RULE 61

Face the future

Whatever you are doing now, things are going to change. It is inevitable that the future will soon be upon us. Things will change, they have to. People you now work with will leave your team. Your sales figures will improve/slacken off. Your boss will retire/move on. Your customers will change. Your colleagues will be different. You, too, will change.

All these changes happen and it is the smart manager who not only embraces them but is prepared for them. Earlier we looked at having a Plan B and a Plan C; well, this is different – this is not catering for a specific crisis but being fluid and flexible enough to stay ahead of the game. What this means is that when change occurs you can take it in your stride and aren’t thrown off course by it.

I once worked for a particular company that got taken over twice, in the space of a year. Each time the new people came in they had a whole series of changes to implement. They wanted things done ‘their way’. This was fine, but after the first time we had barely got our breath back when the second takeover occurred.

I watched a lot of people fall by the wayside because they couldn’t cope with the stress of having to stay so flexible. I was nearly one of them myself. It was a hard time but I saw then that resisting change was futile. Only by embracing the change could I -survive – and not only survive but milk the situation to my advantage. The more I smiled and had a sort of ‘bring it on’ attitude the more responsibility I was given for the change itself. Other managers played the oak in the storm, but I was the willow. I bent and swayed and survived. They resisted, stood firm and lost branches.

You have to face your own future as well. Will you move on? Have you grown bored with the job, the industry, your role in it? What turns you on today may not in 10 years’ time.