What leaders can do now!
Our world is facing a complex new reality, maybe even bordering on chaos. I coach leaders, and I see that many leaders have a strong impulse to set a course of action, to take charge, point the way, tell staff what to do. And maybe that usually worked. But not today. Today is different.
According to the Cynefin model, we are in a period of extreme complexity/chaos, and what worked yesterday won’t work today. The virus has broken our old cause and effect equation. Our current situation has made the old playbook is obsolete. So how can you lead when you have no idea what to do?
Most successful leaders have experienced this same confusion and loss of clarity before in a much more specific way. Your expertise, decisiveness, and competence led to the first of many promotions. But at some point, as your job became more involved, you recognized that the old cause and effect equation didn’t work, that the problems and the people were much more interconnected and challenging. You put aside your reliance on being an expert and embraced the real job of leadership- asking big, powerful, insightful questions.
Great leaders use questions to learn from others, they ask others how to deploy resources effectively, and they ask to gain clarity into new patterns. And we are swimming in a sea of new patterns. You became a successful leader because, at some point, you learned to ask more and tell less. You recognized you had a lot to learn about the new system. Sure, as your confidence grew, and you developed a set of expert leadership skills, you may have moved back into the telling mode. But while the habit may be a bit rusty now, it’s still available.
Move back to asking questions, and start testing the waters, try small experiments to see what might work in this environment. Ask questions of your staff, your customers, and the mentors. Support the experiments that work and investigate the failures by asking honest, curious questions. You did it when you evolved from being a manager to being a leader. You have the skills, now is the time to deploy them as never before.