I was talking change management with an old friend last week during a visit with an old boss to both of us. Many of us are transformation leaders and that conversation reminded me of a transformation principle I adhere to. The POP principle.

The first P in POP stands for being proud of the past. This avoids a mistake a lot of transformation leaders make. They are so focused on the change, they think the past must be a pariah. The past is not to be disparaged, dealt with, and dispatched. The past is how you got to where you are. Praise the people and processes that preceded this effort. They contributed to the great success that now allows you to change. This new direction in no way dismisses the early process or lessons. It is how we got here, and certainly it has benefitted us along the way. Likewise, don’t throw out the old process without knowing the why of the process. If the why is still valid; the why of the new process must answer the rationale also. Be proud of the past.

But what of the present? The O stands for over-performing in the present. Originally performing the present, I tweaked it to over-perform. While it’s nice to perform to standard, leaders need to keep in mind that even the transformation mid-step needs to be better than the past. You need to overperform to metrics, cost, efficiency, time, something needs to be better.

You see, the present is the bridge to the future. It is paved with Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. A leader during the transformation must be able to provide stability, strength, and safety to negotiate this path. You should remain true to the vision and adapt more tools, introduce more skills, and more choice. Current tools should still be available until familiarity with the tool and functionality is proven. We still walk the path, extolling excellence, seeing that the new is superior to the past in measurable ways. We over-preform in the present.

The last P stands for prepare for the probable future. Although we can’t know the future, we’ve laid the groundwork. As a true leader, we’ve laid out the vision, and the path to get there. While honoring the past, and still performing in the present, we prepare our teams for the future. Much like salesmen, we communicate the upcoming change. We lay it out there for all to see. We communicate that we have faith in the ability of our teams to make the transition. (A huge point I’ve made before in a leadership post on Linkedin.) We’ve provided the bridge, and now we need to cross the team over. We know they will get there if you’ve led the team the right way.

Oh, there are more P’s to get that done, passion, patience, persistence, and problem saving to name a few. More than I have time to get into here, but perhaps in that oft mentioned future….

Remember the transformational principle POP, have pride in the past, out-perform in the present, and prepare for the probable future. POP! This was about change management/transformation, but remember that you can get leadership lessons from more than things with leadership in the title. Leadership lessons are where you find them, as are leadership opportunities as are leadership development. If you remember just those things, then I’ll have done my job, and more importantly, you will be doing yours.