We live in a VUCA world, defined as a world susceptible to “Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity”. This is not just our global or professional world, it is our personal world as well.
But things need to go on. Doing so means creating continuity, sustainability, opportunity and hope in the current teams, organizations and markets.
Yet making that happen is a tricky process.
It requires MORE and DIFFERENT.
In terms of management, leadership, communication, promotion, operation but more than anything else: MINDSET.
A mindset poised and optimized for vulnerability. For a VUCA World.
Something most of us struggle with, if not entirely ignore, reject, even HATE.
But as you reflect on your business, yourself, and a future difficult to imagine or plan for, how DO you manage it?
How do you work with it, and make it work for you?
Check out our earlier article on “3 Key reasons your Team is not performing“.
But here are some proven insights to help guide your leadership in ANY venture, be it your own business or as an active participant in someone else’s:
1) Fight VUCA’s “Uncertainty”. Get CLEAR on your new, reasonable, and relevant PRIORITIES.
One of the main reasons businesses fail is because they continue to do what they have always done before.
The popular term is, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
But what if what changed, is the outer world? Something you cannot control.
Then it’s absolutely CRITICAL you ask the right questions, deep dive into relevant reflections and look for more creative, out of the box solutions, to create NEW SUCCESS.
New answers.
And then more NEW QUESTIONS so you can keep re-inventing.
But so many of us are afraid of this. It feels hard, confusing, exhausting.
Yet it’s the only true way to continue triumphing.
So ask these questions: to yourself as a Leader, your Team, and your Organization as a whole:
- “What is truly important to us NOW?”
- “Where and how can we create even greater success in this new VUCA situation?”
- “What GREAT HOPES do we have for our future?”
- “What GREAT FEARS are holding us back from getting it?”
2) Solve VUCA’s “Ambiguity”. Communicate your NEW VISION with just the right TRANSPARENCY & COMMITMENT.
No matter how brilliant you are as a leader, your success does not depend on you alone. It depends on all the other people – employees, clients, collaborators, etc. – that are part of your Professional Community.
So, if they don’t understand your New Vision, how can you expect them to align with it and make it happen?
Many Leaders tend to make one or all of the following errors:
- Not give ENOUGH information, staying vague, unclear and superficial in their new priorities.
- Give TOO MUCH information, creating a sense of overwhelm, confusion, uncertainty and insecurity in their people, from hearing unnecessary detail and background that isn’t truly relevant to THEIR next steps.
- CHANGING strategies all the time, mostly due to lack of clarity, strategic vision or due diligence, communicating a lack of credibility, confidence, and responsibility in their leadership.
The answer: as a leader, DO YOUR PART to get very clear on the WHAT and WHY of your New Vision, especially how it will impact your team/organization, and communicate only what is most imperative for your people to know, understand and apply it. Again, with a good reason for WHY it’s important.
If you’re not sure how to do this, contact us for a free consultation and we will give you some quality initial first steps.
3) Ease VUCA’s “Complexity”. LISTEN to and CONNECT with your people.
The pressure many leaders feel, of any kind of venture, is to believe that they have to get it ALL RIGHT, all by themselves.
But that’s impossible because they don’t see and live every aspect of their business on a daily basis.
So, they struggle by themselves in tiny corners, or in closed-door meetings with very few others, and they try to solve answers with an imagination that would be so much more benefited by REAL FEEDBACK.
Your People are actually the key to getting the HOW in executing your New Vision and help you overtake the VUCA World.
I’m not saying that you should air out all of your internal questions with all of your people, all the time.
But there ARE ways to get invaluable, REAL insight from your team/organization, in an elegant, effective and positive way.
Doing so can give you truly powerful insight into the blind spots in your organization, market and leadership that you cannot fathom yourself. Providing you with relevant and powerful new solutions, BEYOND your very great imagination and brilliance.
Because the brilliance of an organization is a sum total of the brilliance of everyone within it.
4) Lead on VUCA’s “Volatility”. Now design your STRATEGIC PLAN around the new Objectives and the WHY’s behind them.
Once you have deep-dived to identify your new set of priorities, and listened to your people, ask yourself the NEXT questions:
- “What do we need to make it happen?”
- “Who needs to be involved?”
- “What needs to change to make it truly effective?”
Don’t assume that old mindsets and practices will automatically fulfill new goals.
They CAN’T because they’re OLD.
As Albert Einstein said so well, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
So new greatness requires new mindsets.
And that again means, getting insight appropriately from your people.
Because the change to a new way of being and doing doesn’t have to be so GREAT and HARD. Sometimes, oftentimes, small, consistent ways of adjusting can make all the difference.
Yet it needs to be a coherent, consistent effort across your team and organization.
Including not just every person, but every strategy, function, process, and task to be aligned with your new vision and set of priorities.
5) Empower in the VUCA World. MOTIVATE from a place of relevant purpose.
Motivation is a highly misunderstood concept. We tend to think that if we could just “get it right” for ourselves and others, it will be a constant source of power going forward.
But motivation – like energy, willpower, inspiration, etc. – is a limited and fluid concept. It ebbs and flows.
So if you’re looking to encourage and inspire your People towards creating and living your New Vision, keep these things in mind:
- We motivate from the WHY, not the WHAT or HOW. So make sure your messages for the New Vision really help your people connect to an important WHY, that is significant not just for you and your team/organization, but also for them on a personal level. Check out Simon Sinek’s TED Talk on “How great leaders inspire action” for more insight.
- Ensure that your teams/organization have the WHY’s (theirs and the company’s) regularly visible and available so they never lose sight of it (posters and other regular physical and digital messages can do an amazing benefit here).
6) In a VUCA World, always INCLUDE and IMPLICATE your people in the goals and desired success.
No matter how small or large your team/organization, if your people are not on board with you, you’re truly alone.
And that means enormous extra time, effort and struggle to motivate them towards your goals.
Passive mindsets that don’t take the best advantage and recognition of the total talent in your company.
Endless hours of trying to convince people and keep them aligned and accountable for objectives that if well presented, would be natural for them to follow and fulfill.
But as John P. Kotter explains so well in his timeless leadership tome “Leading Change”: They have to feel it’s their own to get behind it (paraphrased).
When you respectfully and intelligently make your people part of your change process, no matter the reason (crisis, growth, re-invention, etc.), they take more RESPONSIBILITY for it. They feel it is now their own as well and so their natural mindset, commitment and actions adjust to make it happen.
This is more than just getting their insight, it’s actually implicating them in the creation of new strategies, processes, plans and solutions to make your New Vision a success. As well as the implementation of tools and practices to ensure their accountability, efforts and creativity for lasting change.
So, how do you do this?
- Have regular, thoughtful but measured ways to assess the insight of your people, and in a way that allows them to be truly honest (many tools are not).
- Allow your team/organization to dream about the new vision for your company from their own standpoint, encouraging their creativity while allowing them to also understand the challenges along the way.
- Incentivize them towards fulfilling the set objectives but in a way that keeps them motivated to the goal. We often think money will do the trick. Sometimes it does and other times it makes it more superficial. But showcasing great ideas from employees, giving them valuable feedback, opportunities and resources to deepen their ideas, and other such benefits can be way more powerful. Check out Dan Pink’s TED Talk on “The puzzle of motivation” for more quality insight.
There is so much more we can say on this but this is a good beginning.
As always, we would love to hear from you on your own ideas, strategies and programs that are strengthening your team and organizations these days in this VUCA World.
But also your questions, which we are happy to address.
All the best and have a great season.
