How Serious Are You About Change?

Many business people would like to see change in their organizations or in themselves. However, in many cases they are not seeing the results of the changes they want. The following key questions can shed some light on where the opportunities are for you.

Answer each of the questions as specifically as possible to identify where your opportunities lie. Then rate how well you have done in each area on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being low and 10 being high. As you rate yourself, consider how others would rate you. Run your answers and ratings by a colleague as a reality check.

Remember change starts with you, so if you want the people around you or your organization to change, you need to be the one making the first move.

1. What is an area of personal change that will make a significant difference to you and others?
2. What changes have you personally made in the last 3-6 months?
3. What level of effort have you put into effecting change?
4. What time commitment have you made? How many hours per week have you committed to getting better?
5. How well have you tried new approaches to get better?
6. How well have you been willing to change first, before waiting for others to make changes?
7. How many books have you read on the areas you want to improve on? What other resources have you used?
8. How well have you applied learning from books and other resources to make improvements?
9. What significant results have you achieved in the last six months? (Be specific). How meaningful are these results to others?
10. How well do you understand and have adapted the behaviors that are having a negative impact on others?
11. How well will others say you have done on making meaningful change?

Give these questions serious consideration and then take immediate action on the ones that hold the most opportunity for you. This is the way to start making immediate progress on the changes you want in your professional (and personal) life.