Leadership and hiring in the VUCA world?

VUCA is a military term that stands for: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. Today's world is full of VUCA experiences and same is seized by the corporate, personal and political world where we need to be more capable, agile and better at leading change.

The world has gotten into an accelerated mode because of COVID-19, which makes even more important for everyone to us to lead in the VUCA world.

What does VUCA mean?

Volatility - Information is available, situation understandable but changes frequently. These situations are many times not predictable. Agility is the key here i.e moving quickly with ease, being open to changing situation, being lively, being responsive.

Uncertainty - Lack of knowledge or having doubt as to whether the event will have a significant result. Information is the key here. Having as much data in different cuts and analysing it will help in getting new perspectives.

Complexity - Complexity does not necessarily involve change. Complexity brings an elaborate network of information, processes, people in multiple platforms. Restructuring internal operations to match external complexity will be an effective and efficient way of addressing this.

Ambiguity - Lack of information. The cause and effect are unknown and we cannot predict the outcome. Experimenting is necessary for reducing ambiguity. Only by experimenting the leaders can determine whether the strategies are beneficial or not.

Hiring for VUCA

It becomes very critical to look for these traits while hiring for your organisation. While hiring I look for the below traits along with the skills needed for the role. This helps me in getting the best person/leader for my teams.

• People should display objective decisionmaking capability for problems rather than being subjective or emotional.
• Display confidence - Many times the future is not clear. Being resilient through challenging times helps build success stories ."If you believe you can, then you will" - By Henry Ford.
• Being Empathetic - Leaders must be empathetic. People must showcase how they understand, respond, care and help their team members, peers who are in the complex nature of work.
• Demonstrate integrity - People with integrity follow moral and ethical principles in all aspects of life. This extends to professional areas at work such as decision making, interacting with colleagues. Sharing our fears openly and engaging to provide coaching through uncertainty.
• Sets realistic expectations - Individual should identify and agree on setting realistic targets. There is nothing more demotivational than setting up an unrealistic target. Targets should be discussed frequently and adjusted as the team navigates through challenges.
• Being Democratic and practice engagement - Engaging with people to understand the challenges faced by them and discussing possible solutions to the challenges and facilitate feedback mechanism. Making joint decisions will inspire the team to come up with creative solutions and take ownership as the solutions are owned by the team.

Happy Learning!

Mili