If only life and the business world we are operating in were that simple, but of course it’s not. Covid is here and real and will impact on our strategic thinking and decision making for some time to come. But if it’s the only thing we, and more importantly our senior leaders are thinking about, we are certain to be missing both threats and opportunities going forward.
We are increasingly living in a VUCA world where the challenges we face are riddled with Volatility; Uncertainty; Complexity and Ambiguity. So, what on earth should we do?
Well here’s the point!
As modern-day business leaders, we can’t possibly have all the answers because the answers don’t exist. We have no idea what the world will look like in 6 months, a year or 5 years’ time. We don’t know when, how, or if the current Covid crisis will be a thing of the past and we still don’t know what the final post-Brexit world will look like.
So, are we going to allow these VUCA problems to paralyse us with fear?
Are we going to stop making decisions because we’re not sure what to do?
At Impellus, we are having these conversations on a daily basis but not just the senior leadership team, all of us. Because the senior leadership team doesn’t have all the answers and can’t make decisions in isolation.
Our operating environment has changed beyond all recognition since March and we are unsure what our delivery of training looks like going into next year, so we attempt to look at the long-term big picture, ask questions, challenge each other and look at possibilities and contingencies.
Should we just do training online?
When will our venues be ready for face-to-face training again?
How can we ensure they are safe?
What cancellation terms should we negotiate?
How do we ensure our customers are served and kept happy?
The amount of times we’ve said, “we don’t know” is immeasurable but we always try to follow it up with, “so let’s try this and see how it goes”.
The challenges we are all facing, regardless of our purpose as businesses and service providers are bigger than we have seen for generations.
Our senior leaders must keep looking at the problems, attempting to predict the future, asking the right questions, and involving their wider teams in finding solutions simply because they can’t possibly have all the answers.
If we utilise the collective wisdom and knowledge of the wider team, we may just survive and thrive.
The great news is that in such times, the prizes for being the most effective strategic leaders are always the greatest.
