Get Rooted! (eBook)

Growing People and Companies Through Change

Stacy Henry (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2020 | 1. Auflage
228 Seiten
Lioncrest Publishing (Verlag)
978-1-5445-1583-0 (ISBN)

Infos

Inevitable change. It's a phenomenon that enters your life, whether or not you invite it. It can make you feel helpless and out of control, but don't let these feelings mislead you. You, in fact, control the most important element of change: your reaction. How you respond to change is based on a foundation of values-a root system that you nourish. In Get Rooted!, Stacy Henry identifies eight common values and provides you with a visual framework to understand your roots. Whether you're a senior executive enduring corporate change or an individual working toward personal improvement, Stacy equips you with the tools you need to become a value-based leader. You'll reveal your priorities, strengthen your roots, and move seamlessly through every change in your life with this exploration of the universal values that bring us the greatest growth.

Textauszug

Introduction

“Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.”

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The only constant in this world is change—a lesson I learned early on in life at the age of six.

It was a beautiful sunny day in the tiny little town of Leesburg where we lived. I was playing in our big beautiful house with my younger sister and our little brother, who was maybe three at the time, when we heard our mom call for us.

“Get in the car. It’s time to go.”

My mom corralled us into our gold-colored Pontiac hatchback—the nicest car we ever had. I don’t remember much about that day. I don’t remember packing. I don’t remember what my sister, my brother, and I were doing when my mom gave the marching order. I don’t even really remember getting into the car. But what I do remember has stuck with me. I remember my dad sitting on the big, wrap-around porch with his head in his hands, looking sad and defeated.

I looked at the shiny new car and compared it to my dad as he sat on that porch, our giant gray house rising up behind him. I remember thinking how dull he looked in comparison—and how very sad.

As I sat in the front seat looking back, I heard my little brother and sister ask, “Where are we going?”

“Things are changing,” my mother said. “Things aren’t going to be the same, but you’re just going to have to deal with it.”

And with that, we drove away. I didn’t really understand the situation—what six-year-old could? I just remember looking out the window and feeling sad as I saw my dad watch us leave. Even as a six-year-old, I felt sorry for him. The thing that hurt my heart most was to see other people suffering.

Although I was a child and didn’t understand what was happening, my gut told me it was a significant moment of change. I’m not sure why my mother chose that day to leave my father, but it led to their divorce and a whole new way of life for our family.

After that day, change followed me everywhere. Our home constantly changed as we moved from apartment to rental house, to trailer park, to my mom’s fiancé’s house, to the projects. Change flowed through the people who came in and out of our lives, and it flowed through the jobs that both my mother and my father had and then lost. Change continued to follow me throughout my childhood and stood beside me as an adult.

Change was the only thing that I could rely on—like a heads-down penny that kept showing up in my life. Now, if you aren’t the superstitious type, let me explain that there is no luck granted with a heads-down penny. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. This is definitely NOT a penny you want to pick up—only I figuratively did. Throughout every challenge and hurdle, I grew that heads-down penny into an entire trust fund. I learned how to handle change in ways that propelled me forward, not set me back. Through my various personal and professional experiences, I developed the tools necessary to face change with ease and confidence, and in this book, I’m going to show you how you can, too.

Don’t you worry—this isn’t a sad story about a broken kid or a “rainbows and butterflies” saga about how change is lovely. This is a story of change; however, the outcome is determined entirely by you.

Change Equals Growth

Let’s be honest, you’re likely reading this book because you’re facing change in your life—or with your company—and you’re questioning what to do about it—and that’s okay. Many people believe we simply go through change, but the greatest successes, both personally and professionally, come when we grow through change. We often view change as something bad that’s happening to us, but we shouldn’t look at it that way. Change isn’t always bad; though many times it’s hard and hard is sometimes painful. It’s the hard and painful part of change that leads us to believe change is a bad thing. In reality, the pain we experience through change is actually growing pains. Change means growth—and growth is a good thing.

Growth, therefore, is what every company and individual should strive for, especially during difficult transitions—but how? You may ask yourself: How do I handle all these changes? How do I know I’m making the right choice?

While the answer isn’t a simple one, it begins by taking responsibility for your own choices. Change is constant in all of our lives, and what it really boils down to is choice. You are in charge of how you handle change. We often make choices based on what feels comfortable right now instead of making choices that will benefit our future selves. We make choices that are driven by our limited experiences and motivated by our own biases. Many times, we don’t even know how to make a different choice. This is because our decisions are made based on what we’re rooted in—meaning they’re based on what our core values are.

Your success in weathering through change is dependent on these values. What values are you rooted in? What are your company’s values? For example, roots of dishonesty, selfishness, and control will lead to a downward spiral of the same dishonesty, selfishness, and control in those around you. Conversely, roots of integrity, service, and trust will result in an upward spiral of growth, which will lead to a more fulfilling life. The success of every company is dependent on its people and the values they’re rooted in. Why? Because these values naturally influence us when we make our decisions. With a strong root system, we will naturally make better choices. And when we make better choices, we can stand strong and weather the inevitable winds of change.

Getting Rooted

In this book, I identify eight universal values to root ourselves in to help us grow and thrive, both personally and through corporate change. They are love, relationship, trust, integrity, service, joy, spirituality, and progress. Not only have these eight core roots been an important part of my life, they’ve also been a vital part of the companies I’ve both worked for and consulted with that have successfully grown through change. On the flip side, I also have experience with companies that were not rooted in these values, and things rarely turned out well for those companies. Some even had to close up shop and shut their doors for good. These universal values are key to successfully grow through change.

By the end of this book, I hope to do the following:

• Help you identify and evaluate your root system to see if it’s working for you—and if not, to align you with what you want in life.
• Help you determine if you need to prune your roots, or move to more fertile ground.
• Help you embrace and grow the root system you already have to achieve bigger blooms. Not everyone needs a major overhaul. Maybe you just need some extra tools to help nurture and grow what’s already there.

I will also explain the default root that grows if your core root isn’t properly nurtured.

If you’re a leader in a company, what you’re rooted in matters. This book will help you understand the fundamental values that both you and your company must be rooted in to grow your company through a corporate change. I will also teach you and your team members how to incorporate these core roots personally, to strengthen one another and ensure everyone has the tools to not only grow through change, but approach it in a positive way.

If you’re an individual looking for help to navigate the change in your life, this book will help you identify your root system and give you the tools to root yourself in core values. These fundamental tools will enable you to successfully grow through change. You may not always get to choose your circumstances, but you do get to choose how to face them. Growth comes by choosing to nurture these roots; make them a part of your everyday life.

It’s my firm belief that one of the greatest tools to help us grow through change is self-reflection. Through self-reflection, we can not only determine what we’re rooted in, but we can understand the “why” behind our actions. As such, you will find one hundred activities throughout this book to help you reflect on your life, your choices, and your motivations. Many of these activities are designed to discover what roots you lead with and what roots you need to get rid of. These activities will also help nurture your good roots. The more you practice, the more you’ll strengthen your ability to weather life’s storms.

A Career of Change

My root system grew out of the experiences I’ve had in my life. Through each experience, I have gained wisdom from those growing pains. I’ve also gained gratitude.

My ability to grow through change over the years became one of my greatest strengths. It has also allowed me to help others navigate their own change. In my career, this translates to training and coaching others on how to grow through corporate change and, especially,...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 10.11.2020
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Unternehmensführung / Management
• ISBN-10: 1-5445-1583-9 / 1544515839
• ISBN-13: 978-1-5445-1583-0 / 9781544515830