Dear friends,
We understand that everyone will experience change. People say that change is the only constant in this life. At work, we can experience job changes, changes in the supply chain, pricing, management, areas of personal responsibility, vendors, customers and employees, to name a few.
At BIC, we've had to adjust to a significant change in the way people consume media. While print is still the leading media for our industries, there is no doubt that our digital channels are growing much more rapidly. We broke the 1-million-page-view milestone at BICMagazine.com last year. We have new offerings of weekly and monthly electronic newsletters and webinars in addition to several in-person events for exchanging best practices and networking. I'm proud of how our team continues to adapt to these changes. We've got a great gameplan to build around this change, and I have confidence that our print brand translates easily to digital media, so I haven't lost much sleep over this change.
In his book "The Reflective Life," Ken Gire opines that you don't know someone until you know what scares them. Metathesiophobia is the fear of change. Change can seem scary, but only because it is unknown. You never know what to expect when things become unfamiliar.
The last time I experienced a significant and sudden change, I'll admit, I had a pity party for a day or so. It wasn't pretty inside my head. I was afraid of the effort and discomfort the change would indeed cause. It's reasonable to avoid effort, but this only prevents you from changing. Resisting change will not help you overcome the fear, and it will not help you move forward positively. We must stop focusing on the things we can't change and instead focus on building a better present and future.
I pulled myself up from the self-induced malaise, rolled up my sleeves and began to attack the needs the change created. The change would require some extra work for a period, but I knew almost instantly from that point that the net result was going to be a considerable positive impact on our business. As Jack Canfield said, "When you embrace change, you will begin to see it as an opportunity for growth."
As things change, you will learn and grow. Embrace change and look for the learning opportunities it presents to become better. You will no longer let your fear of change hold you back when you do this.
Fear of painful effort or discomfort is one reason why people don't like change; other reasons include the fear of the unknown and failure. They are related; both are common. People who fear the unknown choose to stick with an unsatisfactory status quo rather than embrace a change toward something better. Other people are scared to commit to something they could fail, so they don't even try.
I was discussing a potential investment opportunity with a friend recently. He was telling me about a chance that he wanted his company to capitalize upon, but he summed up by saying that his boss really wouldn't make a decision. What a shame. Whether he feared the unknown or feared failure, it manifested in a fear of losing instead of being motivated by gaining what is plausible for himself and his company under his leadership. Socrates said, "The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new."
When a deer in the road sees the headlights of an approaching vehicle, it sees a change in its environment. The deer senses the difference and either freezes or takes action by jumping out of harm's way. Much like the deer in the headlights, often, the worst action business leadership can take is to stop where they are. One must push fear away and instead focus on what one can gain. If we don't change, we don't grow.
Bravery can be defined as action in the face of fear. Some fear is always normal and should inform our behavior, but it should not freeze us. Of course, we must make wise choices for the moment and position ourselves and our companies for long-term success.
As business people, we should steer clear of the disabling fear of change and move forward boldly with the fear of not doing our best for our stockholders, bosses, families and selves.
In this issue of BIC, we include leadership insight from three of ExxonMobil's leaders: Jennifer Dunphy, Rozena Dendy and Ann Colwell; Braskem -- Seadrift Unit Facility Site Leader Bart Standefer; Woven Metal Products Vice President of Strategy and Marketing Heather Bennett; Layher Regional Sales Manager, South Central Kevin Luter; and Pro-Surve Technical Services Executive Director Ryan Baggett. We also have features on a variety of matters that impact your business, including the criticality of industry megaprojects, how Gulf Coast energy jobs and investments are forecasted to reach new highs, and the future of renewable fuels in innovating the industry.
BIC Magazine will also hold its next Industry Roundtable, A Digital Roadmap to Maximizing Plant Performance, on Wednesday, March 30 at 11 a.m. CST. For more information or to register, visit BICWebinars.com.
We thank you for your loyal readership of BIC Magazine, whether print or online!
We dedicate this issue of BIC Magazine to our friend and mentor Shirley White, career strategist and founder of Success Images. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family at this time.