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Light on Leadership
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Welcome to Light on Leadership! In under two minutes, our newsletter delivers one book recommendation, one leadership action step, and two leadership tips. We know you're busy, so we've designed this content to be both useful and shareable. Enjoy!
Not losing is often more powerful than winning. Coaches and athletes frequently describe the pain of losing as sharper, deeper, and far more enduring than the joy of victory. That same emotional reality shows up in leadership, especially during times of change. When we ask people to move forward, we are not just inviting them to gain something new. We are often asking them to let go of something familiar. Loss triggers emotion, and emotion drives behavior. In organizations, that behavior can look like hesitation, frustration, or resistance, not because people are unwilling to improve, but because loss is difficult to process, particularly when it feels personal.
This is why second order change is so challenging. Unlike first order change, which improves existing practices, second order change is transformative and requires giving something up. Identity, routines, influence, or a sense of competence may all feel at risk. When people experience change as something being done to them rather than done with them, the response mirrors the raw emotion of a hard loss. Effective leaders understand that resistance is often not about the change itself, but about the loss embedded within it. By acknowledging that loss, and leading with empathy leaders create space for people to move through change rather than get stuck resisting it.
👉 Quick Action Step:
Be the leader who understands change is hard by intentionally viewing the process from the perspectives of others before pushing forward.
Book Recommendation:
Holding the Calm: The Secret to Resolving Conflict and Defusing Tension.
By Hesha Abrams
Purchase this book! https://www.amazon.com/Holding-Calm-Resolving-Conflict-Defusing/dp/1523001933
Two Tips
What if the reason change feels so hard isn’t the change itself but what we feel we are losing along the way? This quick video helps us see that experience in a new light and reminds us to lead with understanding.
“People don’t resist change. They resist being changed.”
- Peter Senge
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