Each week, I’m featuring excerpts from a chapter of my leadership book When the Curveballs Keep Coming: A Leadership Playbook for an Uncertain World to provide insights that can help all leaders adjust to these times of unrelenting uncertainty.
Last week, we started at the beginning with a preview of Chapter One. This week, we’ll take a look at Chapter Two, titled “What You Think You Know Doesn’t Count Anymore.”
The environment of unrelenting uncertainty we outlined in Chapter One can definitely erode any leader’s feelings of competence and confidence. In the past, leadership seemed fairly straightforward. We advanced in our careers because of our functional expertise, based on how we directed people and the results we produced. However, this model of leaders as being strong, confident, and unflappable no longer serves us.
For in today’s environment, no one person has all the answers—and the rules keep changing. And the role of leadership has evolved. Now we are expected to be more of an enabler than a director. It’s OK for leaders to be self-reflective and vulnerable, even as our teams are looking to us to help them chart their path forward.
This change is similar to what I faced in my own Ironman journey. I had to learn a new way to define my competence and confidence. I had to reconsider both my capabilities and my vulnerabilities. I came to realize that the road to Ironman was accomplished with and through others, and that I needed to adapt as the journey progressed. This new competence created the confidence I needed to face the unknown.
As I explain throughout Chapter Two, this same process holds true for leaders in any industry. And the change in mindset is critical to success in this volatile and unpredictable world. As leaders, we need to build a new kind of confidence that allows us to see possibilities where others do not.
In the “Curveball” at the end of Chapter Two, you will also learn how Hans Vestberg, CEO of Verizon, redefined what leadership meant to him as he successfully guided his company through the pandemic and beyond.
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Hope you’ve enjoyed this little peek into Chapter 2 of my leadership book When the Curveballs Keep Coming: A Leadership Playbook for an Uncertain World. Next week we’ll move on to Chapter 3: The Ripple Effects of Uncertainty.
What you see here is just a “bite-size” sample of the leadership lessons and practical tips that I outline in my book. Buy your copy now at Amazon or Barnes and Noble or go to bobbielaporte.com/curveballs for more information about corporate bulk discounts.
#readyforcurveballs