SURVIVING CHANGE
Battles (and change) have been part of life from the beginning: good versus evil, light versus darkness – we are all familiar with battles happening today all over the world. However, there is another battle that is much closer to all of us and one that is applicable to 100% of you reading this and one that you are engaged with every day of your life. And that is the battle of change. At the beginning of the year it’s probably more prevalent that ever … the battle between the ‘old me’ versus the ‘new me’. The battle versus sleeping in or going to work out. The battle of the past versus the future. Where you are in your career right now versus where you want to be or even can be.
This battle of the mind is fought every single day. What’s at stake may not be something physical like land or posessions, but rather the future success of you or your business, or even of your family. And the one thing we all realised during the past two years is that the battles of the world are not more important than our health, families and even the success of our businesses. As a business leader you fight these battles in your mind every day.
Someone who knows all to well how the battles are fought in our minds is Kiran Naidoo, who was one of the most popular contestants on the 2021 Survivor SA series. He shares his experience as well as how his CA mentality helped him to survive the battles he had to fight for many weeks. Read his story on page 8.
If we are to ‘win’ the battle in our minds, we need to take a very honest assessment of ourselves and future. Where are you? Where are you going? Are you on the road to success or just on the road? Are you making a real difference?
On page 12 Brett Tromp writes in his Viewpoint article that he prefers the term ‘bounce forward’ instead of ‘bounce back’. Forward implies that we are going beyond a pre-pandemic baseline and moving futher ahead to a place where we are healthier, stronger and better positioned for future challenges.
And in this new future visionary leaders with high levels of emotional intelligence will be needed − eaders who are able to win the battles in their minds and through the pressures they overcome define a new benchmark of excellent leadership.
GERINDA ENGELBRECHT
Editor: Accountancy SA
