Do you know that strange mixture of excitement and worry when you switch jobs? Excited to start something new, but also worried to leave behind what you’ve worked so hard for over recent years (and that works so well). Well, I’m in that place right now. And it got me thinking about why I accepted the challenge.

The quick answer is this: change is the only constant in life and when opportunity knocks, you’d better act on it. As John Lennon wrote: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

The longer answer sounds like this: at Dell EMC, we pride ourselves in bringing transformation solutions to our customers in the fields of digital, IT, security and workforce.But, to me,there’s an additional transformation that underpins all of them: ‘people transformation’. As people and employees, we have to fully embrace change. It’s the best way to stay ahead and serve our customers better. It’s something everybody should do and every company should enable. People transformation may very well be the most important type of transformation there is.

People transformation

When people are open to transformation, all other forms of transformation will become easier as well. As such, people transformation brings balance to other forms of change.

One example of the impact of people transformation is how managers and leaders assume their roles and how this has changed dramatically. These days, top down is out, being an influencer is in. Strong managers and leaders have become facilitators for the employees who now hold the primary ownership role in execution. Managers and leaders now point out to their teams and colleagues how the dots in our complex business world are connected. And really, really smart managers and leaders can consolidate all the available dots and paint, from this, an exciting vision of where we’re heading as a team and as a company.

People transformation amongst managers and leaders is about creating the right environment and conditions (open, caring, constructive, inclusive – we will come back to that later) to enable change. It is also about fueling the right transformational mindset amongst individual employees. It stimulates everyone to become an even stronger professional so that we can all serve the customer better. And as we all know: “Customers will never love a company until employees love it first.”*

Coming full circle

People transformation comes full circle when people understand why transformation happens; where we’re heading together and what the role of each of us is. Doing that is an ongoing balancing act for everyone involved. Not just managers and leaders; also for employees who are increasingly considered the leaders of their own destiny and success. And when you combine that type of leadership across your whole organization, you get a multiplier for business success. As the world around us changes all the time, people and businesses must follow suite.

This will be a key objective for me in my new role as Chief of Staff for a massive pan-European organization here at Dell EMC. It’s one of the main reasons that made me decide to embark on this new journey. To help my colleagues see how the dots are connected and how it all adds up to a meaningful, well-balanced picture that will ultimately benefit them, as well as all our customers.

People transformation is a constant in life, both personally and business-wise.

* Quote by Simon Sinek.