Three Keys to Leading Through Chaos
Making the Right Decisions While Maintaining Perspective
If you are reading this email, you have most likely driven through a crazy storm at least once. The kind of rainstorm that causes our phones to buzz nonstop with flash flood warnings. In those moments most of us do 3 things.
Focus | We put both hands on the wheel and lean forward to hyper focus on how to control the anything we can control. The car.
Vantage Point | We adjust our lights to give us the best vantage point of what is coming down the road or what obstacles might be in place.
Pace | We slow down to make sure we don’t slide off the road or cause an accident during the chaos.
How come it’s easy for us to make the right decisions during chaos when we’re driving, but at work we often lose perspective?
The Insight Team has a combined experience of around 100 years, and we’ve witnessed a lot of chaos. Many of the mistakes we see during “chaos” start to erode the culture, isolate team members, and make the problem worse. Those mistakes are not intentional … everyone is just trying to make things work, but during the pursuit to make things work we can make things worse.
Instead of focusing on the right priorities, leaders make a list of everything that needs work, and the team gets overwhelmed. It’s like when my wife makes a weekend list of projects. The list would say everything she wanted: kitchen renovation, paint house, mow the lawn, build shelves in the office, install a new ceiling fan, and power wash the porch. You get the point. All are good, but not all are happening during a weekend. All are good, but not all are the same level of priority.
Instead of keeping a healthy vantage point leaders often start looking at what’s right in front of them and lose focus of the culture and values that root the organization. They lose sight of the long-term vision and make short term fixes that exhaust and demoralize the team.
Instead of keeping a healthy pace leaders start sprinting. The problem is that the team is typically not in “sprint” shape. It’s like watching an out of shape 45-year-old former H.S. track star try to sprint a 400. About 33.4 yards in they wonder what they are doing on the track and how they got to their current fitness level. I’ll tell you what they aren’t doing. They aren’t focusing on how to control their breathing to finish the race. Sometimes in crisis we must move quickly, but sometimes we manufacture the crisis because of our stress. Make sure a sprint must be a sprint, otherwise keep the marathon pace that the team can sustain for the long haul.
Here are three things to think about and actions to take:
Wrong Focus | Trying to move the team forward with 31 top priorities is like trying to get fit while enjoying tasty fried chicken daily. It doesn’t matter how much you work – you are working against yourself.
Action Step: Nail down the 1-4 things your team needs to knock out ASAP and then build to the next few items on the list. Yes, everything is vital, but if you don’t focus you will spin your wheels and have too many unintended consequences.
Wrong Vantage Point | During organizational chaos it’s easy to look at what’s right in front of us and lose sight of what’s coming. It’s like focusing so much on the rain while driving, but ignoring the signs that say, “bridge is out”. If the driver would have seen the sign, they could have saved plenty of time by finding a new route instead of driving all the way to the bridge.
Action Step: Leverage the team, the data and strategic foresight to look at what’s coming around the corner and not just at what is right in front of you. Adjust course as necessary before wasting more time and resources.
Wrong Speed | Sometimes there is a time and place to put the pedal down to the floorboard and go without looking back. While moving at full speed we often miss key details and important conversations that help make sure we get to our end destination. There’s a balance though – if we freeze up and go too slow, we don’t get anywhere. We must move but move at the right pace. How do you know if you are moving at the right pace? Is your team aligned? Can your team explain the priorities to a key stakeholder? If you went on vacation would the team be able to keep driving without you?
Action Step: Move at the pace you can keep the team aligned. When aligned you can go faster together. Focus on constant two-way communication and drive forward.
During the next “crisis” we encourage you to remember to focus on top priorities, keep a healthy vantage point, and watch your pace.
Get to where you need to go and keep the team aligned while you are on the journey.
Our Insight team provides executive coaching, facilitation and training to help leaders, teams and organizations navigate what’s going on and prepare for what will. Find time to chat!
