What if Changemakers’ success could be measured by their disappearance?
“How do you deal with the lack of recognition?”
“How do you know your efforts are worthwhile?”
“Have you ever wondered if the time you spend in front of your computer or in meetings could really contribute to the challenges facing the world today?”
"How do you know when it's time to pull out?"
I remember hearing those questions during one of my speeches to a group of corporate sustainability advocates. Such doubts were nothing new to me. I’ve heard them often over the past decade. I’ve experienced them myself.
If you're working to bring about sustainable change and if these questions speak to you, this article is for you! Maybe it's time to rethink what success means to you as a change agent.
Your value does not lie in being recognized as great or indispensable. Your success lies in your ability to fade into the background, to become useless.
I can sense your knee-jerk reaction:
"Really?"
“No, but the poor girl has been smoking.”
"What a naive ideal!"
"I'm not Buddha"
"What is she talking about?"
The genuine external recognition you’ll receive from your ecosystem will be nothing more than empty praise. That’s good news. Let me explain.
You may remember a time when a colleague proudly explained a sustainable solution to you... one that you had spent months trying to get him to pay attention to. You probably had to bite your tongue to keep from snapping at him. Well, what you thought was an affront was, in fact, a sign of recognition. It was proof of your legitimacy, not your insignificance.
Your goal is for your transformation project to be fully embraced by your ecosystem, isn't it? Change is successful precisely because it becomes the new norm. As a result, the behaviors and ways of thinking that seem strange today will be "business as usual" tomorrow. Everyone will embody the desired change. But by then, you, too, will have become just like everyone else.
Your banality, your invisibility, will be your success. It is precisely because your words have become useless—because they have become redundant in light of the behaviors around you—that you have succeeded. The more your conversation partners go out of their way to demonstrate that they, too, are extremely active in support of the environment, society, shared governance, or new forms of management, the more you will be able to gloat. The change will take shape outside of you. It will overtake you.
Your mission is to disappear and, for a change, to remain visible.
Take action toward change
When I shared this vision with my relatives, peers, employees, managers, and clients, I often saw a sense of relief in their eyes.
Here are some ways people have responded to this approach:
“It makes me think about my role as a mother. I’m here to help my child reach a point where they no longer need me.”
“A long time ago, I was involved in a change management project aimed at simplifying access to health services in my country. I spent hours trying to convince doctors to embrace a process that would reduce their administrative workload and increase their availability to patients. Last week, I benefited from this process and realized that it has become the norm. I don’t care whether or not my name is mentioned. I am proud to see the positive impact it has had on healthcare providers and patients.”
“Our big boss came back to our goal, which was eventually set aside due to the new sustainability and purpose-driven standards. He loves and promotes this vision. It’s motivating.”
"I am proud to see that this event is a success even without me. This movement is bigger than me."
Some may still have their doubts. I understand. I myself have often wondered if I was in serious denial about reality.
Until the day I realized that my mission was to create the conditions for sustainable change, not to change all business models and practices on my own. My mission was to inspire, support, and challenge committed professionals to forge a collective commitment, in order to bring about systemic change within a given context.
Today, after 10 years of experimentation, I know that this is where I belong and that it’s worth it. I’ll tell you more about my approach to creating these conditions and ways to proudly step back.
Tool
What matters now is helping you avoid years of self-doubt by changing your perspective on success. Here are some questions to help you define your ambition:
At what stage of your transformation project would you know it's time for you to step aside with pride?
What would you have created at your level? What legacy would you leave behind?
How would you feel about your contribution?
How does your view of external recognition change when you consider that your success can be measured by your ability to gradually fade into the background?
Now, what is the first thing you need to do to move toward that kind of success?
Quote
“Thegreatness of a man lies in the fact that he is a bridge, not an end.”
Call to Action
As a changemaker, if this message inspires you to think about success in a different way, please like and share it with the people around you, and subscribe to get notified when new articles are posted.
Hello everyone, I’m Nina Cambadélis, a coach and facilitator specializing in sustainability and organizational transformation. I’m also a corporate changemaker responsible for embedding my company’s purpose at the heart of the business.
Through my work, I aim to inspire professionals to rethink business and make them proud to contribute, in their own way, to a more sustainable, humane, and nature-friendly world.
If you would like assistance with:
Become the changemaker you want to be for the world you envision
Find and assert your leadership, or foster the emergence of new leadership styles
Make sustainability and purpose-driven initiatives central to your organization
Accelerate engagement within your ecosystem to drive systemic change
Make an impact while conserving energy and promoting well-being
Here is a link to an exploratory call and a form to provide more details about your goals and challenges: English
