These
days most leaders struggle to find time to focus; time to think things through. The background noise of news outlets combined
with the relentless production of social media is creating a chronic sense of overwhelm
and then there is the daily tsunami of email.
Leadership
is all about making decisions and wise decision-making requires a combination
of logic and intuition. We need to study the necessary data and
acknowledge the subtle connections our brain can make by ‘reading between the
lines’. However, I have recently spoken
to many leaders who find it difficult to block ‘Thinking Time’ into their
diary. It’s as if that would just be too
weird and I hear them say “What if someone questions it?”. The funny thing is that they are usually the
most senior person in the business or department! Who is actually going to question them? It is simply their own fears getting at them
– it’s so easy to become addicted to the adrenalin rush of busyness and ticking
something off the To-Do List. There is
an underlying anxiety that they won’t be ‘productive’. The real questions for leaders are “What are
you really paid to do? How can you add
the most value?”
Stuck in doing
When
a business is in start-up mode it is clear that the founders are ‘doing’ a lot,
but once there is some positive cashflow the leaders need to delegate as much
and as quickly as possible. This frees
up precious thinking time. There are far
too many businesses that struggle to expand because the founders and leaders
can’t let go and they stay stuck in the detail, missing strategic growth
opportunities. This also happens a lot
when Supervisors get promoted to Managers or Managers get promoted to
Directors. They stay in their comfort
zone of ‘doing’ because it is a very plausible excuse for not doing the really
difficult bit – thinking and making wise decisions.
The
more senior you become the more you need to think and effective thinking is a
very delicate process that requires the development of new skills. The cacophony of information bombarding us
makes it very difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff. Everything is urgent. Everything is a priority. So what is the solution?
The courage to think
I’m
now practicing with the discipline of carving out some time in my diary where I
can switch off my phone and my email and silence all other apps. It takes quite a lot of courage to know that
I won’t miss any vital bit of information that might just need my immediate
response. When I’m with clients all day
I can do this easily but when I’m in the office it is far more
challenging. It is a discipline and it
takes effort, but it can be done!
So
once you have created some time to think what is the most important thing to
think about? Well this depends on your
situation but here are some of my suggestions.
Our VUCA World
As
mentioned above, the world feels like it is becoming more frantic. We are now more interconnected than ever
before. Things that are far beyond our
control can have a direct impact on profitability. For example, the other day Francois Holland,
the president of France, made a remark that the UK will “pay the price” for
choosing a hard Brexit. This was picked
up by a news channel and reported online.
An automated algorithm with artificial intelligence scanning all news
data started a chain reaction that created a crash of the pound sterling and it
dropped 8% in just 90 seconds. While it
did bounce back a bit, it has fallen steadily since the UK referendum on the EU
and many of my hospitality clients are feeling the pinch. They purchase a lot of their food and wine from
the EU and this means that their costs have increased by up to 20%. This is having a significant impact on tight
margins.
There
is now a term for this state of the world: VUCA. It sounds contagious and in many ways it
is. It is like a virus that undermines
our ability to think and plan.
VUCA
stands for the following:
- · Volatility – the speed of change.
If
you think back a few years it was not that long ago that your phone did only a
few things like make and receive calls, store contacts, perhaps play a simple
game or send a text. Now we have in our
pockets a computer that is more powerful than the NASA super-computers that put
the first men on the moon. Driverless
cars will be trialled on the streets of London next year and new disruptive
businesses are starting up every day. Is
one of them thinking about entering your market space?
- · Uncertainty – the lack of predictability
National
elections and referenda can now shift geopolitical stability. The UK voted to leave the EU and 27 other
countries are now having to radically rethink their economic policies and in
the case of Ireland their national border.
The implications are massive and we all need to think about how it will
affect business because we don’t know how people will react. Then there are the upcoming elections in the
US, France and Germany that could all have a significant impact on different
groups of people from customers or suppliers to potential employees. How vulnerable is your business model to all
of this?
- · Complexity – the intricacy of globalisation
Automated
markets, political upheaval and disruptive technology are becoming the
norm. Everything is becoming more
interconnected and interdependent. While
we can now easily connect with friends, family and customers globally, we are
also inundated with information from around the world and need to sort, sift
and make meaning of the most relevant bits.
This takes a lot of mental effort.
As businesses and organisations grow they become more complex and
leaders need to make time to step back to see the bigger picture. How skilled are you at zooming in and zooming
out to get the right perspective for the decisions you need to make?
- · Ambiguity – the potential to misread a situation
We
are now entering a phase where there are four generations in the workplace,
each with their own values, expectations, judgements and ethics. Many of my clients also have many different
nationalities working for them so there are lots of ways that things can be
misunderstood. One size can no longer
fit all. This also applies to
customers. Whether listening to feedback
or giving out a message leaders need to think about the way it is being
communicated and how it will be received.
How unified and consistent are the key messages your leadership team are
communicating to your people and to your customers? What do they really think about you and your
business?
As
you consider the above you can see that there is always a lot to think about
and it is important to remember that the area of our brain where we do all our
thinking, the prefrontal cortex, can get exhausted very quickly. This vital part of our brain which is only 4%
of its total mass consumes most of the available energy. If it is not given plenty of rest and just
the right amount of glucose and oxygen, your ability to understand, memorise,
recall, decide and inhibit are significantly compromised. Inhibition is particularly important in
leadership. You need to be able to
inhibit your natural biases and the addiction to action. Thinking takes effort and strategic thinking
that incorporates VUCA takes significant effort.
However
there is an antidote to VUCA and it involves making some shifts in thinking.
Shifting your
thinking
It
is very easy to make excuses and bemoan the state of the economy, the value of
the pound or the lack of good people applying for jobs. But as leaders we can’t afford the luxury of
making excuses. We are responsible for
our own success and need to use our wisdom to make the best choices given the
current situation we are in.
Here
are some suggested shifts in thinking to address the VUCA nature of business in
the 21st Century.
- · The shift from Volatility to Vision
People
want a leader who has a clear vision and is optimistic about achieving it. What is your vision for your business? If you don’t articulate a clear vision people
are not going to follow you. If no one is following you, you are not a
leader. The volatility of the economy
can make many leaders complain that it is impossible to know what the future
looks like. However, you can break your
vision down to the short, medium and long term.
There is also an increasing need for leaders to be visionary in order to
solve the problems the business has and for staff to be visionary in order to
solve the problems that your customers have.
Explore and find some role models who have achieved great things in your
sector or read up on leaders from other sectors who have achieved great
results. Then think about how you could
you apply and adapt their ideas to your situation. How effectively are you communicating and
reiterating your vision to your people?
- · The shift from Uncertainty to Understanding
Understanding
is one of the key executive functions of your pre-frontal cortex so it is vital
that you maintain a healthy state of mind.
This means developing a good exercise regimen, a balanced diet and getting
enough sleep. There are also many
different approaches to becoming more mindful and self-aware so it is possible
to find one that works for you. This
could be regular meditation, taking a walk in nature or making time to play
with your kids so you can see the world from their perspective. All of the latest thinking in Leadership is
about increasing self-awareness because it is difficult to understand others if
you don’t understand yourself. By
increasing your understanding of your own strengths and biases you can surround
yourself with people who have complimentary skills and different
perspectives. Two brains are always
better than one so increase the diversity in your thinking and approach by
getting others involved. This increases
flexibility and your ability to make sense of the world. I invite you to consider about how you could
raise your levels of self-awareness and increase the diversity of your
thinking.
- · The shift from Complexity to Clarity
These
days if you produce inconsistent products or give inconsistent service you can
face a severe social media backlash.
When United Airlines refused to pay for the cost of a damaged guitar the
owner Dave Carroll composed a little song “United Breaks Guitars” that went
viral on YouTube®. It is estimated that
it caused the company several million dollars in sales due to the global damage
to their reputation. How are you
managing the increasing complexity of your business? How are you ensuring that
your values are being communicated and that managers are role models at every
level of your business? How clear are
you being about the standards you want your people to meet? How are you ensuring that your managers are
consistently motivating and engaging your people in a way that inspires each
individual? It requires some serious thinking
to develop a communication strategy and a HR strategy that can recruit, develop
and retain the best people in a very tight multi-cultural labour market.
- · The shift from Ambiguity to Agility
There
are many mixed messages in the media depending on the political preferences of
the proprietors. This means that relying
on one source can mean you end up with a rather biased view. Agile leaders ensure that they get both sides
of the story; this may mean reading up on differing views and stepping into the
shoes of customers, suppliers and competitors to see things from their
perspective. Agility also means being
able to focus on a given situation, being quick to respond and flexible in your
approach. Collaboration is key and many
businesses are now specialising and creating joint ventures to address complex
problems for the customers they have in common.
Agility is also about rapid and continuous learning. Mistakes are inevitable but agile leaders
learn from them and ensure that the business also learns how to avoid them in
the future. It is worth thinking about
the quality of learning in your business and how you are capturing it, as well
as how you are ensuring that it is disseminated so the relevant people can
benefit from it.
Making
the time to focus and think will become the critical skills of the 21st
Century leader. Making the shifts
discussed above will begin to address the VUCA nature of the world we are now
living in but you don’t have to do it alone.
An opportunity to
join an exclusive little group
In
2017 I will be hosting a series of three meetings throughout the year for CEOs
and MDs in London. They are an
opportunity to meet with fellow entrepreneurs and explore the latest thinking
in leadership and the questions mentioned above. The meetings will challenge and debate the
key issues that participants are facing so they gain valuable, and above all
practical, insights from their peers.
There
are a limited number of places available so let me know if you are interested
in:
- · Sharing your opinions and being willing to listen to the opinion of others,
- · Asking and answering the awkward questions that need to be considered,
- · Giving and receiving feedback on your leadership in a safe and confidential environment.
Please
contact Gloria at Admin@InspiredWorking.com and put
‘Inspired Working Leadership Group’ in the subject. She will arrange a time for us to speak so we
can identify if the group is right for you and if you will be a good fit with
the Group.
Remember, especially as you consider VUCA . .
. stay curious!
With best regards,
David Klaasen
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