{"id":27397261,"date":"2025-10-17T11:06:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T09:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedstateofminds.nl\/?p=27397261"},"modified":"2025-10-17T11:11:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T09:11:57","slug":"innershift-for-ambitious-commercial-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedstateofminds.nl\/en\/innershift-for-ambitious-commercial-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Transformation is not an implementation problem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.4&#8243; custom_padding=&#8221;0px||||false|false&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_row _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.4&#8243; background_size=&#8221;initial&#8221; background_position=&#8221;top_left&#8221; background_repeat=&#8221;repeat&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_column type=&#8221;4_4&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.16&#8243; custom_padding=&#8221;|||&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; custom_padding__hover=&#8221;|||&#8221;][et_pb_text _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.4&#8243; background_size=&#8221;initial&#8221; background_position=&#8221;top_left&#8221; background_repeat=&#8221;repeat&#8221; max_width=&#8221;800px&#8221; hover_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; sticky_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243;]<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s an Identity Transition<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>My INSEAD professor for Leading Change; Roger Lehman\u2019s words land with force \u2014 especially for those of us who sit inside the heart of organisational change.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re so trained to solve, to steer, to fix \u2014<br \/>that we forget the one part of the system that doesn\u2019t get restructured:<br \/><strong>the leader\u2019s sense of self.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One commercial leader I worked with had led his company through three mergers. On paper, he was unshakeable. But in our first session he said, \u2018I\u2019m still in charge. But I\u2019m no longer sure I care.\u2019<br \/>That\u2019s where we began \u2014 not with strategy, but with giving him permission to feel what no one else could afford to.<\/p>\n<p>That is identity-level change. And it rarely shows up in the formal narrative of organisational transformation.<\/p>\n<p>In my work with ambitious commercial leaders, this is what keeps surfacing.<br \/>Not as a crisis.<br \/>But as a quiet inner tension no strategy can resolve.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cI\u2019ve built this whole system. And now I feel trapped in it.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cI\u2019m still being followed. But I\u2019m no longer sure where I\u2019m going.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cMy leadership works on paper. But it no longer feels like mine.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These are not questions about performance or dysfunction<br \/>They\u2019re about identity and indicators of evolution. And often go unrecognised, or worse \u2013 pathologized as change fatigue, burnout or resistance.<\/p>\n<p>The version from you that succeeded \u2014<br \/>that drove, decided, delivered \u2014<br \/>might not be the version that can take you forward.<\/p>\n<p>And this is where transformation really begins, with friction; who you are as a leader and who you are becoming.<\/p>\n<p>Not with another roadmap.<br \/>But in the in-between.<br \/>The place where something old no longer works,<br \/>and something new hasn\u2019t yet found language.<\/p>\n<p>This is the uncomfortable reality of deep transition:<br \/>It doesn\u2019t start with clarity.<br \/>It starts with shedding.<\/p>\n<p>While most leaders rush to fix, restructure, or reframe \u2013 anything to avoid staying in this in-between.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Leadership paradigm that\u2019s breaking<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Leadership has been built on the promise of certainty, mastery, decision making, vision.<\/p>\n<p>But that model is increasingly unfit for the environment of VUCA leader now need to navigate in. Markets are nonlinear, Systems are strained. The pace of change is exponential And the demand for meaning, internally and externally, is no longer optional.<\/p>\n<p>In this context, the most dangerous move is to continue performing authority that no longer feels real. Not leaders are lacking skills, but the identity underneath is the performance has not been allowed to shift. And when that shift is avoided, dissonance becomes systemic.<\/p>\n<p>So what happens when the very role of the leader requires to <strong>step into uncertainty \u2014 visibly \u2014 and stay there<\/strong>?<\/p>\n<p>The instinct is often to add new behaviours; communicate differently, delegate more, develop the team and reshape culture.<\/p>\n<p>But none of it takes root if the leaders inner foundation remains outdated.<\/p>\n<p>Leadership development that ignores the psychological transition behind transformation simply recycles the past with new language.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not heroic.<br \/>It\u2019s exposing.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why most leaders don\u2019t talk about this space.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not in the KPI deck.<br \/>It\u2019s not in the change communications.<br \/>But it <em>is<\/em> where all real shifts begin.<\/p>\n<p>And that creates friction \u2014 first inside, then everywhere else.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why does this matter now?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Because the old style of leadership \u2014 based on linear logic and tight control \u2014 is cracking.<\/p>\n<p>The deeper work is quieter and harder to measure<\/p>\n<p>It involves facing the end of who you\u2019ve been<\/p>\n<p>Letting go of the identity that built your career.<\/p>\n<p>Allowing the discomfort of not knowing who you are \u2013 yet \u2013 as a leader in the new landscapt<\/p>\n<p><strong>So what do you do when your own role starts to feel foreign?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Most leaders try to tweak the external first:<br \/>restructure, pivot, realign, re-engage.<\/p>\n<p>But real transformation requires the opposite move.<\/p>\n<p>To pause.<br \/>To question the role \u2014 and your relationship to it.<br \/>To acknowledge the grief of letting go of what\u2019s worked.<br \/>And to begin again \u2014 from somewhere quieter, deeper, more real.<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t regression.<br \/>It\u2019s transition<\/p>\n<p><strong>Closing thought<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Transformation cannot be reduced to implementation. You definitely do not need a new leadership model.<\/p>\n<p>It begins when you as leader are willing to question your role, the pace, the story \u2014 and your own relationship to all of it.<\/p>\n<p>The process does not start with clarity. It starts with confrontation.<br \/>And it ends \u2014 if it ends well \u2014 with congruence.<\/p>\n<p>No toolkit prepares you for that.<br \/>But nothing transforms an organisation more completely than a leader willing to go there.<\/p>\n<p>No one teaches this part.<br \/>But it\u2019s the only part that matters.<\/p>\n<p>If you find yourself in that in-between \u2014 no longer fully aligned with the role you\u2019ve perfected \u2014 it may be time to pause not the business, but the identity leading it.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t offer a quick fix.<br \/>I hold space for leaders like you who are ready to examine the version of themselves that success has outgrown.<\/p>\n<p>If this strikes a chord \u2013 let\u2019s talk.<\/p>\n<p>No pitch, no prep needed. Just a call to explore how your leadership story looks like.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, one honest conversation is enough to shift the lens. Book your precious personal time via this link; <a href=\"https:\/\/calendly.com\/margerieth-visser\/discovery-meeting\">https:\/\/calendly.com\/margerieth-visser\/discovery-meeting<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s an Identity Transition My INSEAD professor for Leading Change; Roger Lehman\u2019s words land with force \u2014 especially for those of us who sit inside the heart of organisational change. We\u2019re so trained to solve, to steer, to fix \u2014that we forget the one part of the system that doesn\u2019t get restructured:the leader\u2019s sense of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->","_et_gb_content_width":"","_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27397261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Transformation is not an implementation problem - United State Of Minds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/unitedstateofminds.nl\/en\/innershift-for-ambitious-commercial-leaders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Transformation is not an implementation problem - United State Of Minds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It&#039;s an Identity Transition My INSEAD professor for Leading Change; Roger Lehman\u2019s words land with force \u2014 especially for those of us who sit inside the heart of organisational change. 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