Lead with Intentionality
To both record my own thoughts and to showcase how things can change in the publishing process, I’ll be writing down early but complete drafts of any articles that end up being published. This was an article I was honored to write with General McChrystal. It draws heavily from his experience as a military leader, and I cannot thank him enough for his generosity and patience in being willing to let me tag along for this. This draft eventually became this article in Inc., adapting to the emerging crisis in Ukraine.
Not Knowing is the Hardest Part
When asked what I would do differently in preparing to assume command in Afghanistan, I replied, only partly in jest, “go whitewater rafting”. I suggested that the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, other key National Security leaders and I, should have bought several cases of beer, bags of pretzels, and headed to a river. Listeners looked at me like I was crazy.
Photo by Mushroom Sorting Office on Unsplash.
My point, reinforced by subsequent experience, was that the actual challenges we would jointly confront were, at that point, difficult to clearly identify, and impossible to begin solving. But we could establish rapport, trust, and the sinews of relationships that would prove essential in the months that followed. And we could do that right now. In fact, rafting would not have been doing nothing. It might have been doing the best thing possible at the time to prepare for the many-headed hydra of problems we would face in the future.
In 2022, leaders must confront a challenge that just won’t seem to go away, only morph into something new right when we thought we had it beat. While managing the risk of COVID remains a central topic of the day, this frustration is not confined to a pandemic. Similar disruptions occur when the market presents an opportunity for a merger, there is a chance to open an office overseas, or stock prices plummet forcing a series of tough decisions. Our clients have been confronted by these challenges since we started doing business 10 years ago, and they were probably dealing with them before we were around.
Then, as it is now, many leaders feel frustrated by the need to do “something,” without necessarily knowing what that should be. What to do is not clearly laid out for us. We lack the resources or ability to do what is necessary. And there is no telling what the future holds. Fortunately, there are actions we can always take:
· Take time to pause and reflect before acting
· Return to the basics
· Give people the first step on the path
Standing Still is Not Doing Nothing
When 9/11 happened, it was easy for many people to start to panic. At the time, we didn’t know who had attacked us, or what might come next. Yet we felt an overwhelming desire – even a need – do something. But what?
In the middle of challenges, leaders and team members can feel adrift when they want to produce outcomes through action – but don’t know where or how to start. The lack of forward progress becomes a very real burden, both in the threats it poses to business and in the psychological weight we carry with us[1].
It is an interesting conundrum for many, and it can produce ill-considered missteps by over-eager leaders. You can’t just do nothing – that’s almost worse than rushing off in the wrong direction. But there is a difference between doing nothing and standing still.
One implies frozen paralysis. From fear. From being overwhelmed. From not wanting to let people down.
The other implies staying steady. Reflection. Observation and orientation to what the environment tells you to do and, crucially, when to start moving again.
Doing nothing is not the same as standing still. Photo by Fabian Møller on Unsplash.
In short, great leaders don’t rush off and just “do stuff.” But they do act. In those times when there is a clear need to decisive action, but the direction isn’t clear, good leaders focus on building within their teams a strong sense of Common Purpose – which may begin with stopping to first remember what that common purpose is in the first place, and how leadership decisions must sustain the followers of the organization and be tailored to the operating environment.
When we are charge of organizations, taking time to take a moment and deliberately ground oneself is a mark of thoughtful, intentional leadership. Ask, “despite all that is going around me, where am I and this organization ultimately trying to go? And what does that mean for what I need to do right now?”
It is times like these – times of chaos, times of complexity, times of uncertainty – that we need calm intentionality more than most.
Go Back to the Basics
After 9/11, many military units wanted to rush off to the war, but mature ones went to rifle ranges, increased time in the gyms, and focused on cohesion within their teams. Deliberately focusing on the fundamentals, they knew that whatever actions they would later take, shooting well and being a united team would be valuable, no matter the next challenge.
In recent times, and similarly unfamiliar with the threat COVID posed, good leaders focused first on protecting their team members (earning additional loyalty and commitment), sought to reduce angst across their firms (communicating constantly), and sought to figure out what the new situation required. Leaders might not have known the best direction to head in but taking the time to ensure the boat wouldn’t sink was the first vital step.
For many organizations, meeting cadence is the heartbeat of the business. We focus on ‘operational rhythm’ as the fundamental method to re-visit what information we transmit, how often, and to who. We can dial up that cadence during times of crisis, as we did during the pandemic, moving to stand-ups 7 days a week, or we can dial it down when the workload is intense and our people need more time to deliver to clients.
An organization’s operating rhythm provides the heartbeat for everything the team does. Learn more here.
What are the ‘fundamentals’ of your business? What are the actions you can always take to ensure you are delivering success for the organization and delivering on the promise of your common purpose? If you can answer these questions, you can both stabilize the team, and ‘sharpen the saw’ for the next challenges that come your way.
Give Your People the First Step on the Path
It is remarkably easy to be overwhelmed by choices. Under stress, the overwhelm and stress can transform into a paralyzing force. The ‘paradox of choice’ is a dangerous enemy under normal circumstances; it can be downright frightening when emergency strikes.
Fortunately, we can put the multitude of choices in their proper place by providing a roadmap forward, even if we don’t know where the road leads. It does not mean having all the answers. It means having an educated guess about what the future holds and then pointing to the first step in front of us on that path. That first step is the vital step, and when the enemy is at the gates, it is the only step that matters.
As leaders, it is our job to re-establish order[2]. And while we should always maintain situational awareness of the environment we operate in and the threats and opportunities contained within, we can help our organizations by narrowing the focus to this one, concrete action. Here, certainty on what we need to be doing, in line with the fundamentals of our business and aligned with our common purpose, we can use the power of an organization’s singular focus to clear the path as we move forward, one step at a time.
Make Deliberate, Intentional Leadership Choices
Perhaps more than any other factor, events of massive uncertainty can steal our sense of control. Faced with complexity and unclear answers, it is easy to feel frantic, frustrated, even slightly unhinged.
But we don’t have to lose control. We can choose to reset. We can intentionally return to the basics. We can deliberately focus on taking the first step right in front of us.
Through these choices, all within our control, we bring ourselves, our teams, and our organizations to stability by remembering who we are and what it is that we do in the world. That steady foundation provides the basis for becoming comfortable with the chaos and confusion all around, allowing you to keep calm while others panic. That is the perfect position to take advantage of the new opportunities that arise others are too frightened or too stressed to act.
[1] Gagné, Marylène, and Edward L. Deci. “Self-Determination Theory and Work Motivation: Self Determination Theory and Work Motivation.” Journal of Organizational Behavior 26, no. 4 (June 2005): 331–62. https://doi.org/10/c47mjm.
[2] Snowden, David J., and Mary E. Boone. “A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making.” Harvard Business Review, November 1, 2007. https://hbr.org/2007/11/a-leaders-framework-for-decision-making.
