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As a leader, are you counting trees or sensing the ecological shifts?






As we welcome 2021, we are already getting indications that this year will continue to be a year of great uncertainties. The pandemic and upheavals are now beyond moments of crisis. At large, we are all feeling the change at a deeper, a more fundamental, and systemic level. Needless to say, it will be a while before we untangle ourselves and emerge in a reality that has some level of predictability. Many leaders are wrestling with these inquiries:

  • How do I adjust my leadership style so I can manage and lead effectively in this new environment?

  • How do we continue to proceed with a forward-moving momentum despite feeling weighted down by inability to take actions?

More than ever, leaders are challenged to shift their own personal leadership style to adapt to the shifting realities. Specially, these major shifts will help catalyze emerging leadership capacities in this challenging time:

From Managing, to Intuiting From Grasping, to Sensing From Controlling, to Adapting

Traditional business management has given us great tools for an environment that is somewhat deterministic. That said, they fall short in a dynamic environment. As the swing of uncertainties amplifies, these “old school” tools are simply not enough. The continuous cycles of learning, responding, adapting become more important than managing by control and optimizing for today’s results.

Our desire to control for outcomes and managing against deviations might have been useful in helping us navigate short-term crises; however, it is simply not a long-term strategy when uncertainties are of going concern. The more we try to “manage” and control the uncertainties, the more we become obsessed with maintaining order than staying open and receptive to our shifting landscape. In another word, we put ourselves a fight or flight mode and we end up counting the trees rather than sensing the ecological changes and responding strategically to them. So what does this mean?

Leaders are asked to sense their way into the emerging future. ‘Sensing’ can be achieved by extracting oneself from the day-to-day management and asking big questions such as:

  • What is shifting in my industry and the macro environment at large?

  • What fundamental variables are influx?

  • How am I part of this ecosystem of change?

This keen examination will help answer critical questions such as:

  • What are the causes and conditions that will impact my business?

  • How would I like to respond (rather than react) to changes?

  • How do I create a responsive system and the right conditions to optimize our potential for success ?

When we are able to do that, strategic decisions become informed and empowered choices. We are no longer at the whim of our environment; instead, we flow with it.



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