I get it. I worry too!
In fact, I did last night. How can you rest easy when all around you, in everything you read or hear in your business environment, are these expressions? “Era of perpetual upheaval”, “permacrisis”, “age of disruption”, they all have a certain doom day ring to them, how negative!
Many times before we’ve advocated for change and moments of crisis as opportunities to be seized and embraced. Understandably though, if you’re in a constant and permanent look out for opportunities in the disruption, it can take a toll. The new “normal”, that which is not quite allowing us to do business as usual, make medium to long term projections or strategise as we’re used to is destabilising us all.
Ruminating and staying trapped in your mind thinking about the possibilities is not going to take you forward though. Action is required and the only way to make possibilities a fact. Is it going to be the right move? Maybe, maybe not, but a mindset of adaptive leadership will certainly help you with the change and its outcomes, good or bad or great.
Change management has been around long enough to have a great understanding of how to handle planned change, how to implement change we know is needed. However, the ever-growing list of things that are out of our control is telling us a complete 360 of leadership may be in play here. We talked about the fundamental shifts in mindset a few weeks back. Let me remind you of the one that explains how our focus as leaders needs to move away from a mindset of preservation to lead as visionaries with a mindset of possibility.
A healthy dose of caution, understanding and protecting that which you hold dear is obviously important, but obsessing about what is out of our control will leave you stuck, and unable to lead with the curiosity and adaptability that is needed.
In the words of our fave Simon Sinek: “That idea is so fantastic. Stop talking about it. Just do it”. Don’t let uncertainty and fear of the unknown break your flow and impede your creativity.
Get more comfortable with the uncomfortable and build resilience and courage with the certainty that you have clarity of purpose, a great team and systems in place to fall back on.