The thrust of the concept of ACT change is that real leadership requires a revolutionary moral journey of the self. Going to work in a frenzied business world every day with Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, and Jesus Christ as the standards for your conduct in the workplace is a tall order, to say the least. Tall, but noble. Tall, but beautiful. Tall, but perhaps even indispensable.
The authors’ main contention is that change leadership requires first a revolutionary change within the leader. When this takes place other traditional methods of bringing about change may be rendered unnecessary. The most important thing is for the leader to make a shift out of egocentricity. The leader must stop being concerned with him or herself, and surrender to the common good. Also, the leader must work to purge hypocrisy out of their paradigm. It is essential that leaders who want to inspire change reduce their own integrity gaps. These leaders must also work outside the box right up to the edge of creating chaos while always seeking to bring out the best in those around them. This is revolutionary stuff indeed.
When leaders can do this, great things happen. The main impediment is our fast-paced, quantitative, results-oriented culture. Leaders who want to practice this face a battle within organizations that are focused on quarterly numbers. This is a more qualitative and slow process that is likely to be completely misunderstood by many pragmatists.
