“Our business is change!” How leaders can navigate uncertainty

Businesses today are operating in an environment characterised by high inflation, supply chain shocks and labour shortages.?There have been crises before, of course, but senior leadership teams are currently facing an accumulation of disruptions all at once. And the pace of change is increasing.?To thrive, organisations need to be more agile, adaptable, resilient and innovative than even 12 months ago.

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Here are my thoughts on how leaders can successfully chart a way through the uncertainty . . .

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Embrace change

I recently found Phil Knight’s original manifesto for Nike online. Right at the top it states, “1. Our business is change.” Amazing! It’s as true today as it was back in the 80s. Businesses need to be able to adapt to dynamic demands. The best leaders embrace change, lead with authenticity, remain curious and help to instil a growth mindset in others. They are prepared, on a daily basis, to manage change. Importantly, they know they can’t do this alone and bring the right people together around the table – a team of trusted advisors who can deal with the frenetic pace of change and have “been through fire” before.

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Be open

To build resilience, leaders need to be role models of openness and be prepared to share their vulnerabilities. A team is a team - I can’t emphasise this enough. Nobody can be on their A game all day every day, no matter their position in the organisation! When people trust each other, and there’s a positive and inclusive culture, this isn’t a problem – a great team carries the person having an off day.

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Build a diverse team

Having a truly diverse team is powerful. It builds resilience, unlocks creativity and helps to bring balance. For me, this means diversity in its broadest sense, including diversity of thought, culture and experience. The importance of cognitive diversity is something Matthew Syed talks about regularly: “Having different lenses on multi-dimensional problems is a hugely important way to come up with winning strategies, great predictions, and excellent innovations.”?

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Let people share their nightmares

When it comes to making?critical decisions, I take my team through a “pre mortem”. We start with a decision and then reverse engineer every possible thing that could go wrong with that decision once it’s made. A crucial part of the process is encouraging people to put their worst nightmares on the table – their fears and worries about what could go wrong. Everyone has their say. Then we work together to come up with ideas to mitigate those issues. This approach helps to bind the team, with everybody pulling together to reach the best outcome.

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Nurture your support system

I firmly believe that people can only be as good as they can be at work due to the support system around them. It could be your family, your pet, your friends, a sports team you play for at the weekend, anyone. We’re all human and work may be important, but it’s not the entirety of our lives. As a leader, I nurture my own support system and I actively encourage my team to nurture and appreciate theirs.

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Adopt a human-first approach to tech

Tech plays a hugely important role in our lives, of course. It helps to remove the barriers of time and distance and enables rich communication. We're now moving into an era of generative AI, but - before diving in - my advice is to consider how any new solution will impact your people. You need to have very conscious conversations and plan carefully. The whole organisation needs to be on board, with an understanding of how the new tech will support and enhance their role reducing space, distance and time. And, of course, consider the ethical and security implications.

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Adopting these elements of leadership will make a big difference in your organisation.?Ultimately, the best leaders are true to themselves and nurture a culture where everybody can thrive. Relationships really matter. Having a team of people who care about each other, about colleagues, about customers, is so important today. It’s how we’ll get through these challenging, uncertain times. Going back to Phil Knight’s manifesto for a moment, I’ll leave you with some of his wise words as inspiration: “assume nothing . . . stretch the possible . . .do the right things”.