Purposeful Agility

In 2007 I looked for some type of exercise/physical activity that would help ease the pain and discomfort of a nagging lower back injury. I heard about a conveniently located Pilates studio, tried it out, and fell in love with this extraordinary type of physical activity/mastery/art-form. Since then I go to this small and simple Pilates studio as often as I can, which isn’t always easy considering my intense traveling schedule. I’m happy to say that my lower back issues have completely disappeared with the help of Pilates.

There have been additional gifts and worthwhile discoveries that I have received from my Pilates practice, some of them surprisingly deep and powerful, with implications beyond my back issues. There’s an element which admittedly is illusive, not easy to describe, or get the hang of. The idea is that you practice a physical activity that’s fairly challenging while your entire body is relaxed, flexible and agile. Simultaneously, there’s a singular point within your body, that’s intensely present, deliberate, and focused. I refer to this unique union of polarities as “Purposeful Agility”. I admit that after close to 14 years of consistent and dedicated practice, finding the perfect balance in this “See-Saw” of opposites is tricky and illusive.

With everything all of us are going through these days as a result of the Covid-19 global pandemic, and its massive impact on nearly every aspect of our lives, it struck me that learning how to successfully manage Purposeful Agility and link it to leadership might be both timely and valuable.

With the unprecedented levels of uncertainty and volatility, leaders and teams are required now more than ever to develop their agility, flexibility, and adaptability. The Agile Alliance’s definition is “The ability to create and respond to change in order to succeed in uncertain and turbulent environment.” Leadership agility is the capacity to adapt, pivot, and improvise in a manner that effectively “meets” our exceedingly the volatile and uncertain business reality, and creating from what is, no matter what! Here are four suggestions to support you become a more agile leader; you might find them “common knowledge”, but that doesn’t mean that they’re “common practice”!

1. Mindfulness: Mindfulness is the quality of being present and fully engaged with whatever you’re doing at the moment-free from distraction or judgement, and aware of your thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them. The essence of agility is a mindset of being Present, Open, and Flexible. To be in this creative and generative state we must be mindful, unoccupied; and in many ways “empty”. If there’s too much internal “noise” and mental chatter, we’re simply not present, and we miss key “signals and cues” about what’s happening in the moment, and aren’t able to create from what’s taking place. It’s crucial now more than ever to cultivate a mindfulness practice.
2. Body: It’s hard to develop leadership agility if physically we’re stiff, rigid and out of shape! If we want to be more agile as leaders, we need to take our physical mobility and agility seriously; as the saying goes, “The body is the temple of the soul”. It doesn’t really matter what type of physical activity you do, as long as you enjoy it and do it consistently!
3. Emotions: Adaptability requires the flexibility to take into account multiple perspectives on a given situation. This flexibility depends, in turn, on an emotional strength: the ability to stay comfortable with ambiguity and remain calm in the face of the unexpected. (D. Goleman, 1998). A 1990 journal of marketing study of store managers at a large American retail chain found that managers who were most tense, stressed, or overwhelmed by job pressures ran stores with the worst performance in terms of net profits, sales per square foot, sales per employee and per dollar of inventory investment. And those who stayed most composed under the same pressure had the best per-store records.

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, and those of the people around you. People with a high degree of emotional intelligence know what they're feeling, what their emotions mean, and how these emotions can affect other people. For leaders, having high EQ is essential for greater leadership agility. After all, who’s more likely to remain agile, open, and able to adapt,– a leader who’s stressed out and “highjacked” by their emotions, or a leader who’s aware of his/her emotions, present, and calmly assesses the situation?

According to Daniel Goleman , an American psychologist who helped popularize emotional intelligence, the two key elements to it are Self-awareness, and Self-management. The more that you, as a leader manage each of these areas, the higher your EQ.

Self-awareness: If you're self-aware, you always know what you feel, as well as how your emotions and your actions can affect the people around you.             2. Self-Management: Leaders who manage themselves effectively rarely verbally attack others, make rushed or emotional decisions, stereotype people, or compromise their values. Self-management is all about managing your emotions more effectively.

The more volatile and uncertain our business reality becomes, and the more agile and response-able we need to be, the more EQ matters.

1. Sleep: Let’s name it, the digree of chaos and volatility we’re experiencing can be exhausting! Furthermore, shifting to a mostly virtual reality can be extremely taxing physically, energetically, and mentally. It’s not particularly sophisticated or sexy, but a crucial element of achieving sustainable leadership agility is getting enough sleep! Sleep deprivation one-upmanship is not only un-healthy, it leads to talented leaders making disastrous decisions! Commit to a good night’s sleep, 7 or even 8 hours of sleep a night, as much as possible; to quote Ariana Huffington, “The essence of leadership is being able to see the iceberg before it hits the Titanic.” It’s hard to spot all the icebergs these days if you’re too exhausted!

Leadership Agility and resiliency are needed now more than ever, but that alone simply isn’t sufficient. If all you are as a leader is agile and pliable, it’s like a kite who’s string is cut, the kite drifts free with the wind until it falls to the ground. The “Yin”-Agility- must have a powerful “Yang” to counter-balance it: purpose and vision. Leading on purpose gives us a sense of direction; without it we eventually lose our way. Richard Lieder describes it succinctly:

             Purpose.

             Your aim.

             Your reason for being.

             Your reason for getting up in the morning.

             Every one of us needs a reason to get up in the morning.

In their inspirational book Scaling Leadership, authors Anderson & Adams write that ‘leaders working their way to the top are motivated to move up safely. The more we want to move up safely (knowing the fall gets farther and harder with each promotion), the more we need approval of those around us. The fall from grace is a scary proposition. Most of us would do almost anything to avoid losing the confidence of key stakeholders’. Here’s the problem: You can’t pursue purpose and safety at the same time. We must move from safety, “playing not to lose”, to playing on purpose and what matters most. There’s no safe way to be great!

Whenever we are confronted with a crisis, we are given an opportunity to express our highest calling, to fulfill our deepest purpose. A sense of purpose is hardly ever handed to us, we get it by consciously choosing to discover it, over and over again.

So stop and ask yourself, why do I get-up in the morning?

How agile and purposeful is your leadership, both in good times, and also in times of crisis and uncertainty? Purposeful Agility is both a practice (“Doing”), and a mindset (“Being”). Where do you typically shine, and where is there room for growth and development? Commit to work on one or two areas that’ll take your Purposeful Agility leadership to the next level. It might very well be the game changer that your business sustainability and success depend on!