Many of us as leaders have to deal with what I think of as an “existential curveball”—that vague, lingering uncertainty about how to move forward when we don’t really know what’s coming next. In her March 28 “Your Best Next Move” video, Bobbie LaPorte shares the first of three leadership tips to consider in this situation: Making sure your team remains your top priority.
Transcript of Your Best Next Move: Leadership, Planning, and Little Curveballs of Doubt
Hi everyone, Bobbie LaPorte here again with my weekly leadership tip for your Best Next Move, where I help you see continuing curveballs as an opportunity. We’re done reacting to them, or pausing, waiting for a new kind of certainty to return. This year I will help you actively use your personal agency to accelerate what you want to accomplish in 2022.
Many, if not most of you, work for companies that are on a hyper-growth path, often doubling in size year over year. Even if your company is more mature, they are likely undergoing some kind of major transformation, just to stay competitive in an increasingly uncertain environment.
And that often means that “planning” – establishing a vision, setting the strategy, and bringing people along can be very challenging – since the end goal is often a moving target.
I call this “an existential curveball” – the big “what now” uncertainty that seems to persistently hang over you.
Here’s an example:
You’ve been asked to head a new, strategic business venture for your company. You have a vision and plan for what you want to do – but as you move forward you encounter little curveballs of doubt.
Colleagues, team members, and others question the chart you’ve established; they say “maybe you should wait, change is coming”; your manager has her own issues and isn’t very clear other than being vaguely supportive. These little curveballs of doubt keep “dinging” at you – making you ask yourself – how do I move forward in this situation?
There are three things you need to consider to keep making progress and adding value in the face of this vague uncertainty.
Let’s talk about the first one; I’ll cover the others in the next two Monday vlogs – since this pervasive curveball deserves more attention.
Your first consideration is your team, and how this affects them. They are your number one priority. Your team is looking to you for direction and guidance, even if you are not sure yourself what you should be focusing on day today. But you need to secure their engagement and enthusiasm to make any progress.
How do you do that?
Here’s my tip for this week:
Make sure you are clearly and consistently sharing your vision for your organization – every opportunity you have.
In staff meetings, 1:1s, written communications. Don’t assume that everyone knows and gets it. They don’t.
You may get tired of hearing yourself …but now more than ever, your team needs to feel connected to something bigger than themselves, to see how their contribution fits into a larger goal….acknowledging that the specifics of the goal may change…..but you are showing them the direction, not the destination.
If this feels kind of uncomfortable – it should. But this is the only way you are building capacity in yourself and your team to navigate uncertainty.
That’s my tip for this week. I’ll cover the second consideration in next week’s tip.
In the meantime, for more help on using your personal agency to make uncertainty a part of your success strategy for 2022 – check on my new book – “When the Curveballs Keep Coming: A Leadership Playbook for an Uncertain World” and my new online course – “Leading Through Uncertainty”.
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