What if I perform better in crisis-mode?

What if maybe, just maybe, you really are some kind of low key, superhero/X-person?

I've heard a number of leaders (including myself) wonder aloud: "what if I'm a better leader when I'm in crisis-mode (e.g., during unstoppable pandemics, recessions, weather catastrophes, icebergs or any event with a 'titanic coefficient' of adversity)?"

Uffff... then 2020-2030 has our name all over it.

Spoiler alert: you definitely are a better leader in crisis mode and thank goodness you're here to help lead us through 2020. You've got gifts, CXO. You are unstoppable. I've seen some of your accomplishments this year = super impressive. I'm not so sure about me though. I've got some gifts too, but before I start posing for the bronze statue that my company is bound to forge in honor of my heroic leadership under fire, here are a few "what if'" questions I'm considering...

1. What if I'm misdiagnosing the cause & effect?
2. What if "non-crisis mode" is just an illusion?
3. What if all leadership is "crisis-mode" leadership?

1. WHAT IF I’M MISDIAGNOSING THE CAUSE & EFFECT?

I might not be misdiagnosing anything. But what if my crisis-mode leadership isn’t really even what’s creating the surprisingly adaptive/constructive crisis response of my org? What if the story I'm telling myself about how I come to life differently as a leader during crisis (almost overnight), to spark new levels of organizational effectiveness isn't about me?

What if in reality, our improved organizational effectiveness and the temporary spike of innovation, courage, speed, mental toughness, durability, care, compassion, and collaboration didn’t come from my individual leadership shift at all?

What if my individual leadership shift actually comes from the collective shift of the whole community of human beings and the way they're thinking & behaving differently?

What if they respond to me differently because they are BE-ing different/showing up differently (e.g., more aware, constructive, compassionate, open, experimental, understanding, caring) which in turn helps me BE/show up differently too?

What if they are the ones collectively showing up like superheroes and I'm following their lead? Do I really understand how to leverage the full potential of this complex socio-technical system that I'm in charge of? Or is my knower mindset and ego getting in the way of a sustainable, next level breakthrough?

2. WHAT IF "NON-CRISIS MODE" IS AN ILLUSION?

If disruption and change are always happening...

(e.g., we are in a continuous state of exponential VUCA or "XVUCA" as I like to call it)

…then, isn't non-crisis mode just an illusion or a story we tell ourselves about a slower, more simpler moment in time??

• What if we?create the illusion of “non-crisis”?mode, because we don’t trust that our “crisis-mode” performance is sustainable? (we're faster now and we like it...but we "can't sprint the marathon" so let's hedge so we don't look bad 6 months from now)
• What if we?accept the illusion of “non-crisis”?mode just to rationalize why we should take our foot off the gas pedal of focus & intensity on self-awareness, growth and slow down all the exploration…allowing us to drift back to our comfortable old levels of perceived certainty, unclear commitments, distraction/zombie-like/ victimhood & homeostasis?
• What if we?perpetuate the illusion of “non-crisis"?mode to undermine other’s standards (slowing down their exploration too)?so together we can excuse holding onto our preference for long term procrastination as we lower our own standards of personal responsibility/congruency/creator-ness (relative to “crisis-mode”)?

3. WHAT IF ALL LEADERSHIP IS CRISIS-MODE LEADERSHIP??

Perhaps “crisis-mode” language creates a destabilizing and unnecessary emergency inner state VS the urgency inner state that we are wishing to maintain; maybe we should just say all leadership is "XVUCA" leadership (gesundheit); "transformation" leadership; "big wave" leadership; "complex adaptive" leadership; or whatever helps dissolve the illusion of “non-crisis”/complacency.

2020 has been a microcosm of the tsunami of change that we will continue to experience. In our lifetime and our children's lifetime there will only be exponential change. We are just rounding first base & the dust never really settles .?2020-2030 is going to be off the charts with the speed and depth of change that we will all face. We can try to ignore/deny it. We can resort back to our favorite coping?mechanisms and wait for the dust to settle while rationalizing that we're doing the best we can.?Waiting until the dust settles sounds the same to me as waiting until the next crisis.?Crisis is temporary. Change is chronic. Waiting itself, sounds like the crisis.

Did you ever notice that a lot of people named "Doug" seem to be X-MENpeoples? Check out this interview with the CEO of Walmart, Doug McMillon, "No Turning Back". He connects the dots of leadership, culture and prioritization in the face of crisis. Stan McChrystal and Chris Fussell interview Doug as he "shares how he thinks the role of the leader has changed through the turmoil of 2020, how to build a high-performing team, and managing a global enterprise of immense scale and complexity."

WHAT IF...

What if we focused on getting better at readying ourselves, others and the enterprise for the emerging risks with the highest impact and velocity vs just reacting to the current risks (e.g., new waves of CV19, new working models, strategic corrections, political uncertainty/instability, global supply chain & investment disruptions, misguided cost-cutting efforts, cyber-physical convergence & cyberattack vulnerability, corporate social negligence & social unrest, work/life convergence & burnout, extreme weather events)?

• What if we think of our daily life as a constant “anticipatory” crisis of scenario planning and improving our readiness for what’s next?
• What if we think of our daily life as a constant “walk the talk” crisis of real-time congruency re: a life of focus around intrinsic motivation, our higher purpose, core values, guiding principles)?
• What if we think of our daily life as a constant “test & learn” crisis of experimentation, learning as we go (action-learning), feed-back/reflection and always adjusting for the future?

CRISIS-MODE = LEARNING MODE

If we are noticing how much more awake/alive we are during crisis...maybe that's an indication of how more asleep/zombie-like we might be otherwise. Yes, of course we are more skillful leaders when we're more awake/alive. We're better at everything when we are more awake/aware. Without a doubt, conscious leaders are better crisis-mode leaders. Maybe we can learn to be more conscious, more often. Maybe what we learn about ourselves and our teams, during this crisis, can be a “silver?bullet” accelerant of a next-level change - IF AND ONLY IF - we are?exquisitely deliberate about the learning part and we pursue mastery vs dabbling & hacking at the things that matter most. That is a big IF.

NO MORE DABBLING, NO MORE HACKING - PURSUE MASTERY

Most of us are not familiar with the XVUCA acronym (because I just invented it) nor the VUCA acronym although it has been around for 40+ years. The new version of it called BANI. But still, even if executives can recite the VUCA or BANI acronyms accurately, they haven't learned what each word means in the context of business, nor have they learned which two are largely internal vs which two are external. More importantly, they haven't learned to focus their attention long enough, on the ONE that represents the greatest risk/challenge to their own leadership and organizational effectiveness. Most of us are not building mastery at the same speed of change going on around us.... let alone building the sustainable, courageous culture platform necessary for rapid adaptation (at scale) in their organization. That's not ok. We're all a little late when it comes to learning about the real work to be done.

Thank you for being late along with me vs choosing not to show up at all . You and I can still wear the cape and boots if we want to. But they won't build statues of us just because we pose for it. We can't do this alone AND no one is coming. It's up to us . (ahh the paradox of integral leadership.) Everything we need to be?UNSTOPPABLE ?at scale (whatever we decide that is) is already inside of us, all of us. Let's not wait to take responsibility for readying ourselves. Let's not wait to equip/ready others. Lets not wait to build the culture competency we need to help shape our environment in a way that every single one of us on the team can show up like a superhero/X-person, no matter what the XVUCA circumstances are.

"Then we stand together...X-people, all of us."-Wolverine