I have met too many leaders that think that they have no choice. I hear often that leaders feel they have no choice because the organization has been the same for years or they fear they will be fired if they try to change things. It’s important to realize that you always have a choice. You hold more power than you probably think. That begs the question, what are the five things that you could do if you are facing traditional management or if you are facing a situation that you would like to change with your management?

Ask yourself what you want and what you care about. Think about what you want out of life, what you want out of your career, and what you want even out of the next meeting you have. Think about your values and what you deeply care about because that is important in determining what you should do if faced with a traditional leader.

You Can…

1 | Change Things Openly

The best way to change things or people is to change yourself. The first thing that I would ask you to do is before starting a conversation around change, to increase your energy and manage your fears first. If you do not have a lot of energy, you will be exhausted and full of fears. You will probably not manage to change the other person.

Instead, do more things that give you energy and less things that cost your energy. Think about the result you would like to see and come to the conversation with an empathetic body disposition to be as open and honest in your future conversations. Apply the TRADE method (timing, results, actions, disposition, and vision) to your conversations to see the biggest success in change! Check episode #8 How to counter a bad decision for the TRADE method.

2 | Ask for Forgiveness

If you are not able to make changes openly, your next option is to simply do the action you want and then ask for forgiveness later. The best way to ask for forgiveness is to go into the conversation not being defensive, take full responsibility, and explain why you took the action that you did.

3 | Fill the Gap

Think without boundaries. I see too often that leaders want to think about solutions for a problem but even in the thinking of it, people already are setting boundaries for themselves. This causes many to not be able to find a solution for the problem at hand because we do not think we will get permission to make the changes.

Instead, I want you to think as if everything is possible. Think as if everything is possible to solve your problem or to seize your opportunity. Once you have come up with your ideal solution or plan, then you can think about how you are going to close the gap between what you need and what is expected from you.

4 | Accept It

If you cannot fill in the gaps, the next step is to simply accept things. Choose your battles and learn not to battle everything. Really pick the ones that are really important to you and then for the rest of the battles, learn to let go. How do you let go? You learn to let go by letting go through your body.

With a relaxed body, you will be able to let go and to accept certain situations that you might not like at first. Try to save your energy and spend as little time as possible on requests that take your energy. Learn to automate things that take your energy such as budgets and weekly sales reporting.

5 | Quit

If you could not change things openly, you couldn’t ask for forgiveness, you couldn’t fill the gap, and you could not learn to accept it, there is only one option left. The last option when facing a traditional organization is to quit.

This is especially important if your consciousness level is higher than the consciousness level of your organization. If you know that you cannot change things and cannot accept them, it will leave you feeling stressed and unhappy. You really owe it to yourself to look for another job that more aligns with your values and ultimately makes you happier!