VUCA
The VUCA term originated in the military but has been adopted in leadership the past two decades to describe the inherent nature of leadership and business.
Great leaders expect change and can lead their organisations through turbulence with determination and conviction.
Volatility > Vision
All organisations must deal with volatility. Market conditions, political instability, competition, technological revolutions.
Take AI. In what seems to many almost overnight, we have a technology that radically transforms industries and organisations.
Leaders who can’t cope with such change will constrain or limit their organisations.
Visionary leaders embrace it fast and develop a vison that takes the whole organisation in a new direction.
Uncertainty > Understanding
What gets you going?
Let’s rewind to Covid.
This unleashed a phenomenal degree of uncertainty at every conceivable level.
The human impact which was tragic and immense.
In business, the global supply chain was massively disrupted.
Organisations operated with complete uncertainty on how to successfully manage in this context.
Those that came out on top took the time to understand the new rules and adapted quickly.
And most importantly they empowered everyone (inside and outside their organisations) to develop a mutual understanding of the new world and how to succeed in it.
Complexity > Clarity
Making the complex simple, is an art. It’s also a unique leadership skill. To extract the essence of a complex situation and ensure all stakeholders understand.
A simple exercise is to take your next presentation and boil it down to a third of what you originally intended. The effort involved is huge.
But creating simplicity is critical to be able to find common ground.
The best leaders excel at this because this is what’s needed to embark everyone in the same direction.
Ambiguity > Analysis
As a leader, the toughest decisions – that no one else has been able to solve – typically end up on your desk.
There’s tremendous ambiguity in tough decisions.
You need analysis. But there’s a fine line between analysis and paralysis!
Colin Powell’s 40/70 Approach is an interesting way to think about it.
His rule states that you need between 40 and 70 per cent of the total information to make a decision.
With less than 40 per cent, you will probably make the wrong decision.
If you wait to have more than 70 per cent, you may take too long.
The balance between speed and amount of information is a crucial one.
What do you think it takes to navigate successfully in a VUCA world?
Jakob
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