Inspiration Influences Change | Hello again....we've made it to the middle of the year. Seems like we just hung up our 2024 calendars and here we are in June already. What a great month! The days are filled with more hours of sunlight, we welcome official summertime, and best of all, we celebrate our fathers and/or father-figures. We may barbeque with them at home and/or give them some time away to go fishing or golfing or maybe to a major league baseball game. Whatever we do with and for them, it's good to take some time and think about their value in our lives. Fathers help to lead their families. To protect and provide. They are the compass that sets the course for the family. They instill character, integrity, and grit (sometimes with words, sometimes without) and inspire their children, helping them to know where to find their purpose in life. They are also uniquely equipped to train their sons to become men. Best-selling author Ian Morgan Cron said, "A boy needs a father to show him how to be in the world. He needs to be given swagger, taught how to read a map so that he can recognize the roads that lead to life and the paths that lead to death, how to know what love requires, and where to find steel in the heart when life makes demands on us that are greater than we think we can endure." When you consider all of this you realize that fatherhood is quite a monumental undertaking. So for those of you who are fathers or father-figures, we at Transearch Detroit wish you a belated Happy Father's Day! Stay strong, we're counting on you to be our inspiration and the rudder that we continually depend upon to help us stay the course. | ~ ~ ~ In this month's newsletter, we are featuring another thought piece by John O. Burdett, entitled, "Give 'Em a Little Elvis" -- a paper that argues for leadership that inspires transformative change through authenticity, engagement, and living values, using Elvis as a symbol of such influence. I wonder how very many people Elvis has influenced and inspired, even still to this day! As Burdett writes, "....Presley was more than the curled upper lip, the southern drawl and the tight-fitting leather outfits....more than the visual impression conveyed by sideburns and the 'hayer'....far more even than his wide-sweeping impact on rock and roll. He was simply a man of and for his time, who changed the world around him. Elvis, in his own way, was a leader and an agent of tremendous social change. He inspired a generation. He made a lasting impact because he had the courage to steer a different course." This is an engaging thought piece....make sure to check it out. But first, see our Featured Candidate below! | | Exceptional Director of Engineering (Power Electronics) | This candidate is currently based in Michigan and has led global engineering teams in developing systems from design requirements all the way through to manufacturing launch. With a mechanical and electrical background, he has a broad product experience including battery pack design/development, high voltage power electronics, battery management systems, connected vehicle, traditional powertrain, and more. Would prefer Michigan due to family reasons, but would consider relocation for the right opportunity. If you have interest in setting up a confidential conversation with this candidate, call us at 313-887-8300 ex.102 or email us: information@tieronesearch.com. |  With 60 Offices in 40 countries around the globe, TRANSEARCH is one of the top 10 global firms in the leadership development and executive search landscape. | | published May 2024 by John O. Burdett ----- “Without the right leadership, little is possible; with it, little is impossible.” | A Shift of Power A hundred years ago, the introduction of oil, electricity, the automobile and the assembly line introduced, what can best be described as, “discontinuous change.” An established way of life abruptly came to an end to be replaced, as if overnight, by something entirely different. We faced a similar period of upheaval in the middle of the century: large numbers of women entering the workforce, the jet engine, television, the power of brand and the beginning of globalisation. The final quarter of the 20th century brought even more social and economic upheaval: the microchip, the computer and the internet. Today, we again face discontinuous change. A level of potential turbulence, however, that transcends anything we have known in the past: AI, robotics, quantum computing, breakthrough biotech, new materials, ever-increasing complexity, speed as a competitive advantage, agility as a business imperative and the reinvention of work that “hybrid employment” represents. | ---- Change, meaningful change, discontinuous change must recognise three central features. One: beginnings start with endings. We can’t force people to let go. We can, nevertheless, inspire them to change the conversation they are having with themselves. Two: simple learning (being told and/or shown what to do) has been replaced by learning how to learn (challenging the status quo and a climate of innovation supported by self-directed learning). Three: inclusion, personal choice, fairness and matching opportunity with capability are no longer a matter of policy from the top. Collectively, they have become a cultural imperative. No matter what business you are in, it’s how you stay in the game. When absent – as organizations around the world are discovering – employees express their dissatisfaction through industrial action, apathy (quiet quitting) or by voting with their feet (actually quitting). Here one should add, get the issues outlined in this paragraph right and you will have a truly, distinct competitive advantage. Leadership and change are obverse sides of the same coin. Unfortunately, when many leaders say “change,” what they really mean is “you have to change!” Such leaders flaunt three immutable laws of human nature: --The only person any of us can change is the one we look at every morning in the mirror. --What a leader does is far more important than anything they might say. --The more we push those we would have act differently, the more they push back. | We can’t change people, but we can inspire them. In building a new tomorrow, challenge is the start of it, creative tension is part of it, but inspiration is the heart of it. To work our way through discontinuous change, to move people, to inspire them, give ’em a little Elvis. (To read this entire thought piece, click the link below to download.) John O. Burdett is founder of Orxestra® Inc. He has extensive international experience as a senior executive. As a consultant he has worked in more than 40 countries for organisations that are household names. John has worked on organisation culture for some of the world's largest organisations. His ongoing partnership with TRANSEARCH International means that his thought leading intellectual property, in any one year, supports talent management in many hundreds of organisations around the world. Get in touch with John O. Burdett » |  Be the leader who inspires everyone you encounter! | | You can find us at Transearchdetroit.com and connect with us on social media. | |
