“The world has never moved this quickly before, and it will never move this slowly again.”
Last week, I delivered a keynote for my long-time client, Bank of America, in New Jersey. The above quote came from fellow speaker Felix Tran at BofA Securities.
Leaders increasingly face an onslaught of change: unpredictable government policies, new AI capabilities, and overwhelm on their teams.
How does a leader effectively lead through these realities?
How do you, as my negotiations professor Brian Mandell used to say, find your personal path through the chaos?
Two ways stand out:
1—Identify what you can control. While you can’t control the onslaught of information, you can create a process that allows you to prepare effectively.
When I advise leaders, we address 8 critical competencies leaders need to be effective.
One of them is the PROCESS we use.
- How do you strategically prepare for key meetings and presentations?
- How do you use your limited time effectively?
- What constitutes enough baseline knowledge to address an issue?
2—Embrace the uncertainty. For everything you can’t control, welcome it. Uncertainty is actually where innovation lies and where creativity enters.
This brings to mind a wonderful 5-podcast series by Scientific American called Uncertain. In one of the episodes, Christie Aschwanden and David Krakauer discussed the idea that learning is only possible when you don’t know something. Uncertainty is a chance to learn something new.
Ask yourself, what do you have the chance to learn at this moment in time?
Be Ready for Anything
When I advise leaders, IMPROMPTU skills are another competency we work on:
- How do you speak off the cuff, without advanced preparation?
- How do you pause & breathe before you speak, taking a strategic microsecond to think before you make a comment that could affect your company’s stock price?
- Which are the top likely scenarios or questions which you can anticipate in advance?
Whether you manage 8,000 people at a publicly traded company or you’re a small business owner trying to keep your company afloat and your team motivated during a time of crisis, you face so many of these issues.
How can you lean into the uncertainty?