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“We’ll change when you do!”

Said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader in response to Barack Obama’s offers of a ‘fresh start’  to relations between the US and Iran.  He says, “We haven’t seen any change.”  Obama’s campaign slogan was “Change We Can Believe In.”   I guess that now is the time to demonstrate why others should believe in him .  Is this a time for Gandhi’s  famous “Be the change you want to see”?

Talk is cheap.  Now is the time for a real leader to behave differently.

This little impasse is not restricted to the political sphere.  I often hear staff make similar observations about their bosses.  Do you have the courage and vision to show people how you want them to respond now?  I’d love some real life examples if you have any…

“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainty.”  Francis Bacon

“Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means.”  Albert Einstein

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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 21st, 2009 at 11:23 and is filed under Business Change, Communication, Leadership, Personal Change. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to ““We’ll change when you do!””

  1. Sarah Arrow says:
    21 March , 2009 at 21:27

    I am inclined to agree, I would need to see the change to believe it. So far, no change is apparent.

    Is it possible for a leader to be so constrained by their role that change cannot happen?

  2. Michael Andrews says:
    22 March , 2009 at 04:21

    I just hope Iran starts engage with this message from America and if they do it could be sea of change in world peace,HOPEFULLY!

    Michael

  3. richardderwentcooke says:
    22 March , 2009 at 08:00

    Sarah, I think that we all need that kind of leadership, and that was really the point of this piece. His challenge does he have the courage to lead his people back from the populist beliefs that were fostered post 9/11, that all ‘A-rabs’ are terrorists etc…

    I think that the political establishment / machine in Washington is a bit of a quick sandand wil try to stop him. The test is, oes he keep moving forwards?

  4. richardderwentcooke says:
    22 March , 2009 at 08:02

    Michael, I hope so too! The turn around needs to begin somewhere and this is an important place to begin.

    Thinking about it, how can they expect Israelis to live peacefully with Palestians, with whom they have been in intimate conflict wiht for 50 yrs if the US can’t find a way of peacefully co-operating with Iran?

  5. Why the best jokes are harder to remember… - Change Blog says:
    22 March , 2009 at 08:49

    […] is the job of a leader to be able to take his team to a different way of thinking and acting (see yesterday’s blog comments for a practical example of this need.)  Our familiar paths and methods serve us well, […]

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