Undergoing a Sea Change: Riding The Wave of Transformation
We are experiencing a sea change in the business world precipitated by AI, geo political pressures, new ways of working, remote versus in person and several other disruptions. The term sea change originates from Shakespeare’s play The Tempest (1610–1611), where Ariel describes a drowned man as having undergone a “sea-change” into something rich and strange, meaning he was transformed by the sea into a new state. Today sea change refers to a fundamental shift. This shift requires that we pivot and adapt. This is the job of a leader.
A leader’s job is to set direction, tone and expectations for the team and then empower the team to execute. The challenge is that the skills it took to get to a position of leadership are often in conflict with the skills required to be an effective leader. I have seen this throughout my career. The typical pattern is the best doers get promoted into positions of leadership. Some make the leap, but many struggle to let go of doing.
Solving for this leap is not easy and few have cracked the code. In my personal pursuit of helping people in leadership positions to create leverage through their teams, I came up with a novel approach. Take leaders out of their typical work environment, expose them to other leaders from a diverse set of industries and companies and challenge them to learn something new. The program is called LeaderSurf and it is truly leadership development done differently.
Participants spend a week together at a beach resort in Costa Rica, learning and growing together in a learning circle. We engage in deep conversations about leadership. Who are great leaders you have been exposed to? What makes them great? Who are some of the worst leaders and what makes them terrible? Would you thrive working for you? Is leadership innate of a learned skill? What is the difference between leadership and management.
Tackling these question in a group setting provides insights and perspective. Yes sea changes is a good place to start the conversation about why LeaderSurf is so different. We leverage the ocean as a classroom. I am a life long surfer and surfing has taught me so much about myself and the world around me.
Surfing requires participants to read the ever evolving landscape of the ocean. Catching waves requires the surfer to put themselves in the position to harness or leverage the power of the wave. In the end you cannot control the ocean, but you can control how you react to it. These are amazing leadership lessons. They cannot be taught in a classroom. They must be learning through experience. Learning to surf in a group environment surrounded by other inquisitive leaders makes for a high impact life altering experience. Participants return to their jobs with fresh perspectives, new approaches and insights about how to evolve their own leadership style and approach.
Unconventional? Absolutely! We need an unconventional approach to build leadership capacity because traditional approaches don’t work. LeaderSurf has been proven to be a highly effective approach to helping leaders adapt, evolve and grow.
“I found the surfing to be a very good tie into enhancing my leadership capabilities.”
To ride the wave of leadership transformation, we must embrace the sea change—not just as a metaphor, but as a lived leadership journey: embracing the unfamiliar, learning through falling, grounding growth in purpose, and leading with humanity. This approach models powerful, sustainable change.
Learn more about the program at www.leadersurf.com
