TSLP Season 4- The Art of Pivoting

🎙️ New Episode | The Art of Pivoting with Dr. Rahul R. Prasad
Leadership is not about avoiding change, it’s about learning how to navigate it with clarity, resilience, and intention.

In this powerful episode of the Transformation Station Leadership Podcast, I sit down with Dr. Rahul R. Prasad to explore The Art of Pivoting, how leaders can adapt, evolve, and move forward when circumstances shift unexpectedly.

Learn more about Dr. Rahul R. Prasad:
Website-https://www.butterfliesusa.org
LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahul-prasad-305b26/

If you’re in a season of transition, reevaluation, or growth, this conversation will encourage you to see pivoting not as failure, but as leadership in motion.

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Until next time, stand tall, step bold, and own your transformation.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

It is true. The leaders who create lasting impact, they're not the ones who avoid change. No, they're the ones who know when to pivot with purpose. And it's in moments of uncertainty, disruption, or unexpected opportunity that the ability to shift direction without losing vision becomes one of the most powerful leadership skill sets of all. Come on, let's go ahead and get this conversation started. It's where we lead it, we live it, and we ignite it in others. I'm your host, Adrian Benton. And today we're delivering and diving into a leadership skill that defines resilience and innovation and long-term relevance. We're talking about the art of pivoting for meaningful change. I'm super excited for you to meet our special guest today because he's a leader who understands that meaningful change is rarely linear. Let me tell you a little bit about Dr. Prasad. Dr. Prasad is a distinguished applied physicist, global philanthropist, and USA national best-selling author featured in Success DNA, Mastering Persistence in Leadership and Life. With a PhD in applied physics from Yale University, Dr. Prasad has spent decades at the forefront of scientific innovation, most recently serving as the senior physicist and manager at the prestigious Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Listen, I am so excited. You know why? Because he has a book, a new book, Impact Shift. Woo! And he's gonna tell us all about it. So at this time, it is my honor to welcome you, Dr. Frasan, to Transformation Station Leadership Podcast. Welcome. We're so glad to have you today.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Thank you, Adrian. Thank you for having me on your show.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

Absolutely. So as we were preparing uh for this episode, I was thinking to myself about that word pivot. And you know, when I think about the word pivot, when I think about leadership, to me, pivot over the years tends to be one of the clearest signs of maturity in leadership. And I say that, Dr. Persona, because pivoting requires self-awareness, it requires emotional discipline, it requires kind of like a willingness for us as leaders to let go of what no longer is serving. So I want to start off by asking you this question. Pivoting, right? It's this buzzword that sounds exciting, but in reality, pivoting often starts with discomfort. So, from your experience, what are some of the signs that it's time for a pivot, even when everything looks like it's fine for the leader on the surface?

SPEAKER_02 3:24

Thank you, Adrian. That's an excellent question. And I think it really starts when you start to get that feeling in the pit of your stomach, a disquiet. An idea that things are not happening the way they should. The fact that everything is going okay on the surface is all very fine. But below the surface, there's a current. You're no longer excited. You're no longer excited about going to work. You're no longer excited about doing what you're doing because it seems like more of the same. It comes in in very, very subtle ways. For example, you might not want to get out of bed one morning. You might want to take that extra 10-minute nap. This is something you've never done. Don't let that sign go by unnoticed. Pick on it. Ask yourself why.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Why?

SPEAKER_02 4:18

Now there may be a very good reason. It might be that the night before you stayed up two hours past your bedtime. That's a different story. But when you ask yourself why, and the answer comes out, well, there really is no good reason that I can put my finger on. That's the time to start examining. That's the time to start thinking. That's the time to start worrying and strategizing. Am I going to make that shift? What is it in what I am doing that is acting like it's just business as usual, but it isn't. There's the rumblings. It's a bit like, you know, when a volcano blows, it never just blows. There's always some steam that comes up before that. If you live by the side of a volcano, you get used to recognizing the signs. You see the steam, you go, okay, time to get moving here, at least time to start packing. So that can get out quick. And it's very similar when it comes to leadership and guiding whatever organization you're guiding, whether it's a profit-making organization, whether it's a product-oriented organization, service-oriented, nonprofit. It doesn't matter. You may only be guiding a small team of people. But you are at the helm. You are at the rudder. You are the one that's steering the ship. You are the one that's got to pick up on these signs.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

So here at Transformation Station, we always invite our leaders to pause in the midst of the podcast and just stop and hone in on what's resonating with them. And so to all of our leaders, I invite you right now, like Dr. Frasad is already giving us a masterclass. So I want to invite you right here to go ahead and start to tell us in the chat what's resonating with you. You know, as you were talking, I was thinking to myself that it's so important that as leaders, since we're at the helm, we got to learn to pay attention. We have to learn to pay attention. And not just to the visible things, right? Sometimes there are things visibly you see tends to be loud. That's not really telling you what's happening below the surface, right? But we got to pay attention to the subtle shifts. We got to pay attention to the innovation slowing down. We have to pay attention to the energy dropping in those who we are leading. We have to pay attention to. We find our teams in a season where more maintenance is required in order to get the mission done. So, leaders, we invite you, don't wait. Dr. Prasad is telling us don't wait for a crisis to pivot. No, no, no, no. Do those regular checks, stay aware. So then you'll be able to see when it's time.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

That brings me to this question.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

This question says, you know, many of us as leaders, we equate change with failure or loss, right? I know that there's a leader, as we talk about that word pivot, who's saying, Well, I only pivot if something's wrong, right? But but Dr. Prasad, how can leaders reframe the pivot as a strategic evolution, a part of the process rather than a setback?

SPEAKER_02 7:32

I think a simple way to look at it is you are going from good to great. What you're doing is working, but it is not giving you the next level of growth. You can certainly go ahead and use the micro pivot strategy where you make tiny pivots and then you get little revel little evolution, if you will. And your product, your service, your team evolves a little bit at a time and gets a little better. Or you can take the bold step. And when you take the bold step, it's gonna come with a lot of resistance. Because people by nature do not like change. And it is necessary for the leader to frame the reason for the change in as positive a manner as possible.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

You need to get your team on board without making them feel afraid. Most times, most organizations, when change comes, it comes with reorganization, with restructuring, with potential job losses. All of those things create a lot of disquiet. And the very thing that you're trying to do to take your organization from good to great, is going to take it from good to not so good. Because when your team gets unsettled, when your people get unsettled, whatever the organization, whatever it is you do, at the end of the day, your team matters. Yes. These are the people that are making you successful. No one of us, no matter how good, no matter how powerful, can do everything themselves. In fact, leaders that recognize that and learn to delegate early and learn to not micromanage are the ones that actually get most successful. If you give your team ownership, they're much more likely to succeed. They're much more likely to go well beyond your expectations of them. If you try to tell them everything you need to do and you try to micromanage, or you try to be very prescriptive, it's not gonna work.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

No. Can you share an example in your mind of when leaders try to be prescriptive of everything and it doesn't work? Have you seen that?

SPEAKER_02 9:56

Oh, I've seen it in myself. I learned early on in my career, a technician of mine uh came up to me one day, and I thought I was doing really well because my bosses were telling me I was doing a great job. The numbers were looking good, milestones were being met. And this guy comes up to me and he says, Rahul, I'm gonna say something to you. I hope you're going to be open to listening. And I said, Okay, go ahead. A bit hesitant here, not sure what's coming. He says, You come into the lab and we know you've got a PhD, and we know you're smarter than us, and you know, we know that you can do everything better than us, but you tell us what to do and how to do it. You are not spending your time letting us figure out what we need to do. And I said, you know, that makes so much sense. And from that point on, I changed the way I led people. I made clear to everybody that their ideas were welcome and that their thoughts were absolutely valid. And I would tell them why we were doing everything that we were trying to do, go to pains, to the point where my team started calling me professor. Yes, because I was always teaching them. And it turns out that it caught on fire to the extent that every time I had a job opening in my team, people from other departments would be the first to apply. Say, hey, we like, we've heard that you're a really good guy to work for. And so I have always had the best of the best to pick from. And it all came from the fact that I said, You have ownership. This is your product. We're gonna make it as a team, as a group. It's not my product. And another little thing, whenever I went for senior management meetings, I would always take one or two or three people from my team and give them a chance to shine. And it didn't reflect poorly on me, it did not reduce the kudos I got. In fact, it increased it because my managers would say, Hey, you need to come and talk to our other managers because they don't get the fact that you're the guy that has the happiest team, you're the guy that has the most productive team. It's the same group of people. We hire from the same pool of people, you're not suddenly going out and hiring people from some other place. So, why is it that your group consistently outperforms? It's the same thing that happens in coaching. If you look at a college basketball team, given that we are in the final four, that's that's a good topic. UConn, you know, from Connecticut. Go, Husky's. Um, I would say the coach is the one that's responsible. Players come in, they stay there for four years, and players leave. And they've got a track record of winning, which is absolutely astounding. That's because he knows how to get the most out of his players. They're not the same folks, they're not the same talent. They're changing, they're evolving. And that's something that leaders in any organization need to do.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Um I'm telling you, I have to go back and watch the replay of this to all of our leaders right now. Literally, as Dr. Prasad is talking, you should feel on the inside like you're being challenged right now. And I want to invite you, you know, if you are in a season that Dr. Prasad just described where he learned a pivotal lesson, right? If you're in that season where you are telling rather than teaching, you can pivot even today. And this is a great time to stop, reflect, become self-aware, and make a conscious choice and decision. You know, as you were talking, I was thinking about this best practice that says communicate the why behind the shift clearly so teams understand the pivot about is about growth and relevance, not retreat. And as you were talking, I was thinking to myself, you know, when when people go to a job, the majority of people, when they go to a job, they don't go to a job to be a robot.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

They go to a job with the expectation that there is going to be something in that culture, that environment, and what they're called to do that will challenge them to grow exactly somehow. And we we rob people of the opportunity to grow, to develop when we just have an authoritative environment.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

Absolutely. Absolutely. It stifles innovation because innovation doesn't come from the chief innovation officer of your company. Innovation does not come from the top down. No, innovation comes from the bottom up, sideways, and in every direction. Innovation is the spark of curiosity when somebody asks, why is it we're doing it this way? What could we do differently if everybody in your team is empowered to do that? There's not just one person who's asking those questions, there's 10, 20, 30, 50 people. And the power of our human brain is significantly enhanced when we allow other brains to combine with us.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

The other thing which I encourage leaders to do is to encourage collisions, random collisions between people. Provide areas in your workplace where people can naturally gravitate and have discussions. People from different fields, different departments, different areas of your corporation or company, so that they can challenge each other and they can also vent their frustrations about whatever it is that's not going well in an open environment and actually get the other folks who are not steeped in the crisis or in whatever it is that's happening to ask the question, the stupid question, which those of us that are practitioners of whatever art we practice, whatever science we practice, technology, we stop asking because it is a dumb question. There's no such thing as a dumb question. And it is a person who doesn't have that history with the product, the service, the process that will ask that question, which will make you start thinking, oh, is that really truly the right way to go?

SPEAKER_00 16:42

You are teaching today. I want you to know that. I'm not taking it all in as you're talking. I'm like, please keep going. Like I'm I'm learning, I'm considering. It's causing me uh to pivot on the inside. But let me ask you this question, okay? Every pivot requires letting go of something, whether it's an idea, an identity, or an expectation. So, how do we as leaders navigate the tension between honoring the past and embracing what's next?

SPEAKER_02 17:11

Thank you. That's a really good question. And I think you've got to recognize that moving forward, you know, we do have to move forward. There is, you know, time, unfortunately, is a one-way street. It only goes from today to tomorrow, to day after tomorrow. We can't come from day after tomorrow and come back to today. So I think the way to honor the past is not to continue to do what was done in the past, but to recognize that and to say, all right, so let's look at what created the product or service that was yesterday. What were the tools that went into it? What was the philosophy? What was the design thinking that went into that? Use that to come up with the next product, the next service. So you are now continuing the trend. You're not staying mired in the past, but you're honoring the past because you're using the same philosophy. The philosophy doesn't have to change. The process of design thinking doesn't have to change. What has to change is the end result. Because today's product is fulfilling today's need. Most successful products are successful because they fill a need. They reduce certain friction in the lives of whoever it is that uses them, whether it's a commercial product or a business product, either which way is always something that makes something easier, something less difficult. As we evolve as a culture, as a society, as as the world, our products also change. And what was working yesterday is not going to work today. If you're building calculators and you don't think about making a computer, you're actually going to wind up obsolete at some point in time. But you can use the same philosophy that you did to develop the calculator, to develop the computer, to develop the supercomputer, whatever direction you're headed in, without dishonoring the past.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Let me ask you this question. I think this ties in with it. And I know that this is an area that many leaders struggle with, especially when we're talking about change, right? Honoring the past and you know, appreciating what is and moving forward. So in the process of all this, what helps, what can help leaders to stay grounded and to stay confident when others don't see our vision? I know that that's a tension that many leaders like we see, we understand there's a need to change, to pivot, but the others around us don't see it. What can help us as leaders to stay grounded and confident when others don't see the vision?

SPEAKER_02 20:00

I think believing in yourself is where it all starts. If you think about your path from childhood to where you are, it is filled with first steps that you take, which you have to take where you have to push beyond the boundary. And every time you do that, you're doing it with the knowledge that you actually know what you're doing. And it's gonna work out. Right? And that is what you have to continue. It's that self-confidence, it's the same thing that makes you choose to apply for your first job. You've never had a job before. You finished whatever schooling you're going to finish and you're applying for a job. What what do you have to do? What do you have to think? You have to you have to have the confidence that you are right for the job. That's why you apply for it. Otherwise, you'd never apply for a job. If you waited to find the job that actually fit your skill set exactly, you might never get a job. I might never get a job. Right? So, what do you have to do? You have to say, okay, I believe in myself. I believe that I have done everything that needs to be done to determine that this is the right path. And that includes consulting with other people, including your team. If don't take it all upon yourself, because that's the surest way to start feeling like Atlas with the weight of the world on your shoulders. It's easier, much easier to share the burden with your team. And then the other aspect of that is your team will have pride of ownership. So they will help you navigate this difficult time. They will be your peop the your people. They will be the people that will help you.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

I found through the years that when there is this sense of shared, shared responsibility, shared wins, shared challenges, that it that the team, you're right, the team finds a way to come together, to walk the journey together. It may not necessarily be true, but there's a togetherness, like we're gonna figure it out together. But that doesn't just start when there's a crisis, it starts all. I mean, it happens continuously, right?

SPEAKER_02 22:25

There's a continuous it is absolutely true. And and I think it's necessary even when things are going as well as it possibly can. That's the time to build that togetherness because with all the wins, you've got a lot of kudos that you can share, and you should be sharing it freely. Don't feel that that everybody should be thinking, oh, you're the guy that's making everything work. No, because that's just not physically possible.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

No, no, and honestly, I mean, you know, when you are leading, there should not be a need to tell people that you're the leader. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 23:03

Exactly. Absolutely correct.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

That's a red flag right there.

SPEAKER_02 23:08

Right there, right there. If they're not, if they're not figuring it out by themselves, then you're not doing something right. In fact, you're not doing a lot right.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

And leaders listening and watching, I want to invite you to go ahead and please tell. I know that this is resonating with you, so tell us in the chat. And matter of fact, make sure that you don't keep this conversation to yourself. You need to share this with other leaders in your network. You can even make this a part of your staff meeting. Start off, let them watch this podcast and then have a discussion around how do we best pivot as a team? All right. I'm I I gotta get these these next two questions in. I don't want this thing to end, but listen, here's the question. We know that the best pivots often come with resistance, internal and external. So, how can leaders ensure that the pivots are values driven, not reaction driven?

SPEAKER_02 24:02

That is a very, very good thing to do. And I think if you are if you're looking at values-driven pivoting, you're doing the pivot well before it is necessary. That's the key. It's the timing. When you wait until sales start to drop to come out with the next iteration of your product, it is too late. You are being reactive. Yes. The time to pivot is when everybody else thinks, Oh my gosh, these guys are the market leader. What are they doing? Why are they moving forward? Why are they changing? What is wrong with them? Masterclass in this has been done over and over again by a little company called Apple. If you watch the way in which their products are oriented, every time their product reaches a peak, that's about the time they'll on something completely different. And within a year or two, they'll even yank the one that was succeeding until yesterday completely out. Take the iPod. Just about the time it reaches peak, they have the iPhone, and then a few years later, the iPod doesn't exist anymore. You gotta go to a secondhand store to get one. And and I think that's what makes the difference between visionary and reactionary. You have to do it well ahead of the curve. You've got to be thinking, you know, as as Wayne Gretzky used to say, I don't skate to where the puck is, I skate to where the puck will be.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

Ah snaps. Yes, Doctor. I'm learning a lot today. Yes, no, that the wise words, wise words, wise words. So as we turn the corner on this conversation, for the listeners, for the leaders right now who are listening and watching, and they're literally at a crossroads in their leadership, knowing that there's something that needs to shift, but unsure where to start. What's one simple step that these leaders can take today to begin their own intentional pivot?

SPEAKER_02 26:22

I think the first thing to do is to use the scientific method to look at this problem. It's not a problem, it's a challenge, it's an opportunity. But look at what created the situation that exists today. How did you get here? Look dispassionately at all the steps. And that will be a really good starting point. Because once you know what led to where you are, you can make changes in how you continue to proceed.

unknown 26:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 26:57

Because if you don't do this introspection, this looking at yourself and making sure that things are going the way you want them to, you're never going to be able to step back and make the change.

unknown 27:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 27:11

The other last thing I would say is don't let your ego get in the way. That's really difficult for most people to do. We are always, always hesitant to admit that we are the ones that did something that led to a situation that isn't the best for everyone. And acknowledging that not letting your ego get in the way. If the process is developed, if the product was developed, you were instrumental in it, but you recognize that it's not working. Don't you know, and and and John has or or Jane has a product that is much better. But don't just say, Well, I've got to keep with mine because damn it, I'm the leader. You want to be willing to give that up. Look at everything and make that change. And then it becomes easier to do. If you get your ego wrapped around it, it's gonna be very difficult.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

Woo. Listen, that's it, Pasar. We gotta have you back again because we barely scratched the surface on this masterclass right here. Barely. I know that there are leaders that are listening and watching right now that want to, they want more. So, how can our viewers and listeners, how can they engage with you? With the what what resources do you have available so that we can continue to learn?

SPEAKER_02 28:41

So, one of them, of course, is LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn, and you can contact me directly on LinkedIn, connect with me, and I'd be happy to share what I know. Um, I have a TikTok channel and I have an Instagram channel where I'm constantly posting on topics that will be of interest to people. And they are Rahul Prasad creates both of the handles. I have a website, rahularprasad.com, where I have a blog and something that we haven't scratched at all, which is I am a photo nut. I take photos like they're going out of style, and I think I'm fairly good at it. Not to get my ego wrapped around it. Lastly, but not uh leastly, I've just written a book, Impact Shift, The Art of Pivoting for Meaningful Change. That might be a very interesting read. And you can get that at Amazon and any other retail outlet.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

Fantastic. All right, so viewers and listeners, all of Dr. Prosard's links that we are aware of are in the description box. We want to invite you. You know, we like to support our guests, so please go ahead, click on the links, engage with him. And as a matter of fact, let Dr. Prosard know that you saw you heard this particular episode. Let him know what resonated with you. Buy the book and engage because as a community, we know the community that learns together, grows together. Dr. Prasad, it's been wonderful to have you with us today. Thank you so much for sowing into our community and adding such rich value.

SPEAKER_02 30:11

Thank you. Thank you so much, Adrian, for having me. It has been a pleasure. It has been a wonderful discussion, and I encourage your listeners, your people who are watching, to engage with me. I would be more than happy.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 30:26

That's what I live for.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

Yeah, Transformation Station, we're gonna have him back. I'm just saying that in advance. Thank you so much, Dr. Bissard. All right. Well, listen, Transformation Station community, what I one of the things that I learned today is that transformation often begins the moment that we as leaders stop resisting change and start leading with awareness. I want to invite you to write down one current commitment, one strategy or belief that no longer serves your growth, then define one small action to test a new direction that you can take today. We know that intentional pivots begin with honest awareness and one courageous next step. So, what's that next courageous step that you're gonna take? Tell us in the comments. And I promise you, send a DM. I will share it on a future episode because Dr. Rossada reminded us today that pivoting is not a sign of instability, it's a sign of wisdom, of courage, and of growth. Be sure to join us every Monday and Wednesday for more leadership gems on Transformation Station. And until next time, keep leading with clarity, keep adapting with purpose, and keep on moving towards the meaningful change that your leadership was designed to create.