Being Adaptive and Broadening Your World View: How Leaders Will Get Ready for What’s Next in America

The current business environment remains complex and in flux. The U.S. general election is in less than a week. As with all elections, major corporations are remaining somewhat paused, waiting to see which of two very different new administrations will come into office. While this election has a lot of historical importance (and even more emotions), waiting out election results to make major decisions is not new for business leaders.

Navigating elections is not new for leaders. But it’s getting trickier.

What is different is that leaders now live in and prepare for an environment where constant adaptation is necessary. When companies were mostly led by people and strategy from the home country, even a multinational corporate leader was mostly impacted by its own government’s policies. But today, companies are truly global. They not only are deeply engaged in the local economy but held accountable by interested parties everywhere, for their response to events anywhere. A major home election is no longer one of a handful of consequential events that leaders must track, but frankly, just one more huge, impactful event to manage.

The new leadership values for today. The new suite of key leadership skills—I’d actually call them leadership values—includes an expanded world view. By that, I mean the perspective and planning by leadership teams now require a far broader capacity. It’s not enough to have a passing understanding of local markets. It doesn’t matter if a specific political issue has no direct impact on operational decisions of the organisation. What matters is that companies are present in those places, and the people they impact are able to report out on them. Their customers, suppliers, partners—and competitors—all can independently assess their activity.

Companies now must rely on much larger C-suites and executive teams to manage so many different demands of a global operation. They must have amongst them a diversity of views and perspectives to understand and synthesise everything from local norms and history to current political views and policy changes. All of this better improves the team’s adaptive leadership.

Companies are not only global actors; they are global citizens. As wealthy, powerful citizens who benefit from local markets, companies are now expected to participate in the dialogue. This is in part a result of their power: at least a dozen organizations have revenue comparable to the governments of large countries . Whether it’s high-profile social justice issues or very technical tax laws, everything is local. Or maybe everything is global now—no matter where something happens, we are all digitally connected and able to access some information about an event. Therefore, individuals can engage directly about what a company is doing and not rely on press releases or even official media sources.

Leaders understand that, of course. I work with clients all the time who realise the stakes of trying to strategize on an enterprise level, whilst also adjusting and reflecting opportunities and expectations on local levels. The challenge is not the should they expand their world view, but how. And that often comes down to a mindset more than a specific action. Teams can practice and prepare for difficult situations with frank and frequent conversations. This includes discussing politics and religion—a once taboo practice in the workplace. But the challenges arise too fast and too frequently for leadership teams to learn each other’s views when it’s at a critical decision-making moment. As a recent Harvard Business Review article explained, teams have to avoid a myopic, short-term perspective . It’s easier to measure hard data or strategise for the near term. It’s more concrete. But doing what’s easy doesn’t prepare you for what’s hard.

Instead, teams should learn to expand their world view by engaging with each other on what it means for the organisation as a whole to take one path or another. This week is a very good example. While America may be struggling to have conversations across the aisle, leadership teams must talk across the conference room table. This isn’t about changing anyone’s view—it’s about understanding how to operate in one political environment or another. Regardless of individual politics, that has to be reconciled with decision making and strategy. Something will come up. Companies will be expected to opine openly. Whoever wins, whatever the issue, no one solution will feel great to everyone. But expanding your world view is about being able to understand and appreciate that view and move a business forward within that framework.

Leaders know they must be more adaptable. That requires a different perspective.

What leaders will face in January 2025 is anyone’s guess. Their best strategy is not to work towards certain scenarios but train themselves to embrace a certain mindset. That isn’t easy: we believe in our own values firmly. In some situations, we’ll struggle to understand another’s perspective. But for large scale organizations, the only way forward for leadership teams, is down the path together.

This article first appeared on The Robert Kovach Blog.

Dr. Robert Kovach has spent his entire career working as a trusted advisor to senior leaders wanting to improve the effectiveness of themselves, their teams and their companies. Prior to starting his own consulting firm, Robert led the global executive assessment and development team for Cisco . Earlier in his career Robert held leadership roles with RHR International , PepsiCo , Ashridge Executive Education, Hult International Business School and the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary .