Responding Most Effectively In Today's Dynamic World
How we “respond” in our diverse leadership roles is a challenging topic. It’s a frequent question I receive. Many are seeking that one thing, one trait or simple formula. In our time stretched world, we are challenged with squeezing value out of the least amount of time. We seek twitter, like, quick solutions, even at the expense of effectiveness and inefficiency. Combine this with increasing levels of stress that challenges ours resiliency and life as leaders can feel tough and draining.
In working with all forms of organizations-business, athletics, education and ministry, I can credibly tell you that basic, A+B=C solutions don’t cut it anymore in todays world. Maybe 10, 15 or 20 years ago and back they worked, but not anymore. Trying to apply solutions that are: A to B to C to D are appealing, however way too suboptimal and fall short of enabling maximum leadership influence and related development. When you study and experience organizational dynamics and validate it with highly seasoned leaders, you will find that what is needed are solutions that look more like: AAA to BBBBB to CCCCCC to EEEEEEEEE to ZZZZZZ, etc. You get the picture. The depth of what is needed to respond these days is extensive and getting ever more so daily.
My advice to everyone is to have a mindset and life philosophy that gets you more and more comfortable with learning numerous strategies, methods and skills, while dealing with complexity, abstract thinking, ambiguity and decision making pace dynamics. That’s the reality of today and it won’t be getting any easier.
As a leader, become a “student'“ of understanding your strengths and opportunity areas. Assess yourself regularly. Learn something new everyday. Do some of your own research on leadership trends. Share these learnings and create discussions with your teams. Use strategies and training that is grounded in deep research, having been validated with study after study, analytics, facts and data.
Finally, use a leadership training system. Think about it. The best run businesses use process or quality management systems. The best run sports teams have leadership that uses a system for training and execution. Educational programs (curriculums, courses) that are systematically designed and integrated, work most effectively. Use a true system, not randomized, outdated “this sounds good and simple” approaches to developing leadership of all genders, roles and ages.