Leading Change? Start Treating Uncertainty As The New Normal

“There’s no point even suggesting anything anymore,” Chris lamented to me. “No matter what I put forward, Max says no. Says it’s too risky right now. He’s frozen all spending, 'all everything', until things get back to normal down and are more ‘predictable’,” he said, his eyes rolling upward.?

If you’ve ever had a boss like Max (whose name has been changed), my commiserations.?

Chris sits on Max’s regional leadership team in a large multinational with a culture steeped in hierarchy. Max operates from a ‘command and control’ leadership paradigm - planning, analyzing, reanalyzing, and putting off decision making until he’s minimized all risk to himself.??This means he's slow to make decisions, even in good times. And when he does, the opportunities have often passed, seized by more agile competitors.?

There are many people feeling demoralized like Chris right now. For every forward-leaning organization that has doubled-down on emboldening employees to challenge old thinking and suggest new ideas, there is at least one that hasn’t.

The reason is simple: organizations are run by human beings. And we humans are wired for certainty; to look for predictable patterns and avoid situations that risk us losing security or status…?at least in the short term.

The greatest threat to any organization's ability to build edge under pressure is the fear that stifles the potential in its ranks.

It’s why the greatest threat to any organization's ability to adapt to change, seize its opportunities and build edge under pressure is never external. Rather it’s the fear that drives smart, capable, creative people (like Chris) – people who deeply want to add value– to disengage, play it safe, and plan their eventual exit.?

After all, people play safe when they feel it's unsafe to do otherwise. So when they fear being penalized for questioning established paradigms or processes, it’s little wonder they hold back.??

But at what cost?

Organizational psychologist Margaret Wheatly wrote:

"The real role of a leader is not to control but to mid-wife, to evoke, those qualities of commitment, compassion, generosity and creativity that are in all of us to start with.”

That is, great leaders work every day to build trust, enhance psychological safety and foster the conditions that unleash the diversity of potential within their teams. And by doing so, to expand their capacity to navigate uncertainty with greater creativity and courage.?

Leaders like Max, who focus only on the consequences of failure and penalize any dissent, shrink the holes in people’s psychological safety net, stymying ingenuity, and locking up potential.?The cost to the bottom line is steep. The cost to the human spirit is immeasurable.??

Amid the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the path toward recovery is still mired with unknowns, leaders need to double-down on fostering a ‘culture of courage’ across virtually distributed teams that expands the capacity – individually and collectively – of employees to thrive in the midst of change. This requires shifting from a defensive?‘playing not to lose’ mindset and adopting an offensive ‘play to win’ approach?– focused not on what might be lost, but on what can be gained.?Doing so expands the aperture through which we view our situations, enabling us to see opportunities that may otherwise lay hidden from plain sight.

It’s a well known rule of battle is that, when under mortar fire, the direction one runs holds less risk than standing still.??

We like to think we can predict the future and control for all outcomes. But the truth is that?certainty is an illusion and uncertainty?is?the status quo! And while 2021 may be less disruptive than 2020, it will be anything but predictable.?Leaders who stick with a hyper-controlled approach, micro-managing people –tightly holding the decision-making reigns and de-risking decisions to the point of diluting the opportunities they might have seized –will only deprive employees an opportunity to thrive, but will do a disservice to all their organization's stakeholders.?

Of course, uncertainty will always trigger psychological discomfort.?However, unless we embrace its discomfort, and empower others to do the same, we will ultimately land in a less secure place.

As Steve Kerr, former Chief Learning Officer at GE, shared on a panel with me at Forbes Thought Leaders Summit, ‘peripheral risk-taking is essential to protect the core.’?

It brings to mind a quote by?Dag Hammarskjold?who wrote, “It is when?we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity.” Only by daring to step bravely into unchartered terrain, while iterating often, can organizations seize the opportunities uncertainty and disruption always holds.??

So instead of trying to avoid uncertainty (an exercise in futility), work to expand the capacity of those around you to take courageous action in its presence -?unlearning old ways of working?and experimenting with new ones.

The maxim that fortune favors the bold is never truer than when fear runs high. So beware of allowing fear of making a wrong decision keep you from making the right one. Our psychological immune systems can justify an excess of courage more easily than an excess of cowardice.

Be brave enough to make decisions and then brave enough to change them.

As you look toward the future, consider that both your own and your organization's success is directly proportional to your collective courage to move forward in the presence of uncertainty, ready to adapt, iterate, and unlearn as often as needed.?

(Note: this will be often)

So reframe uncertainty into possibility, dare to reimagine the future, and recommit transforming this crisis into a catalyst to unlock the full quota of potential in those around you.?Reaping its opportunities will demand no less.

Margie Warrell, PhD, recently released her fifth book?You’ve Got This! The Life-Changing Power of Trusting Yourself.