"Navigating Uncertainty: How to Anchor Your Team in a Fast-Changing World"

In today’s rapidly changing landscape, leaders play a pivotal role in guiding their teams through uncertainty. Drawing from two decades of experience in leading change, I've learned the significance of establishing future-focused anchors. These anchors not only provide stability but also boost motivation and purpose, leading to exceptional performance within organizations.

In this era of relentless transformation, our ancient brains struggle with the pace, often defaulting to stress in the face of uncertainty. This response, rooted in our primal "fight, flight, or freeze" instincts, can sap motivation, blur purpose, and impair cognitive functions. However, as leaders, we have the unique opportunity to help our team members embody the future by creating personal visions and tangible futures that offer direction and make sense of the chaos.

Leaders today play a pivotal role in guiding their teams through uncertainty

This article aims to provide you as a leader with practical strategies for helping your employees develop personal visions and in the next article we’ll come back to how one can create tangible futures. The personal visions are not about setting goals but about finding what deeply resonating with the individual’s values and aspirations, thereby enhancing self-leadership and decision-making.

Personal Visions Enable Focus

Creating a personal vision is essential for focusing on what truly matters, guiding decisions, and reducing uncertainty. It represents a future where one's aspirations and values are realized, providing a sense of direction. For instance, envisioning oneself in the future, reflecting on a life rich with experiences and relationships, can inspire actions aligned with those long-term desires.

Leaders can use personal visions as tools to empower their teams, helping members to:

• Navigate decisions with confidence
• Stay focused on what matters most
• Lead themselves with assurance
• Commit to actions with a sense of purpose

When I work with people I often share my own vision to give an example of what a vision can be and how it can be used.

My vision is for when I'm 90 years old. I see myself sitting in a rocking chair on a porch while friends, family, and kids come by to discuss experiences we have had and are having. The most important thing to me, at 90, is that I have said 'yes' to experiences because that means I have learned new things, been challenged, and tried new things. The values emphasize relationships, being healthy, and being open and curious. When I'm facing hard decisions, I ask myself what she would answer. This means that I have to constantly be open to evolve and change my role, so I'll be relevant in the future and do things that I'm excited about.

Crafting a Vision: Practical Exercises for Your Team

To aid your team in developing their visions, here are three exercises inspired by my time at Kaospilot Experience Design . These can unlock creative potential and guide individuals in formulating visions that resonate with their aspirations and values. The exercises are written in such a way that you can share it directly with your team members.

Exercise 1: The Future Letter

Objective: To articulate your future aspirations in a personal and emotional manner.

How to Do It:

• Imagine yourself five years from now, having achieved your biggest goals and living your ideal professional and personal life.
• Write a letter to your current self from this future perspective. Describe your achievements, how you feel, the challenges you overcame, and the lessons you learned along the way.
• Be vivid and detailed in your descriptions, focusing on emotions, experiences, and the values that guided you.

Exercise 2: Vision Board Creation

Objective: To visually represent your aspirations, values, and what truly matters to you.

How to Do It:

• Gather magazines, photographs, quotes, or any visual elements that inspire you.
• On a large board or digital canvas, start arranging these elements to create a collage that represents your vision for the future in 10 years from now.
• Include aspects of your professional goals, personal growth, lifestyle, and anything else that is part of your ideal future.
• Use this vision board as a daily reminder of your aspirations and what you're working towards.

Exercise 3: The Role Model Reflection

Objective: To derive inspiration and clarity from the journeys of those you admire.

How to Do It:

• Select three individuals you admire for their achievements, leadership qualities, or the impact they've had on their field or community.
• For each role model, write down the qualities, achievements, and aspects of their journey that resonate with you.
• Reflect on how these attributes align with your own aspirations and values. Which one would you like to identify with in 5 years from now.?
• Gather your aspirations and values and summarize it in a short about page.
• Print it and/or keep it somewhere accessible for yourself

Implementing Vision Exercises

• Encourage doing these exercises at different times to deepen understanding and broaden perspective. But choose the one that resonate best to start.
• Customize the vision’s horizon based on individual needs, and revisit it regularly to ensure alignment with goals and actions.
• Use these visions as discussion points in one-on-ones or team meetings to keep everyone aligned and motivated.

Conclusion

A personal vision is the foundation for connecting to the future and oneself.? It works as an anchor that enable individuals to navigate life with intention and purpose. By guiding your team through these exercises, you can help them establish their own anchors, providing clarity and motivation as they tackle the complexities of modern work life.

Embark on this journey with your team, fostering a culture of visionary leadership that thrives on purpose and performance. Remember, the development of a vision is a continuous process, evolving as individuals grow.

I'm here to support you in this transformative journey. Together, let's unlock the potential of visionary leadership within your team.

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More to read on the topics:

What Matters Most https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/4950018

Future and uncerainty https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301008217300369

Uncertainty

https://hbr.org/2021/09/our-brains-were-not-built-for-this-much-uncertainty

About Anna

Anna Borg is passionate about the future, what 2053 will look like and what that means today.?As an entrepreneur, CEO, and leader she has worked globally with clients like Google, AWS, Samsung, Volvo and Miele. Alongside driving startups, mentoring individuals and angel investor. With 20 years of experience within self-leadership and the digital space and alongside that, creating tools for individual & team development for over 10 years. This has resulted in talks, workshops and masterclasses about leadership, self-leadership, organisational culture and change. During the last 5+ years Anna has been the CEO at TOPP design and innovation studio, recently acquired by Manyone. Nowadays a global Strategic Design consultancy that works with clients such as Nike, Samsung, Google, AWS, Lufthansa, Walmart, Ikea, GSK, and more.?