We are at an interesting and critical crossroads. The arrival of spring brings with it feelings of new beginnings, restored growth, and the promise of new hope. The increasing rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, the drop in the infection rates, and the evolving relief that the pandemic is finally waning, following the prolonged fatigue and unsettling uncertainty, elevate the pressure to lead our companies to a better tomorrow. The challenge is that what we are looking for is not a new normal: we need a better normal.<\/p>\n
The desire for things returning to normal is almost as ridiculous and infuriating as describing the shift from where we were to where we are as the \u2018New Normal.\u2019 Declarations of normalcy generally disguise the fact that uncertainty makes most of us uncomfortable. Normal is often code for predictable and comfortable. For most people, the desire for normal is an attempt to cling to the status quo. Uncertainty and constant change are the conditions normal to life, and attempts to maintain the status quo more often than not are serious mistakes.<\/p>\n
You are not tempting fate by shaking things up; you actually risk fate when you don\u2019t challenge the status quo.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
During good times, when the status quo seems to suit us, it is tempting to want to avoid disturbing anything that might stop the good times from rolling. The fear of fixing what isn\u2019t broken actually defies the need for continuous improvement that defines high-performance organizations. It is when things are going that you need to look at how things can go better. You have the luxury of success to fuel and buffer the risks you invoke whenever you challenge the status quo. You are not tempting fate by shaking things up; you actually risk fate when you don\u2019t. The challenge is leading change \u2013 rather than being led by it.<\/p>\n
Leading change involves having clarity of purpose behind what you aim for, understanding the necessary risks and having the ability to manage them, embracing the uncertainty by leaning into your fear of the unknown, and convincing others that it is necessary and possible to do the same. Finally, you must be prepared to execute your plans with full competence and accomplish what you must do and what matters most.<\/p>\n
The first mistake would be to aim your sites on maintaining the status quo, and the remaining four mistakes involve how you must lead change.<\/p>\n
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- Purpose:<\/strong> Failing to be crystal-clear as to why you must do something before you consider how you might accomplish it can lead to catastrophic, even fatal, mistakes. It is critical that the risks you undertake deliberately are counterbalanced with a compelling reward if you succeed. The reward must be measurable for the risk to be manageable. It is easy to make senseless assumptions about the rewards of success but much more difficult to enumerate the cost of failure versus the benefit of succeeding. Success is like a shiny object that captures your imagination and skews your judgment. It\u2019s easy to imagine things that are just not there. Worse than not having clarity of purpose is making your decisions based on what you believe you can do \u2013 without first determining that you should do it in the first place. You must literally first assess why we should do this and then ask how can we?<\/em>When you start with how \u2013 it is tempting to skip the why or reverse engineer the purpose to fit the decision you have already decided to make.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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- Avoid the mistake of not first knowing why, and resist doing things just because you can or always have. <\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Risk<\/strong>: In any business, profit is the yield from leveraging your capital against the risks of the market you serve and the inherent risks caused by how your organization performs. You have three buckets of capital: the cash you have or can access with which to operate \u2013 or real capital<\/em>; the human capital, which amounts to the performance of your people in terms of the decisions they make, how conscientiously they apply their competencies and how competent they are in terms of accomplishing what is needed; and perhaps, most critical, your reputation capital \u2013 which is the basis for all transactions including those who buy from you, sell to you and work for you. Each bucket is subject to risks that you can control and things you cannot. Managing risk amounts to controlling the things you can and being prepared for the things that are outside of your control. When you allow the fear of uncertainty to dominate your decision-making, your attempts to avoid risk undermine your ability to yield profit.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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- Avoid the mistake of considering risk to be your enemy \u2013 or your friend, and instead, focus on viewing risk as an unavoidable force that you can harness for good.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Fear<\/strong>: Fear is healthy when you handle it properly. But like with any good tool, you can do serious damage to yourself, to others, or the things you are working with if used improperly. Ignoring danger is apt to be a fatal mistake, but there are times when you need to find the courage to overcome the resistance that your fears pose and lean into problems to mitigate the danger. A person who jumps in front of a car to push away a wondering child and save its life is a hero, while someone who jumps in front of the same car to see whether the driver will react and avoid killing them is just a reckless fool. It\u2019s not the act; it\u2019s the intention. Allowing the child to be killed by not acting is also acceptable to some degree. We don\u2019t criticize people for not risking their lives \u2013 when they have not been charged with the responsibility or trained to do so. We don\u2019t expect ordinary people to take a bullet for a stranger. But the mistake leaders make is when you allow your fear to paralyze and prevent you from achieving your aims. The mistake to avoid is hiding or freezing when stepping up, and taking the risk of standing out is necessary to accomplishing what really matters. You must learn to discern mortal danger from the fears that are simply a matter of your self-limiting beliefs and concerns that are purely a product of your imagination. When you do, you can learn how to lean into your fears.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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- Avoid the mistake of seeking safety in your comfort zone, and instead, find the courage of your convictions by connecting to your Worthy and Indelible Purpose (WIP): whatever it is that you serve that represents something greater than your own needs and interests.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Execution<\/strong>: Your personal goal as a leader is to be highly effective in your role in order to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage for your organization. To fulfill your responsibility to the organization and those you lead, you be in constant pursuit of competence. That means you must prepare yourself to accomplish whatever it is that you do and ensure that those you lead are capable and prepared to execute their responsibilities as well. There is no competence in the absence of meaningful accomplishment. You can only ensure the highest possible level of performance from the people you lead when you make their efforts meaningful. Your duty is to make it necessary and possible for others to perform to their potential. Competent organizations achieve high-performance by establishing a culture where the purpose is clear, risks are taken and managed, and people are inspired to be conscientious and willing to be comfortable being uncomfortable \u2013 by being curious and willing to be vulnerable in order to learn, grow and adapt to change and uncertainty, and unwilling to accept or offer excuses or mediocrity. Virtuoso performers understand that there are moments of overwhelming joy to be found in the satisfaction you gain from meaningful things you accomplish.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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- Avoid the mistake of accepting mediocrity and dysfunction; instead, be an exemplar of performance virtuosity \u2013 and understand that you deprive people of joy in their lives when you are willing to accept excuses for what they do not accomplish, or worse, do for others what they ought to do for themselves.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- The Status Quo<\/strong>: By far, the biggest mistake you can make is simply accepting the status quo. We live in a world where mediocrity and dysfunction define what we consider to be normal. When we normalize, the noise and the chaos fail to turn uncertainty into opportunity. Rather than pivot, you hunker down and bunker in. You become entrenched in old habits of thinking that shut down your curiosity, muzzle your creativity, and destroy any opportunity for innovation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
When you become a happy victim of the status quo, you haplessly join the masses wondering in search for the normal that was yesterday. You fail to create the future you want \u2013 and perhaps the future we need: a better normal.<\/p>\n
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