For years, business leaders have thrived on predictability, and accordingly, lead with a reliance on the predictability of cause and effect thinking. Nowhere is this more evident than in our reliance on budgets. Leaders persist with the more traditional way of responding to uncertainty and change with risk aversion and fear – no one wants to be the one who makes the wrong decision or takes the wrong action.
We continue to see leaders feeling a need to control, to comply and to protect their organisation.
During the uncertain times prevailing over many economies since the GFC, we have seen the return to command and control styles of leadership and this certainly catalyses people onto the downward spiral of fear.
Many organisations continue to resort to the fearful strategy of cost cutting instead of the more courageous strategy of finding new “blue ocean” revenue streams – and even better still generating new business models.
This kind of thinking and strategy development requires leaders to unleash their courage – it means embracing a feeling of vulnerability. An underlying foundation for the success of this approach is that speed is paramount and so if the decision to move into a new revenue stream turns out not to be exactly right then the leader also needs the courage to say “this isn’t working” and let it go.
However, for this kind of personal courage to be unleashed means stepping away from ego and embracing the true essence of who you are and the kind of leader you really want to be. This may mean acknowledging the mistake or wrong decision and learning from it in order to make a better decision. To come from a place of such courage requires leaders to step up, take responsibility for their choices and stop blaming, hiding or justifying. Do this and these leaders then feel raw vulnerability.
When leaders unleash this kind of courage, they approach issues and problems with interest, creativity and integrity. They facilitate the thinking of others so they enthusiastically embrace their future, develop themselves and approach problems with creativity rather than constraint and fear. Thinking is not limited by any out-dated need for predictability. Learning agility is completely embraced so people are not in fear of retribution for making a mistake.
Fear is an unproductive and insecure place to live; while courage is where we feel energised, we believe and we have hope.
All leaders need a personal framework to embrace change with more courage because without change, inspiration is dampened and passion burns out.
Generally, leaders are exposed to two types of change – the change they create and the change imposed on them by others.
Imposed change is generally hardest for existing leaders to embrace; it is like activating a chemical reaction within the person and often the business. Once change is imposed, emotions are triggered and can only be ‘neutralised’ when each person ‘embraces’ the imposed change with their head, heart and soul. The length of time it takes to complete this neutralisation process depends on the capability and willingness of the people impacted to move through their personal change framework – when they courageously make time and create the head space to react, reflect, rethink and reframe.
Building capability to work their way through this framework means they not only speed their journey, but they can also coach others to do so.
Start by allowing time to react to the change imposed by labelling your feelings. Then reflect using Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats. Creating this space to think is essential because things are happening around you, to you and without you; and you have choices to make.
It is at this stage you start to accept the change and look at ways to adapt your behaviour.
Accepting and adapting are done with your ‘mind’, but it is your heart and soul that allow you to courageously embrace the change – and this is where rethinking and reframing are vital. You learn about and restore belief in yourself and you understand more about the change being imposed. This leads you to embrace the change and you have heart, soul and mind commitment to it. Your suspicions about the future and feelings of defensiveness and uncertainty disappear because the chemical reaction has been neutralised.
We need more leaders to step into this place of complete vulnerability where they are prepared to be challenged and most definitely prepared to change. Only then do organisations give themselves a reasonable chance of attaining a high-performance culture and delivering sustainable results.
