Make no mistake: We live in uncertain times.
Stanford researcher Nick Bloom believes it’s true; the rates of uncertainty have been on the rise since 2016 and, not surprisingly, spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic. Economists seem split on what’s ahead; we’re headed for a soft landing, hard landing or no landing (no recession) at all. The labor market is in upheaval, and organizations are facing extraordinary talent churn.
Adding to the “foundational churn” caused by employees quitting (30%) and firing or retirement (10%), jobs are being upended by the force of so-called creative destruction that makes some jobs obsolete while creating new ones. New jobs are created at a rate of about 4.5% per year, on a march to completely replace the workforce every 20 years. Now consider the “freshening cycle” that occurs as companies redeploy talent internally by training people for new roles as their old job functions become obsolete. Combine this continually changing workforce with economic uncertainty and new technology-driven opportunities and you have to ask: How can anyone successfully lead an organization amid so much turmoil?
Clearly, what brought us to this point will not take us forward, but these five steps do provide a path forward.
1. Abandon the maps. With so much change in the market, economy and technology, the maps and models of the past can be a liability today. As tough as it can be to admit, you no longer have the luxury of certainty to make decisions and drive productivity. Instead, you must become an expedition leader, taking your teams on learning tours filled with the unknown.
2. Lead with care. Trust, says writer Dov Siedman, is the only legal performance enhancing drug. Scientific evidence bears this out. The hormone oxytocin is released when we feel love or trust, leading neuroeconomist Paul Zak to believe that trust is the social glue that enables workgroups to perform more effectively and holds our society together. How do you build trust? According to Harvard Business School researcher Frances Frei, empathy is foundational to the trust triangle. When you show you care about your people, they are more likely to trust you, and that trust, in turn, creates high-performing companies.
3. Seek clarity amid the chaos. Forget managing business processes. Instead, focus on your people’s success. Change is coming at us quickly, and we can’t allow our workers to exist as cogs in a fixed process. Instead, help your people learn and adapt to new challenges. Create clarity for the near term and share new information readily to help your team focus on the work in front of them, rather than be distracted by the rising noise around them.
4. Foster true collaboration. Against the noise of uncertainty and change, the most important thing you can do as a leader is establish psychological safety on your team by building trust and committing to transparency. Creating an environment of supportive collaboration means setting the conditions so that your team is one of peers that view each other as colleagues with whom they are stronger rather than as competitors against whom they win. This shift to collaboration has an anchoring effect, too. Work structured across teams helps retain institutional knowledge and provides business continuity against a backdrop of foundational churn.
5. Tap into intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation has long been recognized as a superior driver than extrinsic forces, so get to know your people. It’s that simple. Learn what they care about, why they work with you, what they value. Empathize with them to understand what makes them tick and lights their fire so you are better able to tap the self-propelling intrinsic motivation that keeps them continually learning and adapting regardless of the changing environment around them.
The pace of change facing businesses worldwide isn’t slowing down any time soon, but by following the five best practices outlined above, you can ensure that your team — and the business — is prepared for whatever comes next.
