We live in a volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous, and anxious (VUCAA) period in history.
During such periods of time, it is very easy to get caught up in the obstacles we are experiencing that is right in front of us. Obstacles like these are often new, can be very frustrating, and we wonder why the obstacle even exists in the first place.
The obstacle is there, right in front of you, shouting at you ‘deal with me!’
We see these obstacles clearly, such as a dramatic increase in the cost of a raw material or an increase in the cost of labor. If you are leading a non-profit organization, your obstacle might be the slashing of funding from a long-term revenue source causing an immediate change in serving an important customer base. These are real challenges and need to be addressed
Sometimes, we don’t understand what our response should be to the obstacle as clearly as we see the obstacle itself.
This is when your presence as a leader can come to your aid. Obstacles like these can take too much energy from you in the form of hyper-attention, anger, even sadness. Obstacles trap you into thinking that dealing with them is your only solution.
There is an antidote to this type of thinking. It is seeing the opportunity the obstacle provides.
Seeing beyond an obstacle to the opportunity it provides is extremely difficult and can challenge even the wisest of leaders. Seeing emergent opportunities take intention, a willingness to learn, patience for yourself and those around you, and a deep understanding of what is called for in the moment.
Earlier this year, I began working with a Client who had been dealing with an obstacle that had plagued her organization for years. This obstacle pulled the staff apart, created division within her customers base, and heightened stress and anxiety for everyone involved.
No one knew what to do other than to focus on the obstacle.
In our conversations, the president and I began to unpack the obstacle by holding the obstacle out in front of ourselves.
Take a moment and place your cell phone in the palm of your hand and hold it out in front of you. Now imagine that your cell phone is the obstacle that is plaguing your organization.
When we turn an obstacle into an ‘IT’ (the cell phone) we can begin to talk about it dispassionately, without emotion, and treat it like a thing. In doing so, we are able to take some of the obstacle's power away, its fear away, even its magmatism.
The president and I did this exercise together. I put my cell phone in the palm of my hand, held it between us, and we began to talk about ‘IT.’
I posed several simple probing questions about the opportunities that this obstacle provided. These questions began to unlock her creativity, positive energy, and deep love for the mission of organization. She began to see around the obstacle!
By seeing around the obstacle, a path came into focus as well as several steps for her to take. These were by no means easy steps. Each step required learning, investment, and an element of risk.
These steps would challenge her at a very deep and personal level. Readers, don't be surprised by this statement. Any new leadership endeavor will challenge you in these ways.
Taking advantage of an opportunity that evaporates an obstacle is a great example of a leadership endeavor worthy of your time, focus, and investment.
Mind how you go,
Lon
Managing Partner & CEO
Along with a notebook and his favorite fountain pen, what’s in my backpack?
I Stand With The Soul of America, by Sir Addison Witt
Right Kind of Wrong, by Amy Edmondson
Rereading The Essentials of Theory U, by C. Otto Scharmer
If you’d like to go deeper in your leadership style, please schedule a call. I’d be honored to listen and learn more about your journey as a leader and where you’d like to go next.