7 unforgivable crimes for VUCA times
VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) times are here, and they aren’t going away anytime soon.
What do we do when we have no clue what the world will look like even a few years from now? How do we respond to changes coming in from every direction?
Your nemesis could barge in from anywhere - A startup sneaking up right under your nose, an unexpected regulatory shift or a ‘black swan’ event that changes the course of your industry forever!
Instead of focusing on what to do (we trust you to figure that one out!), here are 7 things you surely must NOT do in these times. Here are 7 crimes for VUCA times -
1. Leading with only one style
Each one of us has our pet leadership theory and style. And in difficult times, we cling onto it even more. But leading with only one style is like being the person with a hammer - every issue will appear to be a nail. Which is okay in normal times, but in VUCA times, you may suddenly find some glass!
Will you continue to hammer away and shatter it? Or will you expand your ‘ways of being and acting’?
2. Losing the trust of your team
Steven Covey showed us that Trust brings speed and efficiency. In VUCA times, trust becomes even more essential. It binds people. Trust is the superglue that allows your ship to withstand the huge waves of change. Any erosion in trust, whether through inauthenticity, miscommunication or simply by not showing up will create a dent in your power as a leader.
Should you not then, build trust and protect it at all costs?
3.Fearing the chaos
Fearing anything leads to an ‘amygdala hijack’. This in turn leads to some very predictable responses - the most common one being ‘freeze’. Like an ostrich, an organization can dig a hole and put its head in it, pretending that nothing is changing. Freezing is the surest way to be destroyed by the coming changes.
Will you wake up and smell the coffee? Will you dance with the chaos?
4. Insisting on your worldview
VUCA times are terribly complex. No One View can create an accurate map of reality. No decision coming from a monopoly of seeing the world can ever work. As a leader, then, holding multiple perspectives, honouring interests of various stakeholders and communicating across the diversity are essential. And if you really believe your world view is THE worldview, be prepared to be doomed.
Are you listening keenly enough to how the world looks like from other perspectives?
5. Refusing to confront and dialogue
In challenging times, communication is everything. Its clarity and speed will determine how well you respond to the changes around you. Often though, this communication will require you to question established ways. It will involve renegotiating boundaries, taking tough decisions and calling out each others’ blind spots. Without the skills of confronting effectively, politeness will brush issues under the carpet. But only for so long.
Is your team tackling each other adequately? Are there spaces in your team to raise questions that matter?
6. Hoping for stabler times
Inspiration cannot simply be the assertion that ‘things will get better’ or that the situation will eventually turn around. Hope for stabler times can only go that far. Instead, the stability has to be created from WITHIN a leader’s being. Anchored in their own stableness, with self-awareness and sensitivity, leaders can be in the eye of this storm. With a capacity for groundedness, leaders can hold space for the new to emerge.
Do you feel sufficiently grounded and centred as a leader? Are you ready for the roller coaster ride (in spite of the fear)?
7. Trying to control it all
Trying to control VUCA times is pointless - there is just too much changing and moving at its own rhythm. Controlling will only reveal the limits of your ability. Instead, it is responding to what is emerging, with agility, that will see you through. This means a constant eye on the market and a constant hand on the steering wheel to keep making the small shifts needed to cruise along.
Are you hoping that you will be able to ‘manage’ or control these times? Or are you ready to improvise?
The price of a crime in VUCA times is simply the end of your venture. Instead, why not get ready for the adventure?
(with inputs from @Sushma Sharma, Resonate Consulting)
Scientist-practitioner studying high performance and wellbeing
8 年Time is here. Peaceful, regular, simple and clear. We must always strive to understand illusion and our perceptions. Live quietly.
Executive coach & consultant | artist & designer at Human Centered Design Studio
8 年Thanks for this posting Abhishek! A crime is "punishable". While I found myself being 'attracted' to the use of "unforgivable crimes..." in the title, I am afraid that such labeling and judgments will sadly continue the cycle of violence against our psyche, others', organizations' and the world-at-large and exacerbate VUCA and our need for control, compliance or distancing from it. I think that you are saying the same thing, perhaps indirectly? We need a different response - a curious, patient, gentler, kinder, compassionate and courageous one. One that includes the acknowledgement and difficulty of transforming our "reactions" to "responses". I won't belabor here, but I am reminded of a poem that speaks to what I wish to but does it far more simply and eloquently “I am not a mechanism, an assembly of various sections. and it is not because the mechanism is working wrongly, that I am ill. I am ill because of wounds to the soul, to the deep emotional self, and the wounds to the soul take a long, long time, only time can help and patience, and a certain difficult repentance long difficult repentance, realization of life’s mistake, and the freeing oneself from the endless repetition of the mistake which mankind at large has chosen to sanctify.” D H Lawrence.