(featuring insights from 2025 Authentic Leader Award recipient, Jim Keyes)
When industries shake, markets shift, or the ground seems to move beneath our feet, our first instinct is often to brace for impact. But for those who lead with vision, change is not a threat—it’s an open door.
Few people have embodied this truth more clearly than Jim Keyes, former CEO of both 7-Eleven and Blockbuster, and recipient of this year’s Authentic Leader Award. During some of the most volatile seasons in corporate history, Jim learned that leadership is not about controlling change—it’s about harnessing it.
He even coined a new meaning for the title “C.E.O.” — Change Equals Opportunity. “It isn’t the change itself that matters,” Jim says, “but rather one’s response to it that separates winners from losers.”
From the leveraged buyout crisis that forced 7-Eleven into Chapter 11, to Blockbuster’s struggle to adapt amid a digital revolution, Jim saw the same principle at work: Change can destroy the unprepared, but it rewards the courageous.
True leadership begins with three disciplines he calls the Three C’s of Change:
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Change – Recognize it early, face it honestly, and move with it, not against it.
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Confidence – Prepare deeply, so that faith replaces fear.
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Clarity – Communicate simply and often; confusion breeds paralysis.
For authentic leaders, change is not an interruption to the mission—it is the mission. Every transformation, whether personal or organizational, is an invitation to grow.
As Jim reminds us, “Leadership is not a static thing you learn once and apply forever. It’s a dynamic skill that requires constant learning and adaptation.”
The truth? Change is not the enemy of stability—it’s the engine of growth. Those who embrace it with courage, confidence, and clarity will always find opportunity waiting on the other side.
Editor’s Note:
At the Authentic Leadership Foundation, we believe authentic leadership means learning to see change through the lens of growth and service. As we prepare to recognize Jim Keyes at Bring Out the Greatness 2025, may his example remind us: opportunity doesn’t vanish in uncertainty—it’s revealed by those who lead with vision.
