6 ways self-disruption makes you a better leader

To stay relevant and ahead of the curve, we must disrupt and innovate ourselves while the world changes at an unprecedented rate. Leaders who can adjust well can prosper in today’s fast-paced corporate world.

Disrupting outdated worldviews, mindsets, and leadership styles allows us to adapt. Our research indicated that many leaders interviewed spend a lot of time and attention on winning strategies for their organisations. However, they frequently neglected the importance of formulating the winning strategies to disrupt and innovate themselves as leaders. Let’s take a look at how personal innovation and self-disruption can be applied to your leadership journey:

1. Growth Mindset
   Disrupting and innovating starts with a growth attitude. Believing that hard work and perseverance can increase your intelligence and abilities. A growth mindset encourages risk-taking and experimentation, which can lead to breakthrough inventions and new opportunities.
2. Question Your Beliefs / Challenge your Assumptions
   Disruption and innovation require questioning beliefs and assumptions and the existing quo. This implies being open to new ideas and opinions, even if they challenge your beliefs or methods. By embracing a mindset of curiosity and exploration, you can uncover new insights and opportunities that you might have otherwise missed.

   Jack Mezirow’s transformative learning paradigm says that we should embrace disconcerting dilemmas about our future when we realise that our worldviews or viewpoints may no longer be holistic or true.

   Today’s world should question our assumptions more often. Use these disorienting dilemmas. Find them and use them to change your perspective on something you can affect. Such shifts, whether it be in behaviour or thinking, can create immense value for those around you.  

3. Have Courage to Embrace Disruption & Change
   Courage is needed to accept self-disruption and overcome these disorienting challenges. Leaders must choose between the art of possibility if the conclusion is uncertain or solutions that may not accomplish our goals. We encourage you to dive deep, activate your best self bravely, lead authentically, and always strive to be a better leader. If you don’t have a passion for change, you may burn out. When you change, life throws curveballs. Hence, appreciate tiny victories as you go.
4. Maximise the return on investment of your choices
   After channelling the issues constructively and boldly deciding to interrupt yourself, take a minute to think about your choices. Be calm. Focus on achieving your goals, not how. Explore approaches that increase impact while minimising expense, effort, and risk. Keep changing your mind.

   The narratives you tell yourself influence how you make choices, which shape your destiny in each moment. What narratives did you tell yourself to make such choices? Are those your best options? Construct the greatest storylines by objectively predicting return-on-investment on your alternatives.

   Invention takes experimentation. This involves testing new approaches and refining them depending on feedback and results. Iterative innovation lets you learn quickly and avoid analysis paralysis.

5. Turbo Charge Your Support Systems
   Diverse opinions are needed to disrupt and innovate. This involves talking to and listening to people from various fields. You can discover new ideas and methods by bringing other perspectives into your thinking. By incorporating diverse perspectives into your thinking, you can gain new insights and approaches that can lead to breakthrough innovations.

   We know change is hard. Despite your best efforts, life might lure you back to your default behaviours and beliefs. Consequently, while we lean on ourselves, having a few friends or coworkers to help you during this process might minimise your resistance to change, increase your accountability, and provide timely respite. Successful leaders use their support systems.

6. Continuously Adapt and Learn
   Ultimately, to disrupt and innovate, you must constantly learn and adapt. This entails remaining current on industry trends and searching out opportunities to master new skills and methods. Being curious and committed to learning allows you to innovate long-term.

Finally, disrupting and inventing oneself requires a growth mentality, a willingness to challenge assumptions, an iterative approach to experimentation, a focus on user needs, and a dedication to continual learning and adaptation. In today’s fast-paced business climate, these tactics can help you succeed.

Written by Anne Duggan and Dr. Jefferson Yu-Jen Chen.
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