Early in my career, I worked in international disaster relief. I worked in East Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans, Indonesia, etc. By definition, the places we worked in were in a disaster. Sometimes a natural disaster – like a tsunami, famine, or pandemic. Sometimes war or conflict. Often all of the above.

The conditions we worked in were highly uncertain. Security, politics, economics, health, weather, access to electricity or even water…nothing was certain. Some locations were so unstable, we always carried a “quick-run” bag in case we needed to immediately evacuate. In spite of all of that – we were assigned a mission and a deadline. We were expected to complete it – on time.

Our normal day was an effort, mostly successful, forging success out of uncertainty.

Not Seeing a Path Doesn’t Mean a Path Can’t be Made

 2020 has been a head-whipping year. I’m not sure that 2021 will be much different – at least not for the first half.  Some leaders have guided their organizations to take a “hunker down” strategy to this year, waiting for the various storms to pass. They’ve dialed back on the kinds of things that grow their team or their business. They’ve focused on survival and getting through. With few exceptions, those organizations are hurting as a result. Hunkering down doesn’t work when storms are the norm.

If you read my articles, you know that all of my clients are experiencing a record-breaking year in 2020. This is not an accident. Only one is in an industry that specifically is benefitting from some of the side effects of COVD-19 policies. For the remaining – their success is completely independent of the environment.

All of them chose to forge their success out of the context of uncertainty. The path to their vision may not have been clear – so they are cutting their own. They come from very different industries, but their success comes from the practice of simple principles.

The 5 Principles for Forging Success Out of Uncertainty

Guiding clarity: Staying clear on guiding values and vision. The organizations that are doing the best in 2020 are those that didn’t lose track of who they are, what was important to them, and where they were going. They may not have known how they were going to get there – but they didn’t abandon their values or their vision.

An organization with clearly defined values uses those values to inform how everyone relates and make decisions. It provides a common touchstone, a shared framework, a unifying reference point – all of which result in internal clarity. An organization with a clear vision knows where it is going. Even when the path disappears, or a detour is needed. A consistent vision helps prevent organizational wandering, floundering, or stalling – which is what nearly always occurs when an organization doesn’t know where to go.

Successful organizations in 2020 have found that by staying true to their values, they were able to create organizational stability. By maintaining their vision, they were able to regain traction on their course.

Calibrate your focus: In The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, Steven Covey talks about the importance of distinguishing between what you do and do not control.

Whatever you focus on grows with the attention you give it. Leaders and organizations who give much of their attention to things they can’t control find that what can’t be controlled just seems to grow. Their sense of helplessness expands.

However, leaders and organizations who focus on what they can control find that their ability to be effective, have an impact, and achieve their goals expands. Their sense of efficacy and their confidence expand. Successful leaders pay just enough attention to what they can’t control to know what is out there. But their deep attention and focus are given to what they can control.

Limit your focus: Even with what you can control – you still can’t control all of it. Imagine a juggler. Let’s say this juggler is an expert and can juggle anything you toss at him. But even this most expert juggler has a limit. A point where he can’t keep everything up in the air and balls begin to drop.

Most leaders are highly competent people. A great weakness for many is believing that because they can be effective at many things, they should also be effective at anything, or even everything – all at once. This is not true.

The best leaders decide which balls must stay in the air. Everything else is set down, given away, or dropped.

Good leaders are able to do a lot. And they often try to prove it. Great leaders only do what is most important. Everything else is set down, given away, or dropped.

Limit your focus.

Double down on value: Put your energy into serving others. In crisis or uncertainty, there is a tendency for many organizations to make cuts, withdraw, reduce services, and in other ways limit the value they offer.

Here’s the thing: Organizations (or people) who offer less value – are less valuable. Any organization that steps in and offers that missing value – becomes more valuable.

Organizations whose decisions have directly or indirectly led to a reduction of value are hurting today. Many have closed. They weren’t delivering value. Organizations that are doing the best right now have doubled down on getting the same value to customers, providing new value, or finding new ways to deliver value.

Protect your success habits: Keep doing the things that produce success. Certain habits produce success on an individual level. They usually aren’t very mystical. Things like regularly getting good sleep, eating well, exercising, reading, and practicing some form of stillness – are all shown to be directly related to an overall sense of happiness, well-being, and success.

Each of these practices is vulnerable to being jettisoned when someone is under stress. Eating habits go, sleep suffers, no time to read, no energy to exercise, etc. By beginning to practice these habits again, many people find they are able to reclaim success.

This is true for organizations as well. For many organizations, their success comes from basic habits. Usually not too exciting-looking:  Consistent business development or marketing, staff development or training, process improvements, regular team meetings, regular progress checks or accountability checks, etc. Each of these is vulnerable to being jettisoned under stress. Business development is dropped – putting an air bubble in your sales pipeline. People aren’t developed – reducing access to ready managers in the future. Meetings are scuttled – adding to the lack of communication and increased disorganization.

Keep doing the things that produce success.

These Five Principles Define Your Future

In the context of uncertainty, you can’t rely on externals for success. You have to build a strong internal game. For organizations, the five principles above are that game. Put them into practice, give it a little time, and you’ll find yourself forging success out of uncertainty too.

Take good care,

Christian

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The Successful New CEO – FREE SNEAK PEEK
As an executive coach, I’ve found that the experiences for new executives (or experienced executives in new roles) tend to touch on familiar themes. No one’s situation is the same. But there are common principles that, when followed, do guide executives to success. I introduce those core principles in my new book, The Successful New CEO. I’d like to give you a preview chapter for free.

The book is divided into four parts:

• Becoming an Executive: Leaders can only lead out of who they are. How do you become the kind of person who successfully and gracefully inhabits this role?
• Seven Essential Executive Skills: The skills that earned you this new role may not be the ones that you need in the role. What are the key leadership skills that become even more important at the executive level?
• Leading Your Leadership Team: More than likely, you’ll be leading other leaders. How do you lead a confident, effective leader? How do you build a team out of leaders?
• First Things: Where do you start? How do you quickly build credibility and engagement? What is too fast or too slow?

The goal of The Successful New CEO is to help you quickly gain the confidence of your team, successfully address the issues you will discover, score early wins, and set a course for a fruitful future.

If you’d like to see how this book will benefit you or someone you know, I’d like to make a preview chapter available to you for free! Click Here.

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Find the value of your company with my free assessment tool: The Value Builder System

The Value Builder System™ is a 13-minute online questionnaire that evaluates your business on the eight factors that contribute more to its attractiveness and value. These factors are scored on a scale of 1-100. Businesses that score over 80 are likely to command 70%-100% higher value than others.

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THE LEADERSHIP COACH Podcast

In my podcast, THE LEADERSHIP COACH, we explore effective, high impact and enjoyable leadership. We talk about personal development and the attributes that all effective leaders possess. I interview other leadership experts who share their knowledge and tips to help you build the confidence to lead and learn the habits of good decision-making.

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Opportunities

Free Resource: How To Accomplish More Without Doing More is a workbook I created to walk leaders through a process of helping you own your calendar, liberate your time, and still get more done. Download it for free!

Executive and Leadership Coaching: Do you feel overwhelmed? Are you not getting the results you expect from the effort you are putting in? Do you find yourself facing similar challenges time and time again? Would you like to change specific ways of relating or reacting? If you would like to experience predictable, measurable growth Contact me.

Profitable Exit Strategy Workshop: Are you a business owner or partner? Are you over 55? Are you starting to think about exiting your business or active management in the next 3-5 years?

• Are you curious about what your business might be worth?
• Would you like to discover the specific steps you need to take to increase its value and become highly attractive to a buyer?
• Are you planning on handing it over to family or employees and you want to ensure long-term success?

If so, contact me now