Observation
This week it struck me that:
This will be years not months or weeks
We are only just at the beginning of what will probably be the biggest economic downturn of my lifetime (and I have been working with leaders for over 30 years)
Boris, or any politician in any country, is not going to be able to tell us what will happen in the future
Our personal freedom is going to be significantly reduced for a long time, with the subsequent threats to our mental and physical health
The coronavirus is a real threat which is not going away anytime soon.
That’s the reality - DEAL WITH IT!
During a workshop this week, one of my clients shared this insight from an article he had been reading (thanks Stephan): in major wars it is the individuals who acknowledge, accept and adapt early to the reality, who most successfully survive the ordeal, practically and emotionally.
Current Leadership Challenge
Get The Right People Doing
The Right Roles
Recently I have observed leaders having a tendency to:
Operate at too low a level eg: a CEO becoming very actively involved in fire fighting in her major division because she has the most experience. Factually that is true, but there are several people who have meaningful amounts of experience who could put the fire out, there is nobody but her who can lead the overall business and shape its future for many years to come. It’s a classic case of the seemingly urgent driving out the most important.
Have the wrong people shaping the future eg: those people who are shaping the future need to be those who are likely to best understand it and be committed to delivering it, that is not always the same as the most senior leader who happens to be in the role at the moment, whose experience is embedded in the past and whose commitment is not for the long term.
Practical Action
Have A Structure For Thinking About The Future
There are many, many ways of thinking about the future of a business in order to determine and execute on a strategy that will win. I am not going to pretend that I have the only way of doing it but having run what is probably now in excess of 1000 workshops, these are the key simple questions that I have found most practical in getting a leadership team to think about its future:
Purpose – why do we exist?
Strategy – why does our market need us, why will we win and how will we defend our position? For growth businesses, product market fit and scalability will be key parts of this.
Mission – where do we want to be in 3/5 years?
Priorities – what are we going to focus on over the next 1/3/12 months?
Values – what is important to us in how we deliver our business?
KPI’s – how do we know we are making progress?
Narrative – how do we tie this in to a single compelling story which helps our stakeholders understand, engage with and act on what we want?
My advice is to have a structure and don’t get hung up on the words. In my experience virtually every high performing leadership team I have worked with has had an answer to their version of the above questions.
Comments