“Are You Reaching Out for Support?”

A common conversation our firm engages in with Executives deals with the intensity they are experiencing as they lead their organizations through escalating uncertainty and change.

21^st Century Executives are consumed by increasing complexity that is causing breakdowns everywhere in businesses today. With this new level of intensifying complexity, Executives are asking themselves how they can embrace this new “Unknown”. If we don’t manage change, we risk a higher degree of burnout, more work/life balance issues, more performance related issues, and less strategic thinking that can cause a company to miss competitive advantages in volatile markets.

So how do Executives manage the intensity?

A common response we get from Executives is, “I have never felt this level of overwhelming, isolation, uncertainty and heightened anxiety while striving to create clarity and answers for my staff and board.”

The truth is, most Executives are coping with this intensified complexity by doing more of what they already know; working long hours, putting out fires and fixing problems. Albert Einstein stated, “We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.”  In times of significant change and disruption, we need to leverage each other for deep, creative thinking to persevere the economic challenges we now face.

The paradox we are noticing is that this kind of true innovation is at an all-time low. Many leaders are not asking for support because they are stuck trying to find the answers to the challenges they are facing on their own.

It’s time leaders’ step outside the day to day grind to ask themselves how innovative they really are and who they are reaching out to for support.  Without self-reflection, collaborating together and turning our focus to what’s possible, we stay stuck in habitual methods of operating our businesses and compromise possibilities for improving performance, work/life balance and corporate sustainability. We acknowledge that asking for help is easy to say and hard for many Executives to do because they believe vulnerability equals weakness!

Once our clients learn to see vulnerability as a strength, they are able and willing to see their fears which had them stuck in the first place. Here’s a short list of what we’ve discovered are many of our standard fears:

• Fear of looking incompetent – I should know what to do
• Fear of rejection
• Fear of imposing – everyone is busy
• Fear of not being accepted
• Fear of looking helpless

An excellent way to support our clients in shifting their mindset from fear to possibility is to have them leverage their peers for different perspectives.  Leveraging the gifts of our quality support network challenges our often hidden mindset of “I need to be right and I need to know what to do”. This gets us thinking outside the box, seeing new perspectives and considering different possibilities.

So, we leave you with the challenge: “Who is one person you will reach out to for support who will listen to you and put you into action to turn your unknown experience into future possibilities?”

What will it take to generate results when tomorrow’s economy is volatile, uncertain, complex & ambiguous (VUCA)?

There’s little doubt the Canadian economy has been impacted by the volatility of a changing global market.  Current market conditions have created skepticism to any promise of sustainable growth, leaving many Leaders in a heightened state of anxiety about the future of their business.

Such challenges require creative thinking to generate new possibilities.

The type of creative thinking we are suggesting is not improving on old methods of operating our business from a “Problem-solving Mindset”. Instead, we are pointing to our ability to stand in the unknown, using an “Inquiry/Insight Mindset” to acknowledge our capacity to consider clearly what tomorrow looks like so that we can embrace our VUCA world.

We see this way of creative thinking as something that we often avoid. Why? Because of the rise in emotions that will inevitably surface when we don’t know what we’re doing.

This common behaviour can reveal our relationship to problems. It may also hold the solution to how we might navigate turbulent waters.  At Awesome Journey, we assert that Leaders need to expand their agility to navigate problems.  Human behavioural patterns indicate that we believe problems shouldn’t exist.  Most people interpret or experience problems as something is wrong, resulting in a reactive state of fight or flight to survive the situation.  This default method of problem solving often works AND may have us only sticking with what we know, limiting access to possibility for innovation and creative thinking that will take organizations to new growth.

This critical challenge requires moving past or setting aside what is known to generate a possible future of creating new results out of nothing.

To truly generate the future, Leaders need to spend less time on execution and embrace more time on learning.  This means deepening the inquiry into what got them where they are, what actions can they take today, what else is possible, and coming back to ask – did the actions work, and how might we improve on them moving forward. Asking yourself and your team “What did we learn?” and “How did we learn that?” creates a culture of Learning by Doing – Living from an “Inquiry-Insight Mindset”.

Learning requires Leaders to come from an Inquiry-Insight Mindset.  We need fewer people trying to be right about everything and more who question everything.  This new way of growth and development will provoke enough thought that moves us from our old paradigms of thinking.  No longer will problems appear as obstacles but instead they become the pathway to innovation and possibility.

Here are some key distinctions to live in the “Inquiry-Insight Mindset”:

1. Introspection: Notice how your team reacts when problems occur. What emotions are present?  Does everyone think their answer is the solution?  Or does your team explore multiple possibilities that go beyond your current realm of expertise?
2. Shift the context from which you see things – reframe how a situation is occurring for you by asking an Empowering Question – What else can we do? What have we not done that we can do?  What is missing?  As a rule of thumb, remember that our ability to generate results comes in direct proportion to our ability to manage uncertainty.
3. Agreements – Be crystal clear on the actions and accountability that needs to occur for the results to come over time. Give room to fail, make sure to learn from mistakes and always innovate and improve.
4. Fail forward and Celebrate – Creating from nothing takes learning by doing, which essentially comes with failing. With a learner mindset, failing is okay and should also be celebrated for acknowledging new efforts with an intent to see results over time. 

Example: Blockbuster vs Netflix

For Blockbuster, they created their Strategic Growth Plan based upon a “Problem-Solving Mindset” by focusing on bringing the past to now. To grow their business, they focused on leasing retail space in growing neighborhoods – Duplicating their past success to grow the business. They also were making massive profits from charging their customers for late fees which clouded the executive team from seeing a different future.

On the other hand, Netflix approached their Strategic Growth Plan by applying an “Inquiry-Insight Mindset” by asking empowering questions – “What trends are emerging such that they could differentiate their business to support future growth?” One insight that continued to show up in Netflix conversations was people were asking when they could download movies like downloading music over the internet. The technology was two to three years out when Netflix’s started. So, they built their business from the future and when the technology was available Netflix was ready and Blockbuster was not. Today Netflix’s market cap is approx. $110 Billion, and Blockbuster is bankrupt.

Leadership Challenge:

Create a discussion with your team asking them the following two questions:

1. What are our biggest challenges as a team when we are presented with problems?
2. What could we do differently that we haven’t done before when we experience breakdowns?

Create an action plan from your dialogue and act.

As executive leadership coaches, we understand the power of language.

Language has the power to connect, co-create, and to generate real action. We typically see two types of communication with our clients: Descriptive and Generative.

What’s the Difference?

• Generative language puts people into action through intentionally designed conversations that create dialogues that lead to action by making clear requests, offers, and promises with others.
• Descriptive language explains, tells, creates one-way monologues, and describes situations and experiences; it does not create action.

Example: Descriptive vs Generative Communication

5 Key Distinctions of Generative Communication

1. Deep Listening
2. Make clear requests and real promises that create quality agreements
3. Able to enroll (commitment) vs convince/sell/persuade others
4. Design intentional conversations (purposeful) vs. vague conversations (automatic speaking)
5. Asking empowering questions

• Who needs to be in action with your issue?
• What is missing for action to occur?
• Is this a threat or opportunity?

Leadership Challenge:

Design one intentional conversation that leads to action.

My partner and I were recently conducting a two-day Strategic Planning session with an 8-member Executive Leadership team. The session was going very well; there was a great energy in the room.

Within two hours of the session, the CEO became emotionally triggered by some critical information that was shared and proceeded to engage in a very negative rant for two minutes.

You could visually see the high level of intense discomfort throughout the entire team. Body language turned inward, arms crossed, smiles faded, and heads nodded down.

There was a very noticeable shift in the room. Suddenly the atmosphere went from productive and friendly, to very unsafe, which caused everyone to shut down, stop being vulnerable, and everyone stopped speaking openly.

Seeing this discomfort, I asked the team to close their eyes and breathe deeply. While they were breathing I requested that they ask themselves one question to become grounded,

“Is this experience right now a threat or an opportunity?”

I asked everyone to open their eyes and I went around the room and asked them to respond to my question.

During the first round, everyone responded with, “it feels like a threat to my career right now.” I thanked everyone for being authentic and honest. Then I asked them to close their eyes again and asked them the same question,

“Is this experience right now a threat or an opportunity?”

Then I added one more insight for the team to ponder – “Is your CEO scared right now or is he a jerk?”

When I went around the room to get everyone’s insight, their answers were unanimous – Our CEO is scared right now and what he needs from me is my support not my judgement.

This example is a great illustration of the power of Ontological Coaching, which is the ability to shift another person’s “Way of Being”.

Your Way of Being is your reactions, behaviors, perceptions, and your mindset.

How you perceive a situation, leads to how you react to it, which leads to how another person receives and processes it.

The ability to reframe your communication is important because the way you communicate has a large impact on how your communication lands for another person.

The mindset shift that occurred above was asking the question – is this a threat or an opportunity and getting the team to look at the situation differently (reframing) and to perceive their CEO differently when he is expressing anger. The CEO’s anger was a reaction to fear but came out in a negative way and therefore triggered a negative reaction.

Leadership Challenge:

The next time you get triggered, ask yourself, “is this a threat or an opportunity” and see where the answer takes you.

Chris Anderson is all about “ideas worth spreading”.

He has a passion for the creation and distribution of great, innovative ideas that start or change the conversation.

TED started in Monterrey, California in 1984, and at the end of 2001, Chris’s foundation (Sapling Foundation) acquired TED. With a desire to grow the concept and take the conversations to the next level, Chris utilized the power of online platforms and expanded it’s focus from technology, entertainment, and design to include science, business, and key global issues. This expansion has led to the global phenomenon that is TED Talks.

In 2015, the organization posted its 2000^th talk online, and viewership had grown to approximately one billion views per year. In 2009, under a strategy of “Radical Openness”, Chris introduced the TEDx Initiative, allowing free licenses to local organizers. Over 8,000 events have been held, creating an archive of over 60,000 TEDx talks. (TED profile)

About Chris Anderson

I am a: Change Agent, Connector, Event Planner, Global Soul, Idea Generator, Journalist, Philanthropist, Employer, Producer, Social Entrepreneur, Curator

Personal Profile

“We don’t know what the final destination is, but we are guided by a philosophical and deep belief in the power of good thinking, the power of good ideas,” he said. “With TED, the end of the talk should not be the end of the idea, but just the beginning.” – Chris Anderson

Peter Diamandis is a Greek American engineer, physician, and entrepreneur. He has been featured in Fortune Magazine as one of the world’s 50 greatest leaders.

As the Founder & Executive Chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation, he is a leader in designing and operating large-scale incentive competitions whereby large cash incentive prizes are offered to inventors who can solve grand world challenges.  He is the Executive Founder of Singularity University, a graduate-level technological institution that counsels the world’s leaders on exponentially growing technologies.

Diamandis has started over 20 companies in the areas of longevity, space, venture capital, and education. He is also co-Founder of BOLD Capital Partners, a venture fund with $250M investing in exponential technologies.

He earned degrees in Molecular Genetics and Aerospace Engineering from the MIT and holds an M.D. from Harvard Medical School.

Peter’s favorite saying is “the best way to predict the future is to create it yourself”

8 Exponential Technologies Converging: 

1. Computation
2. Internet of Things (Sensors & Networks)
3. Robotics and Drones
4. Artificial Intelligence
5. 3D Printing
6. Materials Science
7. Virtual/Augmented Reality
8. Synthetic Biology

A common frustration amongst CEOs is that when they promote internal Managers to C-Suite Executives, they often receive lackluster results. A lot of times, Managers are exceptional with operations, management, and overall performance of their respective departments, but struggle to make a successful transition to the C-Suite.

Why is that?

As a Manager, there are different expectations attached than with a C-Suite Executive.

As an Executive, a CEO is expecting Game Changing Value that affects the organization’s bottom line in a real way. These new expectations require new conversations and different skill sets, knowledge bases, mindsets, and ways of being (behaviors, actions).

Managers usually have different role and responsibilities, and typically different views and perspectives than C-Suite Executives.

Managers tend to be short-term, task-orientated, day-to-day thinking, immersed in the day-to-day. They focus more on the immediate future and generating action.

C-Suite Executives focus on the long-term and view decisions from the vantage point of “how will this affect the organization as a whole”, “how is the company aligned or not aligned”, and “what opportunities are out there to capitalize on, and what potential threats do we need to be aware of?”

Overall, C-Suite Executives think strategically and analyze situations and information from a strategic point of view.

Thinking strategically is a mindset shift. It is not simply adding new skills, learning a new technique or following a new set of steps to achieve a certain outcome. A mindset shift is thinking differently and developing new perspectives and views. The transition of Manager to C-Suite Executive requires going from a concentration of just a department, team, or area of concentration, to a focus on the organization, and viewing situations and experiences from a mindset of how it affects the entire organization.

This transition can be quite difficult and will likely require some training and support from the CEO to the future Executives on what Game Changing Value means to the organization.

What is Game Changing Value?

It is new ideas and possibilities that affect revenue and profits positively, or reduce organizational costs – basically, it is bottom-line value.

For example, introducing new, innovative technology to the company that creates a new product that leads to a new revenue generation stream that did not exist previously.

Finding a new way to utilize large equipment that increases overall equipment utilization and generates increased revenue and profits.

How does a CEO make this conversational shift of tactical to strategic with Managers?

Here are 3 questions to ask:

1. Finish this sentence – “Strategic Thinking is…”
2. What are 3 ideas or possibilities you see that could lead to game-changing value for the organization?

Definition – Game Changing Value to the organization means to create a meaningful, sustainable difference to increase revenue and/or profit and reduce costs.

Example: 15% increase in revenue, make new subsidiary arm of business profitable, and reduce organizational expenses by 15 – 20% without reducing personnel or sacrificing quality.

3. How could you turn your game-changing ideas and possibilities into reality over the next 3 – 5 years within the organization? Include any data, research, or related information to support your ideas.

This exercise is a great way to begin having higher level, strategic conversations that can lead to action. When a CEO provides this level of support to new, emerging C-Suite Executives it shows a high level of care and commitment to the future growth of both the individuals and the organization.

Leadership Challenge:

Make a request from your C-Suite Executive Team to come up with 3 – 5 Game-Changing Value ideas and possibilities for your next Executive meeting.

How does a great leader become a great leader?

How does an entrepreneur go from being great at what he/she does to being great at managing the operations of a company?

Transitioning from one state to another involves being a true learner. When you embrace being a true learner, you make a commitment to grow, develop and evolve yourself to close the Performance Gap between the leader you are now to the leader you want to become.

What is the Performance Gap?

The Performance Gap is the space between the leader you are now, and the leader you want to be. Within the Performance Gap there is Resistance that shows up as Resignation, Complacency and Cynicism.

All 3 dimensions of resistance cause leaders to get stuck and frustrated.

When a leader goes into “resistance mode” their mindset becomes narrow and their focus is on “what’s wrong”, “nothing works”, “it’s hopeless”, versus being open-minded and creating momentum through new possibilities and taking action, and asking themselves and others, “what if” or “how can we?, which encourages different perspectives and new ways of thinking.

The Performance Gap

When you make the commitment to become a learner, you also make a commitment to embrace the “Performance Gap”.

When you embrace learning you are going to encounter moving from being comfortable to being uncomfortable. While this is often quite challenging, it is also the most beneficial growth.

The mindset and language of a present leader versus a future leader.

Leadership Challenge:

Review situations where you or your team has shown resistance to ideas or change, and discuss what could possibly happen if the resistance was removed.