Pushing Boundaries in High-Stakes Leadership: Reframing the True Cost of Comfortable, Cautious, and Autopilot

In a recent post, I covered how to deal with different approaches to decision-making. While this is a natural part of company life, I believe leaders will need to develop specific expertise in this area, given our uncertain and constantly changing environment.

Here’s why.

There’s no question that decision-making is different now. Timelines have forever changed; leaders must now face the reality of needing to make split-second decisions when there is no clear path forward. With the pace at which things are changing in our world, we need to recognize that the cost of delay is much greater now than it was before.

This can be a frightening and anxious place from which to operate. During times of volatility, many leaders default to inactivity, to an overly cautious approach. Their instinct is to hold back, to wait for the horizon to clear, to tell themselves that this is not that different from situations they have experienced before.

But they are fooling themselves if they think that way.

Here’s a scenario familiar to many leaders.

You’ve learned that there are organizational changes coming in your company. Often, this means a new structure, shifting priorities, different ways of operating, and new expectations. You are expected to continue to make decisions and to provide guidance and direction to your team. How do you do that when you literally don’t know which end is up?

My Guidance on Executive Decision-Making

Start by creating a reasonable expectation in your own mind about what you need to decide and when. That includes making the day-to-day executive decisions that keep your team grounded and moving forward. Your approach must move beyond both being stuck (and hoping no one will notice) and leaping toward something that feels easy, known, and comfortable (and hoping it sticks).

This requires the discipline to get off autopilot—to stop and think about what you are facing and not automatically respond based on what you think you know.

It’s tough for leaders to face that they really don’t know what to do, and that’s okay. You need to develop the ability to confidently evaluate alternatives in the heat of the moment, recognizing that you may be headed down a path we have never been before.

Consider a decision you made recently. Was it made on autopilot, or did it push the boundaries of your comfort zone?

In my next post we will talk about another aspect of this – no longer making minimizing risk the primary focus in decision-making.

Related Posts

Decision-Making is Different Now → 

Don’t Hit the “Pause” Button on Executive Decision-Making →

How Can I Improve My Decision-Making Under Uncertainty? →

Leadership Shift #1: A New Model for Decision-Making →

Decision Dynamics: 3 Shifts Leaders Must Make Now – Part 2 →

How to Make Decisions in Uncharted Territory →

Navigating Decision-Making Differences in Executive Leadership →

Empowering Tech Leaders to Bridge the Training Gap with Strategic, Cost-Effective Solutions

Hi, this is Bobbie LaPorte, back with another week of “Calling the Game,” where I share my own experience and insights while giving you valuable tools you can use to call your own game…and plan the best moves for you and your team.

I’ve written recently in these posts about how many companies are continuing to trim their operations and cut spending to return to profitability. One of the casualties of cost-cutting that I continue to see is often in professional training and development. This seems particularly unfortunate at a time when investing in people is a key to employee engagement and retention – not to mention helping them build capabilities to grow and succeed in their jobs.

Your Plan to Fill the Team Training and Development Gap

As a leader in this environment, how do you fill the training gap with limited or no formal resources?

There is some creativity and initiative involved, but here is a simple and relatively easy approach to providing some professional development material for your team.

1. Identify the development needs of your team – what seems to be one thing that you most often see them lacking? It could be areas like delegating effectively to their teams; or effectively communicating to senior leaders; or navigating organizational politics.  There are many common areas where everyone could use improvement.

Select one that is common for all of your team members and that is also a particular strength of yours. Then, you can draw on your own experience, sharing the story of the obstacles you may have faced and how you built this critical skill. (Note: this can also serve as a very effective example of authenticity and vulnerability with your team). Like…hey, I struggled with this, too.

2. Create a simple curriculum – even just a simple outline of some professional tips, suggestions and resources to share with your team.

For example, let’s consider communicating effectively with senior leaders, a skill we really never master given the dynamic nature of information, individual leaders’ preferences, and the emerging needs of the organization.

There are hundreds of articles, guides, and information pieces on this subject. Pick one that you think will work for your team, add your own tips and lessons learned, and present it as a training session for your team.

3. Keep it simple—highlight 2-3 suggestions on how to build this capability—and then set up opportunities for your team to practice with their peers in a safe environment. Encourage peer feedback and acknowledge good results.

Then, next month, pick another topic. These mini-training modules can have a significant impact on building critical career skills and confidence in your team. It shows that you care about them, and who knows, it may even add to your own skill set.

As a leader, your #1 job is to develop your team. Don’t give up because there is no budget or internal resources.

You are the resource; just get to it.

OK, that’s it for this week’s “Calling the Game.” Hope this helps you gear up for a great week and navigate any curveballs that may come your way!

Maintaining Momentum: Practical Advice for Sustaining Team Engagement and Perspective During Industry Downturns

Hi, this is Bobbie LaPorte, back with another week of “Calling the Game,” where I share my own experience and insights while giving you valuable tools you can use to call your own game…and plan the best moves for you and your team.

Most of my clients are tech companies in the Bay Area, and most of them—even those that are growing and having success in the market—have experienced some pullback during the last 2-3 years. Some are now in more positive positions, while others clearly have a way to go to start trending back up and growing.

If you are a leader in one of these challenging companies, how do you maintain a positive perspective yourself and keep your team focused, engaged, and not checked out?

This is a challenge for any leader, particularly after this long period of uncertainty, setbacks, and continued stress for your workforce.

Here’s My Guidance for Tech Leaders

There are no magic bullets here – but I have some guidance that many of my clients have found helpful.

1. Acknowledge that all businesses go through ups and downs – even the wildly successful ones. If anything, the last 3 years have surely shown us that. It is the natural rhythm of business. But also recognize that many of your team members who are still early in their careers may never have experienced a setback. It’s always been booming times in their professional lives, so this may be a new – if not unsettling experience – for them.

2. Use this slowdown or “pause” in the business while they reset and chart a new course as a time to take a breath and look at opportunity areas where you may not have been able to focus on while the company was growing.  Like optimizing people and processes, addressing technical and organizational debt, or finding ways to use the untapped skills of your team in different ways that add value to the organization – now.

3. Well, I’m not going to say, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…” but it’s true. These times are the test of a leader’s ability to adapt, build resiliency, see what’s possible, and not default to defeat or resignation. And, very importantly, building this capacity in yourself and your team will make all of you more marketable in what will surely continue to be an uncertain and challenging business environment.

Finally, I will add that – while being in this situation can feel really depressing and challenging while you are in it – just know that it will change, and you will look back on this as just a “blip on the radar” screen of your career.

OK, that’s it for this week’s “Calling the Game.” Hope this helps you gear up for a great week and navigate any curveballs that may come your way!

From Functional Skills to Self-Awareness: New Foundations of Leadership Confidence

Hi, this is Bobbie LaPorte, back with another week of “Calling the Game,” where I share my own experience and insights while giving you valuable tools you can use to call your own game…and plan the best moves for you and your team.

In recent vlogs, I’ve been sharing what I call “The Three Shifts Leaders Must Make” to successfully navigate continuing uncertainty.  This week, I’ll share the third shift: from a traditional definition of confidence and competence based on functional skillsets to one based on self-awareness, self-knowledge, and deployment of your strengths and assets.

This shift is less about relying on your past experience to deliver results efficiently but more about expanding what you’re capable of to deliver results more effectively, drawing on your strengths and what you already do well.

Because confidence looks different today.

Why Confidence Looks Different Today?

In the past, we were chosen for our functional expertise; we advanced in the organization because we directed people well and we delivered results. We learned over time that we needed to be unfazed by change, confident and purposeful, and in control of our environment.

In our current workplace—where there are competing priorities and more stakeholders to serve than ever before, where information overload is increasing, and where our teams often work virtually—we need to expand beyond our skillset.

We must become more aware, self-reflective, open, and vulnerable. We must shift our definition of confidence from having all the answers ourselves.

I understand that your concept of self-confidence is very personal. In today’s highly competitive workplace, it is normal for us to compare ourselves to others.

But once you make this shift, your confidence will come from deeper self-knowledge and self-awareness, from relying on your internal compass, and from being very clear about how your strengths and assets can be put to use in new ways.

This kind of confidence allows you to move forward when any curveball hits and assures that you will always have a response to challenging situations.

And your peers will most likely continue to rely on past experience, what they know—a strategy that will be short-lived since, increasingly, what they know counts for little in a world of unrelenting uncertainty.

Because, in an increasingly uncertain world, Readiness is an inside job.

Here is how I would summarize The Three Shifts Leaders Must Make Now that we have covered in the last three weeks.

Today’s leaders need:

1. The discipline to stop and consider what you are facing rather than default to autopilot based on what you’ve done in the past.
2. To develop the confidence to accelerate decision-making, accepting that risk-taking and making mistakes is more acceptable now.
3. To recognize that you can no longer rely upon your functional skillsets, your confidence now must come from within.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s “Calling the Game.” Hope this helps you gear up for a great week and navigate any curveballs that may come your way!

Embrace Quick Decisions and Risk in Uncertain Times

Hi, this is Bobbie LaPorte, back with another week of “Calling the Game,” where I share my own experience and insights while giving you valuable tools you can use to call your own game…and plan the best moves for you and your team.

In my book: “When the Curveballs Keep Coming: A Leadership Playbook for an Uncertain World,” I share the three shifts that every leader must make – now. In a previous post, I covered the first shift: that defaulting to autopilot, to old habits that are out of sync with our current environment, limits your ability to see what’s possible in this time of uncertainty.

In this post, I want to focus on the second shift: how leaders need to understand that decision-making timelines have changed.

This means moving quickly from a detailed analysis and exhaustive evaluation of unexpected situations to the possibility of what’s next. And that is uncomfortable for most leaders.

So why is decision dynamics important now?

Because we’ve been trained to approach challenges in a methodical, disciplined way: laying out the pros and cons, gathering data, and creating options and scenarios for consideration.

Then, what follows is usually a prolonged decision-making process that involves appropriate stakeholders, more data and validation, and detailed risk analysis to narrow down the options…and then—hopefully—a decision.

But times have changed. As a leader, you now need to move more quickly through your evaluative and decision-making process.

You can no longer make minimizing risk your primary focus. Increased risk-taking is more acceptable now, as is accepting that mistakes are now part of innovating and trying new things.

Mistakes have less impact now because you can change course quickly if needed, using strategic awareness to move confidently to what is next, what is possible.

Because in a world that’s shifting on a weekly, if not daily, basis, the cost of delay is greater than ever.

Remember: in these times of change and uncertainty, every decision is a good one – until it’s not. 

Okay, that’s it for this week’s “Calling the Game.” Hope this helps you gear up for a great week and navigate any curveballs that may come your way!

Pause to Go Faster: Breaking Free from Autopilot

Hi, this is Bobbie LaPorte, back with another week of “Calling the Game,” where I share my own experience and insights while giving you valuable tools you can use to call your own game…and plan the best moves for you and your team.

How time flies. It’s been four years since I delivered my TEDx talk, “Curveballs and Blind Spots: Navigating Uncertainty,” in which I discussed our tendency to operate on autopilot—that is, the state where we give into the unconscious, habitual responses that we use to guide the hundreds of decisions and choices we make each day.

Why is being on autopilot an issue?

Because when we are faced with “unrelenting uncertainty” – (and that does seem to be the condition under which we live and lead now, doesn’t it?) – our feelings of competence, confidence and being in control disappear. And the sheer cognitive load that results from attempting to navigate this continuing change and disruption can be overwhelming.

Even very experienced leaders internalize the acute stress of such moments—so much so that their judgment and decision-making skills seem insufficient.

The result? Uncertainty leads to falling back on old habits, which, unfortunately, are almost always out of sync with what the current context demands.

So what can leaders do?

My advice: You must move from autopilot to a state of strategic awareness that enables you to evaluate issues and make no-regret decisions. That means stopping to think and creating space for clear judgment, relevant thinking, and purposeful action.

In other words, pausing to go faster.

One other benefit of this approach is that being on autopilot doesn’t build capacity to deal with future issues. It favors past practices that are no longer relevant and keeps you—and your team—stuck in the past. And autopilot limits choice at a time when having a possibilities mindset is so important.

So the next time a curveball hits, take a few seconds to pause, consider the emergent possibilities available to you in that situation, and then act.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s “Calling the Game.” Hope this helps you gear up for a great week and navigate any curveballs that may come your way!

Insights for Executives on Maintaining Focus and Execution Amid Disruption

Hi, this is Bobbie LaPorte, back with another week of “Calling the Game,” where I share my own experience and insights while giving you valuable tools you can use to call your own game…and plan the best moves for you and your team.

This week’s vlog is a special Super Bowl edition. Let me share why.

Even if you are not a football fan, you’d have to be living under a rock to avoid the over-the-top hype and coverage in the media running up to Super Bowl Sunday. Just when I think they have covered it all and will run out of things to say, the media finds a new angle. From a painstakingly detailed analysis of every aspect of the teams to who has the best chance of proving the odds-makers wrong to who is better at staging a comeback, out-smarting, and out-coaching their opponent. And it goes on.

So why is this relevant to you?

Many of my clients are still experiencing the impact of a stalled job market, a slow-to-recover economy, and companies who continue to cut back lay off and take a very cautious approach to scale their business. Understandably so.

For many leaders, that means continuing disruption and uncertainty in the form of:

• Will my company be able to recover?
• When will they start to be a healthy enterprise and grow again?
• And if they don’t, what does that mean for me:
  • will I have a job
  • will there be more cutbacks in key projects
  • will my manager change – again

And that is understandable as well. When we experience that much change and uncertainty, our default is to retreat, hunker down, and get stuck because there are so many things we just can’t predict.

Like the final score at the end of the Super Bowl game.

Leadership Lessons: Key Takeaways from Super Bowl Pre-Game Interviews

And how so do the players respond to all of the hype, conjecture, and uncertainty?

Everyone that I saw interviewed this past week had the same response:

1. There are many things we can’t control.
2. We can’t be distracted by the unknown.
3. What we can control is our attitude, our focus, our preparation and execution – doing our job – on game day.

And that’s how you must approach your work if you are in a situation – like so many of us – where there are so many unknowns.  Your focus needs to be on showing up each day and doing your best to execute what’s expected of you. And then let the chips fall where they may.

I know that may sound harsh, but it’s all you can do right now. With that, you’ll know you did everything you could to add value and contribute.

And, like the players added: just leave it all out there on the field.

OK, that’s it for this week’s “Calling the Game.” I hope this helps you gear up for a great week and navigate any curveballs that may come your way!

Drilling Down on Measured Optimism: Strategies for Leading Through Uncertainty

Hi, this is Bobbie LaPorte, back with another week of “Calling the Game,” where I share my own experience and insights while giving you valuable tools you can use to call your own game…and plan the best moves for you and your team.

A few weeks ago, the subject of my vlog was about having what I call “measured optimism” going into the new year. If you missed it, you can check it out on my website in the December 18th post.

What did I mean by “measured optimism”? I shared this in the context of several year-end surveys on employee engagement that showed all-time low levels of hope and optimism coupled with all-time high levels of stress. Not a formula for mentally healthy, happy, and engaged employees.

So my guidance then and now was this: it’s a mistake to assume that your team returned from the holidays completely refreshed and prepared for the new year. You need to be optimistic in a realistic way – acknowledging all that has been accomplished during the past year, sharing your view of the possibilities for them and the business, and generally maintaining a positive, authentically aspirational tone.

But there can also be a consequence of this that many leaders may not be thinking of. The kick-off of a new year usually presents new pressures for leaders to meet growing expectations for the year, perhaps make up for missed goals in 2023, and get off to a fast start.

And this is at a time when many members of your team have not yet turned the corner: they may still be feeling stuck, unengaged, possibly distrustful of management, and wondering if their efforts really matter after all.

There is a delicate balance to strike here between being optimistic and aspirational while also realizing that many people just aren’t there yet.

Everyone’s situation is different – for example, is your team new to you; did you have a reorg of RIF at the end of 2024; is your company doing well or not?

I can’t provide specific actions for your situation, but I do have some general guidance to help manage this challenging issue that nearly all leaders are facing.

1. Be sure you are setting clear expectations for your team, including general direction and goals for at least the first half of the year. This may sound pretty basic, but in my experience, many leaders still do not provide this directional guidance. Everyone wants to know where they are headed and to feel that their efforts are contributing to a bigger mission.

2. Set clear near-term goals and milestones to “show them the way.” Many people are still in cognitive overload mode from all that happened in 2023. Don’t underestimate how paralyzing that can be. These near-term goals can represent a sense of predictability and certainty for them in an increasingly uncertain world

3. Be sure to acknowledge success and movement towards the larger goals – no matter how small. Help them see what “success” looks like. Remember: small wins create the momentum for larger wins to take place

And finally, as one of my clients said this week: “This is a time when we all need to be kind to each other.”

OK, that’s it for this week’s “Calling the Game.” Hope this helps you gear up for a great week and navigate any curveballs that may come your way!

Hi, this is Bobbie LaPorte, back with another week of “Calling the Game,” where I share my own experience and insights while giving you valuable tools you can use to call your own game…and plan the best moves for you and your team.

It’s the beginning of a new business year for most of us, a time to wrap-up strategic planning for 2024 and recommit to practice being “strategic” as we move forward in the year.

But what does it mean to be “strategic” in a world that requires us to constantly respond to shifting conditions and assumptions? You’ve probably been told you need to be “more strategic” to advance in your career, right? What exactly does that mean, particularly in this challenging environment where planning often seems pointless? And besides, we’re all busy; who has the time to be strategic?

I get it. It can be very challenging to find the time and focus for strategic thinking, but without this, you and your team will not be successful. You need to develop and articulate a strategy and direction that informs their work and makes them feel that they are moving towards something.

The Strategic Framework: Macro-Micro-Mojo

One of the tools I use with clients to support being strategic is a framework called Macro-Micro-Mojo.

On any given day, you likely move back and forth between these three domains. Let’s look at each one:

MACRO: establishing a vision and purpose for your team; working on ideas, resources, and plans that will position your team for success in the future. This is where your “strategic focus” happens.

MICRO:  the everyday activities that make up much of a leader’s day: functional responsibilities, meetings, handling employee and client issues.

MOJO: engaging, inspiring, and connecting with your team; how you support them so they can be successful; sharing your vision and what the future looks like together.

I’m guessing you probably spend some time in each of these domains most days, but you’re not really thinking about it in this way.

There is no magic formula for how much time you spend in each area…but in my experience, most leaders default to the “Micro” domain, reacting and responding to daily fires and regular management issues.

So consider using this strategic framework, again, Macro-Micro-Mojo, as a guide to remind you that you need to be more intentional about where you spend your time, including the Macro or strategic part of your job. Even a small shift in how you spend your time can make a big difference, and it is important to meeting the “be more strategic” directive and increasing your impact and that of your team.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s “Calling the Game.” Hope this helps you gear up for a great week and navigate any curveballs that may come your way!

Download the Macro-Micro-Mojo framework PDF →

Upgrade Your Value Proposition and Leadership Metrics Before Your Next Promotion Discussion

Hi, this is Bobbie LaPorte, back with another week of “Calling the Game.” In these videos, I share my own experience and insights while giving you valuable tools you can use to call your own game…and plan the best moves for you and your team.

One of the trickier issues for many leaders is having the “promotion discussion” with their manager. The beginning of a new work year usually means preparing for annual performance reviews. But this important discussion can also happen off-cycle for many leaders. Regardless of when it happens, it often creates a feeling is apprehension – even dread – for some leaders.

And this challenging discussion can be even more so now in this difficult business environment. Even if your company is doing well, there are more requirements and scrutiny now.

Your case to support your request needs to reflect more than the usual quantitative results – like operating metrics, revenue goals, budget management, performance management, etc.  It also needs to reflect your grasp of how to navigate through continuous change and uncertainty, to rely less on your proven technical or functional skills, and more on your ability to understand and connect with the needs of the broader organization.

What does this mean?

Here are three questions to ask yourself when you prepare for the “promotion discussion”

1. Do you know how to deploy the strengths and talents of your team not only to your goals but also to the emerging needs of the organization? Doing this creates a 3-way win for your team members, for you, and the organization.
2. Do you have the confidence to balance taking risks with taking action since the cost of delay is so much greater in this changing environment?
3. Are you willing to admit that you don’t have all the answers and engage others in the organization who can support your goals and agenda?

Considering these questions will help gauge how comfortable and confident you are, demonstrating your readiness to move on in a world that is demanding more from you every day.

OK, that’s it for this week’s “Calling the Game.”

I hope this helps you create more success for yourself as you head into 2024!

Do you want to assess how ready you are? Take the VUCA Ready® Assessment, which has 20 questions on the five key elements of readiness to lead through challenging times.