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Strategy

Growth Leaders Love to Get Dirty

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“There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you.” – Derek Jeter

Driving organizational growth is hard work.

It can be messy. Stressful. Full of uncertainty.

It is seldom easy. Nor is it ever free.

Leaders cannot just delegate growth. The best ones lead the charge, not from a cozy corner office, but out in the field.

I have found that the best growth leaders are the ones who dig in to the challenge right alongside their teams.

They get out of the building, and spend time in the market.

They also show up ready to do the work.

Put simply, they get dirty.

Leadership is Hard Work

There is no mistaking that growing an organization takes hard work, regardless of the industry or market.

Let’s be honest. If it were easy, then everybody would be doing it. Right?!

Peter Daland, the former USC and Olympic swimming coach put it this way, “The secret to swimming is not how far you swim, and it’s not how hard you swim. The secret to swimming is how far you are willing to swim hard.”

I think this same sentiment rings true for leadership. Great leaders are willing to work hard. They don’t give up. They keep going.

Many people mistakenly look for the easy way out. Unfortunately, it is very rare to find a single tactic or “hack” that drives organizational growth. As I shared in an earlier blog article, there is usually no silver bullet to growth.

Driving growth takes courage, commitment, perseverance, and an unwavering belief in your vision of the future.

Driving growth also takes a willingness to be make mistakes (and to learn from them!)

Even if you do the wrong thing, at least it is something. You will learn from it. Moreover, you can now cross it off the list of things to try! And, you will then be in a position to pivot towards a better solution.

A leader who does not do the work will not get the benefit of these lessons. They will eventually reach a point where they fail. However, a hard working leader who also works smart will eventually find a way to overcome whatever obstacle lies in their path.

One thing is as certain for businesses as it is for human beings: A sedentary life does not lead to healthy outcomes. You have to get out and move!

You have to get dirty.

Tips on How to Lead Smarter

In addition to hard work, the real secret is you also have to lead smart.

What do I mean by this?

Here are a few examples of great growth leader strategies and behaviors. I have witnessed them in practice and tried to exemplify them in my growth leadership roles:

  • Lead From the Front – Growth leaders are visible. They spend a lot of time with their teams, and out in the market. For example, the CEO participating in sales pitches. The CMO writing copy or dissecting web analytics. The Head of Sales carrying a quota and actively coaching their team in the field. The bottom line is you can’t credibly lead what you can’t (or won’t) do yourself.
  • Communicate Frequently and Clearly – Growth leaders are not only visible to their teams. They communicate with their teams frequently and clearly. The goal is not to just speak to be heard. For growth leaders it is always to speak to be understood.
  • Always Looking Over the Horizon – Growth leaders are always asking “what if” questions of their teams to stress test strategies and plans. Helping them to identify potentially adverse scenarios and thinking through the right approach.
  • Convert Ideas Into Executable Plans – In growth companies, ideas are cheap. Everything looks like an opportunity. However, it is a trap. Ideas are free. They are actually easy to find. It is execution that is difficult. Growth leaders focus on helping their teams convert great ideas into achievable plans. Execution is everything.
  • Push Hard, But Not Unrealistically – To drive growth you have to be aggressive, which includes setting aggressive goals and timelines. However, they must also be realistic. The quickest way to burn out a team is to push them to do something that is unachievable. Nobody likes being set up to fail.
  • Do It Right the First Time – There is an old expression that “haste makes waste.” This is an all too common outcome in growth initiatives. Remember the US Navy SEALS mantra that slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
  • Delegate, But Never Abdicate – Many leaders get this wrong. They think they are delegating a task or responsibility, but in reality, they are abdicating. What’s the difference? Abdicating is telling a team member to do something, but not making sure they know what to do and never following up. It is a cancer in any organization. Delegation, on the other hand, is telling a team member to do something, and then verifying they know what to do, offering insight or education as needed, providing encouragement, and following up to check on the status.
  • Provide Emotional Balance – When the team is stressed out, growth leaders demonstrate calm. When the team is out of energy, growth leaders share their passion. When the team doesn’t know what to do next, growth leaders show the way.
  • Provide Support – Growth leaders always focus on removing obstacles that prevent their teams from moving forward. Sometimes this translates into proving extra resources. Other times it might mean helping the team to solve problems. Sometimes it is literally lending a helping hand.Growth leaders never underestimate the team building and camaraderie that comes from an “all hands on deck” exercise to solve an urgent problem or meet a deadline.
  • Check Their Ego at the Door – Just because someone has a C-level title that does not automatically make him or her an effective leader. The quickest and easiest way to destroy any hope of achieving a growth strategy is to be so arrogant that you are unwilling to roll up your sleeves and get dirty.

Parting Thoughts on Getting Dirty

In my years of being a growth leader and member of a number of management teams, I have on more than one occasion witnessed individuals who think that once they ascend to a leadership role they don’t have to do “real work” anymore.

This dynamic inevitably leads to a rotten organization. Because even if the leader does not feel that way, you can be sure their team does!

Of course, growth leaders do have to take part in meetings with other executives and the board of directors. They also have to manage the functional departments to keep the organization running. However, the best growth leaders recognize that it is never a choice of doing one over the other, it is the decision to do both.

You cannot effectively lead an organization from the ivory tower…you have to be out in the market. In the dirt with your team.

There are no shortcuts.

In conclusion, there is one last important aspect to getting dirty. It is very gratifying, and is often the place where growth leaders find the most joy in their role. As a good friend of mine, and fellow growth leader, is fond of saying: the fun is in the mud!

-Onward

Six Business Growth Superpowers

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Leaders who want to drive growth for their organization have an almost limitless number of strategies and tactics at their disposal.

This virtually unlimited choice can be overwhelming for many. Reaching the point of paralysis for some.

Fortunately, I have found that a few “macro” strategies consistently rise to the top. These proven approaches have nearly universal applicability. Regardless of your industry, size, or growth challenge, deploying these strategies will create a solid foundation for growth. When you get them right, they become success enablers for more specific tactics and strategies to follow.

I call them the six business growth superpowers.

Here they are:

#1 – Have a Plan

This will sound crazy, but to get started on your growth journey it is important to first define the growth you want to achieve for your organization and have a basic idea of how you might try to accomplish it.

Such simple advice, yet very few follow it. Most people just dive right in, and start firing away. This “ready, fire, aim” approach often results in failure, wasted time and resources.

A better approach is to spend a little time to develop a basic plan of attack. This includes a quick survey of your strengths and weaknesses, and an assessment of the market(s) where you compete.

This important groundwork will provide direction and focus for you, and your team.

It does not have to be perfect. In fact, I can promise you it probably never will be. That is okay, because you will quickly learn and refine your approach based on real-world feedback from your market.

As part of your plan, you should also set a target. This definition of what you want to achieve will become your guiding “North Star” as you move forward in developing a more comprehensive growth strategy and plan, and will help you to measure progress along the way.

The great news is you do not need all the answers to get started. Pick a direction. Any direction, even if proven wrong, is better than no direction at all. You will quickly learn what works, and pivot away from what does not.

Ultimately, the power of having a plan for growth is it helps to prevent tactical and reactive thinking. Instead of “shooting from the hip” at every real or perceived opportunity that comes into your field of vision, you can selectively focus on those that are in alignment with what you are trying to achieve and likely to deliver positive results.

Considering if something brings you closer to your growth goal, allows you to be proactive instead of reactive.

#2 – Know Your Value

Many company leaders who are seeking growth do not understand what makes their organization special or unique in the marketplace.

This absolute cardinal sin will effectively prevent any effective marketing or sales from taking place.

If you cannot clearly articulate what makes your product(s) and/or service(s) different or demonstrably better than your competition, then how can you expect to be successful?

It is important to remember that your prospects always have many options, including the dreaded “no decision”. To grow you must always be connecting the dots between your unique solution, and your buyer’s pain, problem, or potential opportunity.

This is where sales happen, and client loyalty is born.

#3 – Understand Your Buyer

Once you understand and can clearly articulate your value proposition, you need to answer an important question: For whom?

By definition, in order to grow you are going to need to sell something. There are only 4 basic approaches to increase sales.

Regardless of which one, or combination of these strategies you choose, you will need to know who your buyer is.

The best way to define this is to think about what your Ideal Client Profile (ICP) looks like. For B2B sales, this means what industries, sizes of companies, and geographies are the perfect match for what you are selling? Also, within each of these organizations, who are you selling to? Create a profile (persona) that defines each individual.

The final step in understanding your future client is to create a model of your buyer’s journey. What triggers their need? How do they search for you? Decide to buy? How can you help them?

A great way to really understand your buyer is to think about their “job to be done” – What are they responsible for? What keeps them up at night? How can you help them to be successful?

The answers to these important questions will help you to tailor your value proposition message and close more deals.

Most go-to-market organizations focus only on making a sale. Unfortunately, too few organizations have a focus on client success. To drive growth, keep your eye on your buyer. Help to make them successful from the time they are a prospect to the time they are a client. You will sell more, and grow quicker.

#4 – Make It Easy

The “secret sauce” of high growth companies is a relentless focus on their clients.

The smart ones also think deeply about their process to gain new clients. They focus on optimizing the marketing and sales process, and making the buyer experience easier and more attractive for prospects.

This go-to-market mindset requires you to ask questions and translate the answers into a better understanding of the typical buyer’s journey and making every step as easy and frictionless as possible.

How can you make it easy for customers to buy from you? A few proven suggestions:

  • Educate them on how to buy your product or service. What are the key elements they should consider? Where have others failed?
  • Provide them with insights that help them to do their jobs better.
  • Walk them through a typical buying process, what should they expect moving forward?

Many growth leaders forget that sales is a two-way dance. Yes, you need to focus on making it easy for your buyer. However, what about the seller? Smart GTM organizations also try to make it easy on their sales team. Some ideas:

  • Revisit your sales process. Can you economize any steps? Are there selling tools (case studies, calculators, etc) that can help your sales team to be more effective?
  • Review your pricing and contracting process. Can you make it easier for your sales team to generate quotes?
  • Can you standardize as much of your contracting and approvals process as possible. Not only will your sales team appreciate the reduction in “thrash”, so will your prospects!

When you get it right, the go-to-market process becomes a virtuous cycle:

  • GTM Strategy enables effective marketing.
  • Marketing enables sales.
  • Sales enables client success.
  • Client success enables retention, expansion, referrals, and new growth!

#5 – Embrace VUCA

If the year 2020 has taught us anything it is that we live in stressful and rapidly changing world.

There is simply no escape from the many powerful VUCA forces in every industry and market across the globe. We must all get comfortable with VUCA, and learn how to quickly make decisions with less than perfect information.

Since we know they exist, and are not going away anytime soon, there is no excuse for not understanding and embracing these forces so that you can effectively counter them. There are many proven approaches for dealing with VUCA. Understanding your market, and developing a deep situational awareness is an important first step.

Perhaps the best strategy for dealing with the change and uncertainty in your market is to embrace it. Instead of allowing the market to dictate change, be proactive and lead the market. Be a catalyst for change. Adaptability is the antidote. Without it you are dead.

#6 – Take Action

Along with unpredictable VUCA forces, almost every organization is experiencing a faster pace of play in their market.

Everything from product lifecycles, to time to market, to delivery expectations, to innovations are accelerating. These trends are driven by technology, globalization, and aggressive competitors…all things out of our direct control. However, that does not mean we cannot manage them.

Organizations must learn how to accommodate this new faster pace. As referenced above, removing friction is certainly part of the answer. So is focusing on agility. Constantly pushing for doing things quicker, and better, at a lower cost.

What should growth leaders do? For starters, get out of the building, and into the market. They must also encourage their teams to embrace the ethos of MFGSD. By taking action and pushing through more cycles, you will gain the benefit of more learning opportunities!

To Infinity, and Beyond!

Any business growth problem or opportunity often has many different possible solutions to consider. Evaluating this vast “toolbox” of options is certainly part of the challenge (and for practitioners, part of the fun!) in developing and executing growth strategy.

There are many risks to avoid. Perhaps the most glaring is diving in without any direction or plan.

Knowing where you are today, and where you want to go tomorrow, is very powerful.

Developing a growth strategy and a resulting plan forces you to think deeply about your business, your operating environment, and the opportunities in front of you. With clarity around your value and your buyers, you can focus on selling more and leading the market instead of being a victim to external forces.

Take action today. Growth will be your reward.

-Onward

Beware of the Marketing Jury

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“A jury verdict is just a guess – a well-intentioned guess, generally, but you simply cannot tell fact from fiction by taking a vote.” – William Landay

Despite what they believe, not everyone is a marketing expert.

As a growth-focused member of leadership teams across a diverse number of organizations over the last 20 years, I have witnessed an interesting phenomenon: almost everyone has a strong opinion about marketing.

Moreover, they usually are not shy about sharing it.

It is truly a unique dynamic in the c-suite. You do not see this level of interest and meddling very often in the other management disciplines like Finance, IT, or HR.

However, in marketing it is commonplace. Why?

As I shared in an earlier blog article on reasons why CMOs fail, I think it stems from the fact we are all consumers, exposed to “marketing” (at least the part visible to buyers) countless times every day. This proximity tends to translate into a familiarity, which then leads to the dangerous assumption that we know what works and what doesn’t based on our personal opinion.

Not everyone is a marketing expert.

A Few Marketing Expert Examples

Like many growth executives, I have been on the receiving end for plenty of unsolicited marketing and sales feedback. A few representative examples:

  • “That font just doesn’t look right…”
  • “Our sales reps should target ABC INDUSTRY…”
  • “That shade of blue in our logo is too blue…”
  • “We should advertise in XYZ publication, I read it every month…”
  • “That picture on our homepage doesn’t make us look big enough…”
  • “Sponsoring BIG EVENT is a perfect fit for our brand…”
  • Etc…I could go on, but I think you get the idea!

All of this feedback was well meaning, and delivered with sincerity, but also completely unfounded in anything but subjective opinion.

Not everyone is a marketing expert.

The Marketing Jury Framework

I like frameworks. I find that they help me think through challenges and explain concepts to others.

Here is one I have been playing with to help reconcile this issue of everyone being a marketing expert.

I call it the Marketing Jury. It goes like this…

Over the years I have found that almost every marketing or growth idea is judged not once, but four times.

It does not matter whether the topic is a new strategy, creative concept, sales channel, or marketing tactic. Everything gets scrutinized.

By whom? I like to call them the marketing jury.

However, unlike a normal jury, in this jury there is only one vote that matters.

I’m sure you are wondering who are the four Justices in this marketing Supreme Court?

Juror 1 – Your Loved One

This juror is your spouse, partner, parent, or child.

Before you start laughing, recognize that more glossy, gimmicky, trendy, vanity advertising is bought each year because the business leader’s in-house advisor happened to “like it” than for any other reason.

The unfortunate impact of this jury vote is that many solid go-to-market ideas never see the light of day because a significant other didn’t think it was a good idea when they heard it across the dinner table.

Juror 2 – Your Colleague

This juror is one of your co-workers. Just like clockwork, as soon as you make the decision to implement a new marketing strategy, your CFO, admin, and the stockroom clerk all magically become marketing experts. Complete with strong opinions, based on nothing but gut feel.

This goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: It is okay to listen politely to this input, but be very careful about taking any action.

Juror 3 – Guess Who?!

You should be very familiar with the third juror. Why? Because it is you!

It is very easy for seasoned marketing and sales executives to have big egos, and to think we know it all because we have seen and done a lot in our careers.

Here’s the news flash: I don’t know everything about marketing and sales, and neither do you.

In fact, we may be one of the worst judges of our own marketing or sales ideas. Over the years, I have run little experiments and asked marketing and sales professionals to guess the outcome of various A/B split tests. The experts are wrong as often as they are right.

The takeaway: Stay humble. Always be in learning mode. If you listen and look hard enough, you just might learn something new.

Juror 4 – The One to Focus On

Spoiler alert: This is the only one of the four jurors with a vote that matters. Why? Because they are your potential or actual customer.

You see, these jurors vote with their wallets. At least figuratively. In a typical complex B2B sales process they vote by clicking on a link, viewing a web page, answered the phone, taking a meeting, requesting more information, stopping by your booth, attending a webinar, signing a contract, etc.

Whatever the action, they responded in a positive manner to some marketing or sales tactic, thereby advancing the sales process.

Always pay close attention to this juror.

They are the only juror with a vote.

How Do You Arrive at a Verdict?

Growth leaders, and their teams, are in a position where they must play judge in this courtroom drama.

They own the growth agenda and strategy. They own the go-to-market program, and budget.

When it comes to jurors #1, 2, and 3 – How you choose to take their feedback will always be situational. Some you can politely listen to, and then ignore. Others you may have to engage in an educational discussion. Still others you might need to do some due diligence and explore the idea further.

Listen to juror #4 – this is your client or prospect. Having a comprehensive go-to-market strategy and defined process is your best friend when it comes to juror #4. When done well, you will have performance metrics for every step of the customer journey through your marketing and sales process. Over time, you will know what works, and more importantly, what doesn’t. You will be able to hear and respond appropriately to juror #4 from Lead status to Closed Won.

In conclusion, beware of the marketing jury – there are many competing voices, but only one you must listen to!

-Onward

There is No Silver Bullet for Growth

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“There are no quick wins in business – it takes years to become an overnight success.” – Richard Branson

It is human nature to want a quick fix for every problem.

The proverbial “silver bullet” that will slay fearsome creatures with one shot.

The prospect tempts us every day:

  • Take this diet pill, and lose 5 pounds in a week…
  • Buy this stock, it is certain to double in the next quarter…
  • Execute this marketing tactic, and you will double your sales pipeline by the end of the year…

You get the idea. We all seek the easy solution. Oh, and, we want it to be painless too.

So, here is a news flash: It doesn’t exist.

Sorry.

There is no silver bullet.

The Conversation That Inspired This Article

I had a conversation with a good friend of mine last week. He was curious about my fractional Chief Marketing Officer services, and the focus on helping organizations grow. He wanted to know what the answer was…as if I had discovered “the” secret to growth and packaged it up for sale!

I explained to him the process I go through to help organizations unlock their growth potential.

It is a discovery and development process. It requires introspection. Honesty. Creativity. And, hard work.

It often involves asking difficult, sometimes uncomfortable, questions.

The “answer” to the growth question is not canned, but is as unique as each organization is.

Therein lies the rub.

Many leaders naively look for that secret marketing formula, or magical sales elixir that will fuel exponential growth for their business.

The reality is, in 99% of the cases, the big growth you see in an organization today is the result of a lot of hard work (the proverbial blood, sweat, and tears!) that took place over the course of many months or years.

What we are seeing is the compounding effect of multiple aligned actions, which taken together, over time, result in growth.

There is no silver bullet for growth.

Growth is Not Easy

Business innovation and growth are not easy.

It is easy to look at companies like Apple or Google and jealously think how easy they must have it. With their $Billions of market capitalization and a huge army of employees, they seem to effortlessly turn out a steady stream of great products and services which everybody wants.

The dirty secret is we are only seeing their successes. These are innovation-driven organizations that are constantly experimenting, testing, and refining new offerings. They invest huge sums of time and money into the effort, and have a well-developed playbook to bring them to market. Rarely do we see their failures because they have quietly killed them off and moved on.

Everyone wants the quick fix, but it doesn’t happen overnight. You have to be willing to put it all out there. I call it ‘the secret to being an overnight success,’ which means there really isn’t such a thing as an overnight success! The secret is you work really hard for 10 years, and then you become an overnight success. – Jon Gordon

True, there are those rare companies that get lucky and realize stratospheric, seemingly overnight, growth. Sadly, most of them do not survive in the long-term because they failed to build a solid foundation or invest in a sustainable business model.

There is no silver bullet for growth.

What to Do Next?

So what should you do if you are seeking growth for your organization?

First, make sure you really are ready for growth.

Next, take a disciplined and methodical approach to develop the best strategy for your organization from the ground up. A great place to start is by answering these six fundamental growth questions.

If you are feeling stuck, a fractional CMO can provide immediate assistance.

The harsh reality of the VUCA forces in our world is there are no silver bullets.

You need to be prepared. Have a plan. Execute (MFGSD) relentlessly. Expect the unexpected. Pivot quickly and adapt to changes. Keep on moving!

-Full speed ahead

How to Navigate and Win Against VUCA Forces

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“Change is the only constant in life. One’s ability to adapt to those changes will determine your success in life.” – Benjamin Franklin

We live in an increasingly VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world. The winds of change are blowing in every direction, in every region, and across every industry.

At this point, there is only one safe conclusion: Current levels of disruption and unpredictability are likely not going away. Change is the only constant. So how best to move forward? How do you navigate through a VUCA environment and win?

In this challenging business climate, traditional strategic planning frameworks have proven to be distressingly inadequate. The speed and ferocity of the health and economic impacts caused by the pandemic caught many organizations flat-footed, and ill prepared to react quickly.

Faced with this uncertain and disruptive environment, a growing number of business leaders and growth strategists have been inspired to develop VUCA Strategic Plans to guide their organizations forward and better plan for an unknown future.

While VUCA has proven to be a valuable framework to visualize the disruptive environment we now operate in, it is not always easy to apply. This article will present some tactical remedies that business leaders and growth strategists can use to counter each of the VUCA forces.

VUCA Overview

As a quick reminder, the definition of VUCA:

  • Volatility – The tendency for things to change quickly and unpredictably, typically for the worse. These challenges are unexpected or unstable, and may be of unknown duration. However, they are not necessarily hard to understand – knowledge about them is often available. The more volatile the world is, the more change there is and the faster that change occurs.
  • Uncertainty – Situations where there is imperfect or unknown information. It applies to predictions of future events, to physical measurements, or to the unknown. Despite a lack of other information, we know the disruptive event’s basic cause and effect. Change is possible, but not a given. Uncertainty refers to the extent to which we can confidently predict the future, therefore the more uncertain the world is, the harder it is to predict.
  • Complexity – Refers to the number of factors that we need to take into account, their variety and the relationships between them. The more factors, the greater their variety and the more they are interconnected, the more complex an environment is. Some information is available, or predictable, but the volume or nature of it can be overwhelming to process. The more complex the world is, the harder it is to analyze and come to rational conclusions.
  • Ambiguity – A lack of clarity about how to interpret something. Situations where information is incomplete, contradicting or too inaccurate to draw clear conclusions. More generally, it refers to fuzziness and vagueness in ideas and terminology. The more ambiguous the world is, the harder it is to interpret. The causal relationships are completely unclear. No precedents exist and you often face many “unknown unknowns.”

Tactical Remedies for Each of the VUCA Forces

The VUCA model has great value as a strategic planning tool. By using it as a framework to interpret the current operating environment, business leaders and growth strategists can think creatively about new strategies for the organization, and begin planning for alternative scenarios.

One common question that many leaders ask is how do you counteract each of the four VUCA forces?

Great question, here is how…

We can describe the best VUCA leaders by their vision, understanding, clarity, and adaptability. These four leadership abilities become the opposing force to each element of the VUCA model.

It looks like this:

  • Vision counteracts Volatility
  • Understanding counteracts Uncertainty
  • Clarity counteracts Complexity
  • Adaptability counteracts Ambiguity

The key to managing in a VUCA environment is to break it down into its component parts. Once we identify volatile, uncertain, complex, or ambiguous situations then we can tackle them. Since each type of situation has its own causes and resolutions, so it is best to deal with them one at a time.

In the next sections, we will look at each of these forces.

Counter Volatility with Vision

Vision – You can counteract the first VUCA force (Volatility) with Vision.

In this context, vision is not referring to sight, or the ability to see. It is an acknowledgement that in turbulent times it is very easy to get distracted. Leaders need to rise above volatility by having a clear vision of the future for their organization.

Leaders with a clear long-term vision of where they want their organizations to be can better weather volatile shorter-term environmental changes such as economic downturns or new competition in their markets. Vision helps them see past the immediate chaos.

Some helpful tips:

  • It almost goes without saying, but leaders much acknowledge that change is the only constant. By embracing change, we can find opportunity. Accept and embrace change, and encourage your teams to do the same. Resistance is futile!
  • Begin with the end in mind. The US Army calls this the “Backward Planning Sequence”, where they plan a mission from the end first (actions on the objective) then work backwards, step-by-step, to the beginning of the operation.
  • Build all strategies and plans on the strong foundation of the organization’s Core Ideology (mission, values, purpose). This “true North” approach to navigating an organization is similar to using a compass instead of the map! It provides clarity and helps prevent external chaotic events from pulling them off course, or abandoning their mission.
  • Leaders should always be thinking, and communicating to their teams, from the perspective of the organization’s Envisioned Future (vision, long-term objectives). By painting a compelling picture of the future, and illuminating the path to get there, they will align people and resources, and provide the motivational push to get it done.
  • While long-term objectives should be solid, it is important that leaders allow their teams some flexibility in how they get there. This latitude allows them to react, in real-time, to changing market conditions.

Beat Uncertainty with Understanding

Understanding – You can counteract the second VUCA force (Uncertainty) with Understanding.

To be effective in a chaotic VUCA environment, leaders have to look and listen beyond their functional areas of expertise and span of control. To make sense of the volatility and to lead with vision they need broad Situational Awareness of their operating environment.

By deliberating practicing a “stop, look, and listen” approach, leaders will gain important decision-making information. To do this effectively requires leaders to communicate with all levels of employees in their organization and to develop and demonstrate teamwork and collaboration skills.

Some useful tips:

  1. When building situational awareness, many leaders make the mistake of only paying attention to information sources and opinions that reinforce their own views. This creates a huge risk of missing alternate viewpoints. Instead, leaders need to cast a wide net. They should get different points of view from many sources by engaging directly with their customers and employees to ensure they learn about changes in their markets. The best leaders wander around the office talking to their teams and get out of the building to spend time with clients, prospects and partners in the marketplace.
  2. Once the encounter uncertainty in their operating environment, leaders can gain an overview by evaluating the PESTEL factors: political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legislative.
  3. With broad situational awareness of their environment and their vision in mind, leaders also need to have an in-depth understanding of their organization’s strengths and weaknesses. The goal should always be to take advantage of rapidly changing circumstances by playing to strengths while minimizing weaknesses.
  4. Leaders should embrace Scenario Planning as a critical part of their strategic planning process. This useful tool helps leaders and their teams to anticipate future threats and begin preparing contingency plans to respond.

React to Complexity with Clarity

Clarity – You can counteract the third VUCA force (Complexity) with Clarity.

We all know that in a VUCA world, chaos comes quickly and hits you hard. Leaders who can react swiftly and tune out the noise will make better decisions.

To gain clarity effectively, leaders need to break problems down to the basics. By learning to simplify challenges down to their root causes, leaders and their teams can then begin to think creatively and make quick decisions on how to respond.

Some useful tips:

  • Make sure that everyone in the organization understands the vision and long-term objectives you are trying to reach. Leaders should communicate the organization’s vision, purpose, and values often. An emergency is not the ideal time to help your team understand the organization’s direction!
  • The best teams are creative and collaborate often. Leaders need to develop this capability across the organization. VUCA situations are usually too complicated for one person to handle on their own. It takes a team.

Overcome Ambiguity with Adaptability

Adaptability – You can counteract the fourth VUCA force (Ambiguity) with Adaptability.

This concept of adaptability applies perfectly to today’s chaotic VUCA environment. I believe those organizations (and leaders) who are best able to adapt to change will grow and thrive. Those who don’t, won’t!

By taking an agile approach, moving swiftly and adapting to circumstances, leaders and their teams can quickly make decisions and execute. This requires many of the skills and abilities discussed above plus a willingness to experiment, iterate, and figure out what works in the face of adversity. This is what I have

Some useful tips:

  • Effective leaders reinforce to their teams that the only way to make progress towards any objective is to take action. This deliberate effort in the face of hostile VUCA forces is not always easy, or pretty. When in doubt, move fast, and get stuff done!
  • Teams need to try hard, fail fast, and learn. Then rinse and repeat. This adaptation to changing market conditions is the key to competing and winning in any market. Leaders can promote agility and adaptability by encouraging their teams to plan, and consider alternative scenarios.
  • In many organizations, long-range plans are often obsolete by the time they are approved and funded. This does not mean the effort was wasted. Leaders should encourage continuous consideration of alternative strategies, that way there is always a plan B, in case the first strategy does not work out.
  • Leaders should encourage their teams to continuously be learning about themselves, the market, and their teammates. They also need the latitude and flexibility to experiment, without fear of making a mistake or failing.

Thriving in Turbulent Times

Many experts agree that VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) forces are only going to increase in frequency and intensity. However, that does not mean VUCA is a bad thing. It represents the changing environmental conditions most organizations must now operate within, and overcome if they want to be successful.

Since organizations are largely powerless to stop VUCA – leaders and their teams must learn how to live with, and effectively manage, these forces in their market environment. By learning how to counteract each VUCA force – with vision, understanding, clarity, and adaptability – we can thrive in these turbulent times.

-Onward