Leading Through Uncertainty
Sparking Rebirth in the Midst of Disruption
Here’s the truth: your firm’s future won’t resemble the past.
In the post-pandemic world, what you do and how you work will be vastly different. And that’s a good thing!
With seismic dislocations evolving in real time, leaders are consumed with survival. Wise choice. During the 2008 recession, I ran a sports memorabilia company. Not exactly milk and butter. Having passed through the eye of that needle, I can relate to the trials testing management today.
Expending mindshare on anything but steadying the ship seemed foolish to me. If not, impossible. You may feel the same. Yet, innovation is born during the fall of the status quo.
It’s vital now, in the eye of the storm to lead your team on a quest for the BIG Ideas, the BOLD Solutions to customers’ worst nightmares. These Strategic Initiatives are the AUDACIOUS break from conventional thinking, the COURAGEOUS questioning of bedrock assumptions.
Strategic Initiatives are ENGAGING and ENERGIZING endeavors that recharge our batteries. EXCITING for leaders. Not so much for our people.
After emerging from their homebound cocoon, folks will pine for a return to normal. Human nature seeks comfort when anxious, an instinct for familiar work routines and rituals. Candidly, it’s the same for us.
“Corona could be the best thing that ever happened to us,” an exec wrote to me. “But damn, it’s absolutely scary. Every instinct I have — protect my family, my money, my job — is at DEFCON 1!”
Me too!!
So, how can we be catalysts for change when everybody’s feeling unsettled, vulnerable and longing for what used to be?
Time for Leaders to engage our organizations in a Grand Awakening, a once-in-a-generation rethinking of the firm’s Purpose and Identity. Since the past is no longer a proxy for the future, the input of all team members is necessary. Everyone has permission to innovate, to explore fresh and creative ways to make customers’ lives better. Focusing on their distress (rather than our own) will uncover opportunities to catapult the firm past competitors.
Here are 5 simple steps any leader can take to facilitate this pivotal dialog:
1. Proclaim the Positive:
To stimulate imaginations, start with hope blossoming among today’s ashes. Medical personnel are the new heroes, grocery stores and delivery vehicles the front lines. Less commuting, more family time, distance learning, telemedicine, compassionate corporations, united government action and the resurrection of caring local communities.
Everyone around the table (aka, the digital Hollywood Squares) will have uplifting stories to share.
2. Recount Collaborative Success:
Your team faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles before. While not an existential economic nosedive, these threats were daunting at the time.
How did the team come together to “work the problem”? Leverage the breadth of talent and skill sets? Pursue the best ideas regardless of the source? Build on one another’s contributions?
Remind everyone how they felt when their belief in one another paid off. This builds confidence in the power of unity.
3. Identify Client problems:
Turn your organization’s intellectual might to a simple question: What new problem plaguing customers can we solve for them? How have their markets been trampled? What are they scrambling to resolve? Besides the immediate financial crunch, what viability concerns keep their management up at night?
What “hack” is being used to jerry-rig solutions for these problems? Why is this unsustainable?
Alternatively, what problems are hindering your firm’s ability to serve customers? What service model fundamentals should be questioned? Which processes blown up? What technology applied?
4. Seize the Opportunity:
This virus has wiped the marketplace slate clean. All bets are off. The competitive pecking order is up for grabs. And the future belongs to the enlightened, not to the entrenched. Carpe Diem!
When deliberating with your team over prospective solutions, remain open-minded. Don’t let unwritten rules or executional barriers limit the options. Consider how leveraging company heritage and core competencies will create proprietary solutions.
5. Sustain the Momentum:
Transformation requires both tactical precision and endless enthusiasm.
An Action Plan of defined steps, roles and responsibilities provides structure. Granting team members autonomy and decision-making authority fosters ownership. This proprietor’s perspective supplies the drive to prevent fire alarms and daily distractions from derailing progress.
Keep people focused on what can be; the business building, revenue producing, innovative, missional, rallying cry for achieving a new beginning.
Our human side finds the pandemic frightening. Our leadership side finds the opportunities sprouting. Help your teams catch a glimpse of what’s possible and embrace their angst and trepidation as part of the journey to success.
