Agency: the fifth element in VUCA Ready® Leadership

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, we continue our VUCA Ready® Series with the fifth and final element in building the leadership ability to normalize the unexpected and tackle whatever curveballs are thrown at you.

And that element is “Agency”: do you understand that making mistakes is now part of the process? How confident are you to act without knowing the end results?

This is a tough one for most leaders. With so much change and uncertainty facing us in a VUCA world, we crave certainty. Making a decision and heading down a path we have never been on can be a scary proposition, one that could put your career in jeopardy.

But acknowledging and using your agency is a very important element of leading in a VUCA world.

Let’s look at one contemporary issue that exemplifies the need for Agency

Every major organization I know of is dealing with its RTO (Return to Work) policy, one of the most complex, emotional, and controversial issues for today’s leaders. Even if your organization has defined a policy, it is still an “active” discussion for many leaders around implementation, employee pushback, and exceptions.

This is an issue that is ripe for waiting, ignoring, denial…anything but taking action. No one is certain what the answers should be, what will work, and how they should proceed. And what the professional consequences could be.

One of my clients recently found herself in a decision dilemma surrounding this issue that I believe can be instructive.

She leads a global workplace safety and security organization for a growing technology company. The company was still not clear on laying out a definitive RTO policy; although they had shared some general goals, they were guidelines with a lot of room for interpretation and “exceptions.”

Against this backdrop, she had an opening in her senior leadership team that was crucial to the success of her organization. It was a role she held prior to being promoted to run the entire global operation.

Her task was to hire someone who was highly qualified for this specialized role and a great cultural fit, but importantly, who could work from corporate headquarters and build a team located there.  This would send a signal that the company’s RTO guidelines were more than just that – they were serious considerations in hiring for any senior leadership roles.

This presented a dilemma for her since the most qualified candidates were remote from headquarters, which was a top consideration for many people involved in the interview and hiring process.

In the end, she had the confidence to hire a leader who was highly qualified but would be remote. The new leader committed to traveling frequently to the HQ location and would make hiring her team there a priority.

Was it a risky move for my client? Some would say so, particularly given the highly charged feelings around the headquarters hiring directive. But she knew what she needed in a new leader – someone who was very experienced and to whom she could quickly turn over the reins; someone who was aligned with her personal philosophy on how the role should be run; and someone who could be her potential successor.

Was she concerned about the pushback that this new leader would not be in HQ?  It was a factor in her selection, but she also knew that she couldn’t defer the decision with all that was at stake. She used her personal agency to move forward – when others were questioning her choice – and did everything possible to ensure this new leader’s success.

Will it all work out? Time will tell; for now, the choice appears to be a very positive one. That doesn’t mean there might not be implications down the road, but my client was prepared to deal with those if they arose.

In today’s VUCA environment, many leaders are faced with choices they have never had to make and where the outcomes are not clear.

That’s why understanding that this is now the “new normal” and that using your agency can often produce a more positive outcome.

As part of this VUCA Ready series, I am offering my quick 30-minute online Introduction to Navigating Uncertainty course free to viewers for a limited time. Click on the link to sign up now!

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!

Impact: the fourth element of VUCA Ready Leadership

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 we continue our VUCA Ready® Series with the fourth element in building the leadership ability to normalize the unexpected and tackle whatever curveballs are thrown at you.

And that element is “Impact”; meaning, what does your influence in the organization look like? Are you continually assessing the strength and breadth of your network of allies and advocates?

We all know the importance of building a strong, evolving professional network to support you and your team’s success. Your network is part of your value and currency as a leader, particularly during these times when companies are looking for cross-functional leadership to solve the organization’s most complex problems. Add to that the consequences of ongoing reorganizations and layoffs – the increasing velocity of network change – and you might find that entire parts of your support structure have disappeared. That is why continually developing and curating your professional network is critical to building your Influence and Impact in your company and “staying in demand” in the market.

How do you create Impact in an ever-changing VUCA environment?

Let me share an example from one of my more network-savvy clients. He was leading an internal venture that works cross-functionally to support the company’s social responsibility and philanthropic work. So, by nature, he had to build strong working relationships with leaders across the organization to meet his goals and achieve the company’s mission.

However, he went beyond the transactional nature of his work with other leaders to really understand how he could help them achieve their goals and show the value of connecting their leadership and teams to the broader company vision to be a socially responsible community partner.

With this “value-creation” approach, he earned a reputation as a leader who always focused on how he could support others in the organization, continually nurturing established relationships and reaching out to new leaders to see how his team could help them. As a result, he was often tapped for high-visibility, cross-functional, high-leverage assignments where he could apply his organizational knowledge, problem-solving, and masterful relationship-building skills.

Now that’s Impact!

This Leadership Impact resulted in a C-Level role leading a newly established function that was the perfect fit for him, one that would not have been available to him if he had not taken a very strategic and selfless approach to building his network, and consequently, his Impact and Influence in the organization. This type of Impact is such a critical element in becoming VUCA Ready®.

As part of this VUCA Ready series, I am offering my quick 30-minute online Introduction to Navigating Uncertainty course free to viewers for a limited time. Click on the link at the bottom of this post and sign up now!

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!

[ICYMI] See the previous posts in this VUCA Ready® Series:

1. Leadership Readiness: 5 Elements of a VUCA Ready Mindset – Master the mindset that turns organizational challenges into opportunities
2. Initial Response: The First Element of VUCA Ready Leadership – Mastering your first reaction to getting hit with a curveball
3. Is Your Confidence Infecting Your Team? (In a Good Way!) –  Contagion: The second element of VUCA Ready leadership
4. Is Pushback Derailing Your Leadership Vision?

FREE Introduction to Navigating Uncertainty Course →

1. Click the link

2. Setup account

3. Unlock the course free

Pushback: The third element of VUCA Ready leadership

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, we continue our VUCA Ready® Series with the third element: building the leadership ability to normalize the unexpected and tackle whatever curveballs are thrown at you.

That element is “Pushback.” Do you have coping mechanisms for what always happens with change? How do you engage your peers who may doubt your approach?

This is definitely a tough one for most leaders, even in change-hearty organizations. We are wired for certainty, and peer pressure can be hard to overcome when you are facing stiff opposition to change.

Navigating the Element of Leadership Pushback

Let me share a case where challenging the status quo played out.

One of my clients was leading a large, customer-facing field operation at a major utility company. The company was facing many significant challenges. Internally, they were dealing with major financial issues, employee departures on all levels of the company, and unions pushing back at budget and operational cutbacks. Externally, suppliers, customers, and regulators were pressuring the company to become more customer-focused and accountable.

A new leadership team was driving a highly unpopular but necessary transformational process—moving from a traditional, slow-to-change organization to one that was more agile, flexible, and responsive.

My client was facing all these challenges, plus the need to restructure her own operation. It was an uphill battle: She faced significant resistance throughout the organization, from members of her own leadership team to front-line workers. Even when she shared her new approach and how it would benefit all stakeholders, the naysayers kept saying it couldn’t be done.

They relentlessly focused on the negative, amplifying the impossibility of every move she suggested, lobbying for the status quo, and continuing to create a case that would secure their own position and perceived value in the organization.

But she refused to give in and give up. She understood that the only feasible path forward was to rise above the negativity and help people see the possibilities in this situation. She made sure her own personal mindset was focused on seeing what could be.

She was relentless in making her case, and slowly, she brought people along, including some of her peers, even though she knew her future in the organization could be derailed.

Happily, her efforts resulted in record-setting results for her team, unprecedented cost efficiencies, and recognition of her work by senior leaders in the company.

I realize that not all major change initiatives have such a happy ending. It can be very tempting to take the easy route and just do the minimum to resist and hope the whole situation will go away. There will always be pushback on multiple fronts. Your team needs you to have the courage and VUCA Readiness to take it on.

As part of this VUCA Ready series, I am offering my quick 30-minute online Introduction to Navigating Uncertainty course free to viewers for a limited time. Click on the link at the bottom of this post to sign up now!

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!

[ICYMI] See the previous posts in this VUCA Ready Series:

1. Leadership Readiness: 5 Elements of a VUCA Ready Mindset – Master the mindset that turns organizational challenges into opportunities
2. Initial Response: The First Element of VUCA Ready Leadership – Mastering your first reaction to getting hit with a curveball
3. Is Your Confidence Infecting Your Team? (In a Good Way!) –  Contagion: The second element of VUCA Ready leadership

FREE Introduction to Navigating Uncertainty Course →

1. Click The Link

2. Setup Account

3. Unlock The Course Free

Contagion: The second element of VUCA Ready leadership

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, we continue our VUCA Ready® Series with the second element of building the leadership ability to normalize the unexpected and tackle whatever curveballs are thrown at you.

First, let me acknowledge that behavior change, particularly the kind of shifts we are discussing in this VUCA Ready series, is hard. It takes time to change your normal default reactions to more reasonable, positive practices. The key to success is being intentional about training yourself to respond rather than react and to role-model this behavior for your team.

So, back to our second element in becoming VUCA Ready®, and that is “Contagion” (don’t worry, it’s a good thing). It’s about the systems you have in place to make your new confidence contagious so your team can operate independently when needed to find their best next move.

Why is contagious confidence important for leaders?

You must build capacity in your team to respond confidently to curveballs, see what is possible, develop their own VUCA Readiness, and multiply for you.

This becomes more important in times of continuing change when leaders default to “taking charge”—and not necessarily in a positive, capacity-building way. They feel that their team expects them to have the answer and confidently show them the way. This can be very seductive for leaders because it makes them feel validated, wanted, and secure in their position.

How do you make your confidence contagious?

Let me share an example from one of my clients.

His company acquired a smaller competitor with a function similar to the one he was leading. His challenge was to determine which team should stay as part of the new organization and which should be dissolved. Now, that’s a major curveball. The professional future of everyone on both teams was at stake. That’s a heavy position for any leader to be in and certainly something he had never seen before.

He could have hunkered down and tried to figure this out on his own, but he’d had success involving his team in challenging situations before. He engaged both teams in developing options, a difficult and sometimes emotional process, to be sure.

They made recommendations based on what they knew would be best for the business, knowing they were going down a path they had never seen before. They knew it was better to act and change course, if necessary, than sit and wait for someone else to determine their future.

In this process, he demonstrated that it’s okay to ask for help, rely on each other, and develop an approach together. In this way, he was helping them build the confidence to act—not to wait and rely on him—to make his confidence contagious in his team.

Your team needs to develop the same discipline to get off autopilot that you will have achieved, to develop the confidence to operate independently and find their own best next move. That’s how you create VUCA Readiness in your team.

As part of this VUCA Ready series, I am offering my quick 30-minute online Introduction to Navigating Uncertainty course free to viewers for a limited time. Click on the link at the bottom of this post to sign up now!

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!

[ICYMI] See the previous posts in this VUCA Ready Series:

• Leadership Readiness: 5 Elements of a VUCA Ready Mindset – Master the mindset that turns organizational challenges into opportunities
• Initial Response: The First Element of VUCA Ready Leadership – Mastering your first reaction to getting hit with a curveball

FREE Introduction to Navigating Uncertainty Course →

1. Click the link

2. Setup account

3. Unlock the course free

Mastering your first reaction to getting hit with a curveball

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 we continue our VUCA Ready® Series, where I’ll provide practical guidance for today’s leaders on how to become “VUCA Ready®” – which means having a possibilities mindset in a world that is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. This enables leaders to normalize the unexpected and tackle whatever curveballs are thrown at them.

In a VUCA World, there are five elements of building VUCA Readiness. The first—and foundational one — is “Initial Response,” i.e., what is your first reaction to getting hit with a curveball; do you automatically default to autopilot; how quickly can you move past any initial negative reactions — like fear, defeat, resignation — to find your next best move?

Mastering your “Initial Response” is the key to seeing what is possible, making decisions, developing a course of action for you and your team, and recognizing that you may be headed down a path you have never been before.

No doubt – this can be a frightening and anxious place from which to operate.

Example of a VUCA Ready® Leader’s Initial Response

Let’s look at a scenario one of my clients faced that is familiar to many leaders.

As the leader of a significant team in a growing technology company, she learned that significant organizational changes were coming that would impact her and her team. More often than not, this would mean a new structure, shifting priorities, different ways of operating, and new expectations. All of which—coming simultaneously—could have shaken her professional world to the core.

She definitely felt all of that for a short time. However, she quickly realized that she needed to continue making decisions and providing guidance and direction to her team. How could she do that when she literally didn’t know which end was up?

She decided to act. Doing something, even if she was not sure it was the right thing or where it would lead, was better than being paralyzed, sitting on the sidelines to see what would happen, waiting for someone else to make the first move.

She started by creating a reasonable expectation of what she needed to decide and when.

That included making the day-to-day executive decisions that would keep her team grounded and moving forward.

It is critical to create some degree of certainty in these situations by acknowledging what you can and can’t control, by taking action where you can, and sharing that plan with your team.

She also decided to take her team’s own destiny into her own hands by reaching out to senior executives in the company to “pitch” how her team might be a good fit in their organization. That definitely took courage, but in the end, her team landed in a place where they would be appreciated and valued, able to maximize their contribution to the company and create a positive path forward.

When you are hit by a curveball like this, your approach must move beyond being stuck (and hoping no one will notice) and leaping toward something that feels easy, known, and comfortable (and hoping it sticks).

It requires the discipline to get off autopilot—to stop and think about what you are facing and not to automatically respond based on what you think you know. Because what you know often doesn’t apply in these changing times.

Is this easy? Not at all. But you’ll never know if you don’t stop to consider the possibilities, the positive and generative options that could be available to you, as a result of your “Initial Response.”

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!

FREE INTRODUCTION TO NAVIGATING UNCERTAINTY COURSE →

1. Click The Link

2. Setup Account

3. Unlock The Course Free

Master the mindset that turns organizational challenges into opportunities

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.

If you’ve been following this space, you know that navigating unrelenting uncertainty has been the focus of my work over the last few years. We are living and leading in a VUCA World – meaning Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous.

Today’s leaders must become “VUCA Ready®,” – which, for my clients, means having a possibilities mindset. This enables leaders to normalize the unexpected and tackle whatever curveballs are thrown at them.

Why is being a VUCA Ready® leader so important now?

In this age of volatility, there are new shocks on top of the continuing disruptive trends. The “hits just keep on coming.”

In contrast, many leaders built their management skills in a relatively stable period when change was predictable and riding out the trends was often the default course of action. During times of volatility, the easiest thing is to hunker down and wait.

But that is no longer an option. The cost of delay is greater now than ever before; leaders need to commit to a path forward, often not knowing what the outcome will be.

That is why you need to look at challenges—at curveballs—from a place of what can be, not a place of fear, resignation, and defeat.

This is the current leadership dilemma – and will continue to be.

The Five Elements of a VUCA Ready Mindset

Over the next few weeks, I will outline the five elements of a VUCA Ready® mindset, share examples from my client’s work, and offer advice on how you can begin to build these capabilities.

Here is a “teaser” of the five elements for you to consider:

1. Initial Response: What’s my first reaction to getting hit with a curveball?
2. Contagion: What systems do I have in place to make my new confidence contagious?
3. Pushback: Do I have coping mechanisms for what always happens with change?
4. Impact: What does my influence in the organization look like?
5. Agency: How confident am I in acting without knowing the result?

So we’ll tackle the first element – “Initial Response” – next week.

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!

FREE INTRODUCTION TO NAVIGATING UNCERTAINTY COURSE →

1. Click The Link

2. Setup Account

3. Unlock The Course Free

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 →

People are different. Leaders are different. And different leaders have different approaches to making decisions. There’s no one “right way” — but it can be challenging when your own style doesn’t match with your colleague or your boss. Watch Bobbie LaPorte’s July 16 “Calling the Game” video for some tips on how to work together despite these differences.

Strategies for Aligning Diverse Approaches in a VUCA World

My executive coaching clients bring me all types of contemporary issues that they are facing.  When I reflect on these, it seems like many of them come down to a difference of approach in decision-making, often based on an individual’s workplace style – for example, cautious vs. action-oriented – and the situational context for the decision.

For example, you might have a very strong bias to action, wanting to move as quickly as possible to make decisions, execute, and deliver results.

Your manager, on the other hand, might be more cautious, opting to conduct a more thorough analysis of supporting data, carefully weighing all the options, soliciting input from multiple stakeholders…..then another round of analysis, etc. You get the picture.

Or it could be the reverse: you have a more moderate, risk-averse approach while your manager is actively pushing to make a decision and move on.

I am not attempting to over-simplify this: many factors come into play in making decisions. The important distinction here is that both of these approaches are good and have their place in any company at different points in time.

Leaders have different styles in terms of what motivates them, what stresses them, and how flexible they are in different situations. All of that contributes to their approach to decision-making.

Three Clashing Decision-Making Approaches to Consider

So, if you find yourself in a situation when there is clearly a difference, if not an outright clash, in how you and your manager are approaching decisions, here are three things to consider:

1. Try not to react; be objective. Don’t take it as criticism of you personally or of your work.
2. Reflect on whether this is a pattern of clear differences in approach or perhaps more situational.
3. To make a case for your approach, share why you need to move more quickly or more cautiously, as the case may be, and how it will impact your goals and the work of your team, putting it in the business context.

Decision-making can be anxiety-provoking and downright scary in a world where so many of the variables we work with and the context we work in are changing so quickly.

Taking a more subjective, rational view (which I acknowledge can be difficult when you are in the middle of it) will help bring some clarity (and sanity) to the process.

However, having said that, one of the biggest curveballs leaders now face is how the timeline and process for making decisions in a VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) have changed—more on that in next week’s VLOG.

Related Posts

Decision-Making is Different Now → 

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 →

How to Communicate Clashing Operating Styles with Your Boss →

“Lateral agility” might sound like a football drill—but it’s also what Bobbie LaPorte considers to be today’s #1 most important leadership skill. Watch her May 21 “Calling the Game” video to find out why lateral agility is so essential, and what it looks like in action.

Furthering the Broader Goals of the Enterprise While Focusing on Your Team’s Objectives

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 a recent vlog, I talked about the importance of leaders taking the enterprise view, i.e., how you connect your team’s value proposition to the broader and emerging goals of the company, thereby increasing your and your team’s impact.

Related to that, today I want to share what I see as the single most important leadership capability for today’s leaders – what’s called “lateral agility” – or how you further the broader goals of the enterprise while also focusing on your own team’s objectives.

Without a doubt, this is the dominant trend I see today in leadership readiness. It is a significant trend in today’s executive landscape and a major shift in what companies now expect of leaders in high-impact roles.

What Exactly Does Lateral Agility Look Like?

Let’s dig into what it is and what it is not.

Lateral agility is not just about building working relationships with your peers—it goes further. It’s relationship building in a different way, identifying other parts of your company that can benefit from your team’s skills and talents. This shows you are a leader who is committed to supporting the success of others.

It’s not about influencing company stakeholders to drive your agenda. It is about identifying and addressing the organization’s needs together.

It’s not about collaboration across silos in the organization.

It is about using collective wisdom to solve problems and innovate, mobilizing people around a shared purpose regardless of your own defined role.

It is – the most concrete and impactful way to put “taking the enterprise view” into action.

I’ll share more about the “how” of putting lateral agility into practice in my next vlog.

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!

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.