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It all began one evening when I was looking into my bucket list of “Things to do before I die”. Apparently skydiving was still on my list, among other things which I cannot really disclose them yet.I was planning my trip to Chicago with the purpose of attending leadership master class organized by PMI (Project Management Institute). I thought why not skydive while I will visiting Chicago? I did my research and booked online with Skydive Chicago (www.skydivechicago.com). The site boasted magnificent views and thrilling experience of skydiving.&nbsp;The day had finally arrived. After signing endless pages of forms and watching a brief video, I was ready to skydive. There I met Chad, who was going to be my tandem. The first thing he told me that it’s going to be his first time as well. It was a relief when I realized he was joking, otherwise I wouldn’t have survived to write this article. Chad was a cool guy with a sense of humor. We were complete strangers, and yet I was about to trust him with my life. As we reached the altitude of 10,000 feet (around 3000 meters), Chad and I strapped closely together and nestled neatly by the door. I looked down the airplane and there was a magnificent view of the ground with rectangular patches of trees and brash colors of autumn. The next thing I remember I was flying like superman. It was the most exhilarating feeling, which could not be described. I was free like a bird, free from my daily stresses and worries, free from all hassles of life. When the parachute opened up, I felt this sudden bliss of peacefulness. It was unutterable moment of absolute silence and tranquility…You may be asking what leadership lessons one might learn from skydiving. There are striking similarities between leadership and skydiving as both require courage, commitment and confidence. These are the 3 lessons I learned from skydiving:1- Tenacity: Leaders need to be tenacious and persistent to their beliefs. I had planned skydiving for more than 6 months and I was very determined to do it. Tenacity makes leaders to persevere. I could have easily dropped the idea, but I was totally determined to do it, despite the fact that it has posed many risks. Genuine leaders are determined, persistent and risk takers. Nothing stands in their way to realize their vision and dream. This is the true making of a leader: determination with a vision.2- Buoyancy: Leaders need to be cheerful, optimistic and buoyant. Skydiving is an extreme sports activity delivering thrilling experience. If you want to enjoy skydiving then be buoyant, forget about the involved risks, be optimistic and the most important have fun… True leaders no matter the level of criticisms they may receive, they remain optimistic, cheerful and stick to their beliefs.&nbsp;3- Self-assurance: Leaders need to be self-assured and dissipate high level of confidence. Skydiving requires self-assurance otherwise you simply not jump out of the airplane. Leaders need to be confident no matter how difficult or fearful is the situation. A true leader is the one who dares to challenge the status quo and not swayed by peer pressure. Self-assurance is the core part of a leader.In conclusion I would like to state that in life there are many dangers and risks. Even driving back home from your work today poses great number risks. Some could be prevented, some could be bypassed and some should be simply accepted. Leaders need to make tough decisions to challenge everything, take risks, and share their vision of the future. Only brave leaders with a vision go to history and get immortalized, then again who remembers those leaders with no vision who simply played by the rules and didn’t dare to challenge it?

3 leadership lessons from 10,000 feet skydive

The last 100 years witnessed a colossal change of how organizations behaved and how they were managed. During the early 20th century, organizational ability to change due to market was considered irrelevant and typically companies did not have any formal corporate strategy. With the turn of the century, organizations which could not adapt to changes fast enough are doomed to fail and meet their demise eventually. Hence, constant change has become the imperative to survive in the economy. Organizations are growing at extremely fast pace in a complex and diverse world, which means the classical change management approach is not applicable anymore. Everything is accelerating at speeds never seen before.Executives in organizations should decide whether they want to transform or to die. It's obvious that all executives will choose transformation. However transformation it's not that simple. The organization has to be able to leave behind its well-established identity and its credibility as a brand.Executive leadership plays a crucial role in transforming the organization. Executives often claim that they are transformational leaders; however the truth is far from reality. The actual definition of transformation and transformational leaders tends to vary among the executives. But what is business transformation? It is a change management strategy which has the aim to align people, process and technology initiatives of an organization more closely with its business strategy and vision. In other words, it is moving from the current situation to the future vision.Transformations can be good, can be bad and can be ugly.The Good Transformations are good because they ensure business sustainability and continuity. It is prominent that the ultimate objective of the executives of any organization is to build sustainable business. This means short-term and long-term planning, ensuring the delivery of business value to the shareholders and building strong brand equity.The Bad Transformations can be complex and painful. If transformations are not properly managed, then they may lead to fiasco. Throughout history, there has been many organizations which failed to transform themselves and don’t exist anymore. Kodak is a good example whereby they had a huge global market share, enormous financial power, but failed to transform themselves. I bet, that the CEO or any of the Kodak’s senior executives were asked during the early 2000’s if they are transformational leaders, they would have stated “yes”. What happened to Kodak is both puzzling and devastating. How come a company having around 85% of global market share failed to transform? This is a topic by itself which I am not going to discuss in this article.The Ugly Transformations tend to be ugly. Humans do not like change. They prefer the status quo which seems to be safe and less risky. Business transformation creates resistance to change and this is where it gets ugly. This split the employees into 2 groups; one group supporting the transformation (which tends to be the minority) and the other group, who passively or actively do their best to hinder the transformation process. Why they hinder the transformation? Because it is easier and far less risky for employees to stay in their comfort zone.&nbsp;ConclusionOrganizations are permanently under pressure to change and to adapt to new environments, as change is inevitable. Organizational transformation is not an easy task, especially one spanning different cultures. However, executives need to employ special skills, competencies, methodologies and tools to ensure smooth transition from the “as is” to the “to be” position. It is imperative for executives to become fully engaged in the transformation process; otherwise “the way we’ve always done it before” will prevail. Change is inevitable and what differentiates organizations when transforming their business and culture is how they manage it. Organizations with strong executive leadership and high proficiency in cultural change management are the ones which could survive and sustain their business. Transformation is a complex task and the executive teams will face many hurdles on the way. However, with the right mixture of authentic leadership, cultural skills and strategic thinking, it will minimize the likelihood of failures.

Business Transformation: The good, the bad and the ugly

Smart Rapid Growth

consultancy

Mulish

Gabarito

Merriweather

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