens if you don’t change. No glitter. No corporate fog. ✅ 2) Leadership alignment If leaders aren’t modeling the new behaviors, no one else will either. Period. ✅ 3) Role-level clarity “What does this mean for me?” If you can’t answer that, they can’t execute. ✅ 4) Ownership Everyone needs to know: • what they’re accountable for • how success is measured • how progress is tracked Ownership beats awareness. ✅ 5) Space to learn + practice Training ≠ mastery. People need reps, coaching, and support as they try the new way — not just a slide deck and a recording. ✅ 6) Reinforcement If behavior change isn’t rewarded, it disappears. ✅ 7) Trust People don’t follow strategy they don’t trust. Trust is the currency. Readiness is the return. When these 7 show up? Change sticks. Resistance drops. Performance climbs. The investment pays off. Because readiness isn’t a feeling. And it’s not a memo. It’s a measurable state of alignment + capability + belief. You can build it. You can track it. You can improve it. So yes — train your people. But don’t mistake information for transformation. 👉 What would you add to this list? #changereadiness #leadership #transformation #organizationalchange

In my career, I’ve often been the biggest enemy of my success. My mindset held me back for so long before I finally recognized and broke the pattern. I was trapped in a fixed mindset. When I first came to the USA as an international student, I often thought, "I'm just not good at this." That’s a fixed mindset in action. As a result, I was surrounded by: -my fear of failure -my imposter syndrome which destroyed my creativity and crushed my potential. Here’s how I finally broke free: ►Changed the way I talked to myself: As an international student, I was often my own harshest critic. I paid attention to my inner voice and changed how I reacted to failure and criticism. Instead of saying, "I can't do this," I started saying, "I can learn how to do this." ►The Power of 'Yet': It was a game-changer. It’s not that I couldn't pivot my career to product management or get interview calls for internships. it’s that I couldn't do it yet. This simple shift made a huge difference. ►Focused On Self-Improvement Regularly setting aside time to learn something new reminded me that my abilities were not fixed but could be developed. I kept learning. ►Surround Yourself with Growth Mindset Individuals: The people I spent the most time with influenced my mindset. I surrounded myself with people (my boss on campus - Joel Ramirez, Senior pastor Bryan Myers, and others.) who saw challenges as opportunities, who grew in the face of setbacks, and who saw the effort as the first step to mastery. Remember - the choice is yours: Be trapped by your limitations, or give your mind permission to embrace growth. For all international students and job seekers, building a growth mindset can transform your journey in the USA. Stay positive. Stay confident. And stay empowered. You’ve got this!

I've been thinking a lot about change lately, and how we approach it as leaders. Change is rarely comfortable. For our teams, it can stir uncertainty, doubt, even fear. As leaders, it’s tempting to put on a brave face and push forward as if we have all the answers, or worse bemoan the change or our experience with the change in front of our teams. But the truth is—authentic leadership in times of change isn’t about knowing everything. It’s about being real. When we show vulnerability, we give our teams permission to voice their concerns. When we remain agile, we adapt alongside them. And when we approach the unknown with a beginner’s mind—curious, open, and free from the weight of “this is how it’s always been”—we unlock creativity and fresh solutions. Our role is not just to chart the course, but to walk alongside our teams through the change, helping them find their footing. Sometimes the most powerful thing we can do is acknowledge, “I don’t have all the answers—but I’ll navigate this with you.” Change isn’t something we lead people out of. It’s something we lead people through. And the journey is easier when we meet it with courage, openness, and the humility to keep learning. How have you led your teams through the unknown? What practices have helped you keep a beginner’s mind? #Leadership #ChangeManagement #ChangeEnablement #GrowthMindset #BeginnersMind #Agility

Some of the most resilient people I’ve worked with don’t “have it all together.” They’ve just learned how to protect their perspective. Over the last few years—through layoffs, reorgs, and a lot of uncertainty—I’ve noticed something important in myself and in the teams I support: It’s not just our mindset that matters. It’s the alignment between our mindset and our emotions. You can tell yourself, “I’ll figure this out,” but if your heart is saying, “I’m terrified and stuck,” your nervous system believes the second one. That’s where we start to spiral. Here’s how I’ve been working on this myself and coaching others to do the same: 1. Replace “I can’t” with “I can’t…yet”—and actually believe it We talk a lot about growth mindset, but it’s easy for “yet” to turn into a buzzword. The shift only sticks when we genuinely believe a different outcome is possible: - “I’m not great at data storytelling…yet. I can build this skill.” - “I haven’t landed the right role…yet. I’m still in the game.” - “This launch isn’t working…yet. We’re still learning from the data.” If you don’t believe the “yet,” your brain hears, “Nice try, but this is permanent.” So start small: pick one area where you’re willing to believe things can change with effort, feedback, and time. 2. Ask the perspective question: When work feels overwhelming, I come back to a simple grounding question: - “Is this going to hurt my family or my health?” Most of the time, the honest answer is no. Roles might change. Titles might change. Projects might get cut. Important? Yes. Life-threatening? No. That doesn’t mean the stress isn’t real—but it helps right-size it so we can respond as leaders instead of reacting out of panic. 3. Build “gratitude reps” into something you already do Gratitude is one of the fastest ways I know to reset perspective. But most of us don’t “find time” for it—we have to design it. I use a simple habit-stack: When I take my first sip of tea, I name 3 things I’m grateful for. Just a 30–60 second mental check-in: - Who am I grateful for today? - What am I capable of today? - How do I want to show up today? It’s a small practice that quietly shapes how I handle big things later in the day. 4. Shift from “achievement only” to “who I’m becoming” We’re great at to-do lists. We’re not as good at to-be lists. Try this exercise: - How do I want people to describe me in 5 words? - How do I want my kids / friends / colleagues to remember this season of my life? - What kind of leader do I want to be under pressure? When we anchor to who we’re becoming, setbacks look less like proof that we’re failing and more like training reps for the person we’re growing into. This is the kind of work I care most about as a learning & development leader—helping people (and organizations) build the muscles of perspective, resilience, and growth, especially when things are hard.