As we continue to deal with the challenges of uncertainty in our changing world, one fundamental concept leaders need to embrace is that success looks very different now. Leadership must relearn how to find your best next move when the business environment no longer provides the concrete, incremental wins that we are used to.
It’s hard to shake the belief that our prior experience, knowledge, and success are the currency that puts us in a position to know what is coming down the road and what we need to do next. Our identity and self-worth are tied up in the resumes and achievements that brought us to this point in our careers. It’s a big mindset shift to acknowledge that the game has changed.
So how do you respond to a major change in the way you work, where the structure or process that you normally follow changes all of a sudden? How do you help your team change their focus from relying on what they have done in the past, from what is known and comfortable, what generates those incremental wins that are so seductive?
Here’s an example of how one of my clients handled this kind of situation. A software sales executive in a growing technology company and his team faced a major change in how their sales territories would be assigned and worked. While salespeople in general are very optimistic and resilient, this change was disruptive and anxiety-provoking; it required a wholesale change in how they would sell.
The executive was apprehensive and worried; his team of highly-trained, ambitious and successful account executives were back on their heels. Nobody could understand why this change was being put in place when they had demonstrated consistent success in the previous structure.
Rather than digging in his heels and resisting the change, or plowing ahead in a business-as-usual manner, hoping this change was just another “flavor of the month” and would soon go away, my client knew he had to prepare his team to think differently about how they sell.
He set a process in place that was grounded in some of the structure and assumptions they already knew, then carefully urged them—one small step, one “best next move” at a time—to work through this new framework.
They would no longer have that same, predictable sales structure they were so familiar with. But what they would have is the ability to always find their best next move, to feel confident in their own personal agency to act, and to understand that progress—even in a competitive sales environment—was now defined as any move that pulled them forward.
This was all unknown territory for them, but with time, they saw results. They built confidence based on knowing they could chart their path forward through anything that was thrown at them. They ended up miles ahead of their peers, who were still desperately holding onto their old ways, resisting the changes that continued to come.
Whether you are in sales, products, engineering, or any other function where your team is used to creating success through a familiar, known and recognized process, you need to be prepared for when things change – because you know they will.
Your role as a leader is to help your team understand that expectations have shifted. With your guidance, they will come to accept that we are all playing a different game now, one where we don’t know what is ahead, but where we need to confidently make our moves without knowing what the outcome will be.
Big solutions are no longer the expectation. Instead, we need to define and execute each smaller “best next move” that will continually pull us forward.
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