The Freedom of a Fresh Start
What uncertainty offers us in the way of opportunity.
So much of what we saw as components of normalcy in our lives have rapidly disappeared in recent weeks, so I think it’s safe to say we are all grieving a certain amount of loss. For some, it’s a job, for others, a plan that is now irrelevant. Maybe it’s opportunities that evaporated overnight or just your sense of routine. And while that sense of loss is still ringing loudly in our ears, we don’t want to become so focused on loss that we miss the opportunity afforded to us by these times as well.
While the toppling of a paradigm is undoubtedly uncomfortable, it creates a hotbed of new opportunities — as evidenced by many of today’s top companies that were founded in times of economic crisis. There’s even research to suggest that opportunity is the key to recovery.
[U]ncertainty emerges as a function of the conflict between competing perceptual and behavioral affordances; adopting clear goals and belief structures helps to constrain the experience of uncertainty by reducing the spread of competing affordances[…]
In other words, focusing on the opportunities in front of us might be the best medicine for our current situational anxiety.
The silver lining in all of this is that, while the current pandemic may have disrupted your plans, it’s likely that whatever barriers were in your way were disrupted as well. Companies find new market possibilities to outmaneuver established players, where incumbents blocked the way before. Companies feeling the pain of making deep cuts, often are comforted by a renewed focus on what’s most important. And of course, personally, it allows us to redefine ourselves, be renewed in our sense of purpose, and carry forward with a new clarity of vision.
But what we all want to know is how we can use these circumstances to our advantage and capitalize on these types of opportunities. There are a lot of ways to perform through crisis in a way that you come out ahead. Mark Cuban recently said how companies treat workers during the pandemic could define their brand for decades. Then, rather timely, McKinsey & Co. almost immediately put out a veritable how-to guide to demonstrating corporate purpose in the time of coronavirus.
How your company is going to be able to make good on your strengths inside these opportunities is as varied and nuanced as your specific circumstances. Barry and I love to talk to people about their specific situations and how they can leverage these ideas to generate innovative new strategies. But in a more general sense, the most impactful thing you can focus on through this time is reorienting your self to be the type of leader that succeeds in this new paradigm.
The economy long talked about as the economy that’s coming is now the economy that’s here. The 21st-century worker and the team you’re forming cannot be held by strict controls in a world evolving as rapidly as ours is now, and so the only path left open to us is to lead our teams into uncertainty.
John Hegel, wrote an amazing piece at the close of last year called The Paradox of Leadership, dealing with the big shift currently underway, and how that clashes with our views and expectations of leadership. In it, he writes,
“[W]hat we need are leaders who understand that we are facing new questions that we don’t yet have the answers for, but that could unlock the exponentially expanding opportunities[…]”
The best thing a leader can do is say I don’t know. Until a leader moves into their uncertainty, they are in their own way. By asking key questions, rather than believing they need to have all the answers, the new leader is interdependent on the team. Those that thrive through this crisis and beyond will be leaders with fewer genius answers and more thoughtful questions, leading companies that look less like dictatorships and more like ecosystems.
This article was developed in collaboration with Barry Brown, adapted from a webinar we developed for Runway Innovation Hub on navigating uncertainty in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. To learn more about our workshops, message me for more information.
Barry Brown is a former community leader, nonprofit organizer and personal coach that works in identity and leadership development for startups and enterprise businesses around the world. He’s a cofounder of human(Ethos), on faculty at Singularity University, and runs be/do labs, a part of Runway Innovation Hub in San Francisco.
Damien Foord is an Air Force veteran and creative entrepreneur that has advised hundreds of brands in Silicon Valley, including LinkedIn, Tesla, Adobe, and many more. He is a cofounder of Prismonde, applying cognitive science to business strategy and brand development and speaks on organizational identity and human-centered innovation.
