Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Leaders Anticipate to Navigate 2023

Q.The economy, political arena, global issues all can impact business. How can we best prepare for this year?

A. Business leaders can navigate 2023 most effectively if they anticipate what can happen. What will happen with the customers? What will they need? Will customers need their products and services or are they a luxury they will stop using if the economy gets tight?

The most adaptable leaders will think about their future: next week, next month, next year. What will you plan for? What does society need? What does your industry need? How can you offer an innovative product or service? How can you leapfrog the competition or the competitor who is stuck in their thinking, hunkering down, laying off, and reacting? That’s not leadership. That’s reacting out of fear.

Great leaders embrace and lead changes that will lead to improvements—in the organization, for the staff, for the customers and the markets you serve. Other essential actions great leaders take are reflection about what works and what isn’t working, and tapping in on the wealth of ideas and knowledge the employees have.

Too many organizations’ executive teams think that the people with the titles need to have all the ideas, answers, and decisions. Can you imagine if you have a team of six to ten managers who have all of this burden? But what if you tapped in on all of your 100 or 1000 employees to bring your ideas and wisdom together? Then focus on prioritize on a few ideas to implement to make a difference. That would be a powerful transformation in leadership thinking. Let me know how it goes!

Q. We have a dedicated, but intense work environment. Our turnover is high because people burn out. What can we do?

A. There are industries that are experiencing these pains. And they are major foundations in our society: education and healthcare, to name a couple of foundational systems we depend on! Add the uncertainty of the future and the past of the pandemic, etc. that we all have endured. But some people have been in the heart of these battles.

What are the solutions for the future? As author Geoffrey Moore recently delivered to a group of executives, “Leaders need to personally transform.” In a following interchange, Geoffrey and I wholeheartedly agreed that this is step one. Transformation is necessary! It begins with personal transformation and then transformation of the organization, industry, and society. Leaders need a coach with knowledge about transformation (not how to improve management fads.)

Transformation takes knowledge, deep study, a higher level of communication (more two-way communication), and courage to apply a different philosophy of management. It’s time to be a different kind of leader, one who believes in developing all of your people. Leaders study together, ask relevant questions, plan and experiment to learn what works and what doesn’t. Continually improve and innovate—always providing the quality your customer needs.

An important element of transformation is to get rid of the waste, complexity, management fads, arbitrary numerical goals, and “best practices” that have infiltrated your organization. You need a person with transformational knowledge to assess where the waste is (typically 50-80% in organizations!) and help you pivot into a healthier workplace. Check out my book for ideas; email me for referrals.