Leadership in the Current VUCA Environment

Original article published on Forbes
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The past several months have been filled with heightened volatility: continuing pandemic, geopolitical issues, market uncertainty. People often refer to this as a VUCA environment, referencing volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. In this environment, we face heightened challenges and our fears become more apparent and more of a potential barrier. As leaders in these environments, we need to better define, communicate and apply our principles. A leader’s values are never more important to an organization than in a VUCA environment.

Across my time in business, the military and as an executive coach for C-level executives to pre-IPO companies, I've worked closely with leaders navigating teams through these challenges. I've witnessed examples of leadership in times of crisis that are met with varying degrees of success. I’ve learned leaders often find success by grounding the team in a realistic perspective, empowering others to increase learning and unifying around a shared purpose. When executing across these dimensions, leaders can be better prepared to shepherd their organizations through this environment and position their teams once the turbulence abates.

Ground the team in a realistic perspective.

When a team evaluates the current environment realistically, they become more vigilant and aware of the challenges ahead. As a manager and executive, you bear responsibility for evaluating the context from a realistic perspective. Therefore, when you and your team develop plans and take action, they are mapped to the actual environment.

• Stay rooted in reality. There is a time and place for urging the team to charge up the hill against all odds, but this is not a consistent strategy. As an executive, you are responsible for acknowledging challenges inherent to the existing context. In turn, this allows the team to gain every percentage point of advantage.
• Keep perspective by orienting to the 'horizon.' In the face of uncertainty, it can be easy to focus on the turbulence around us. However, the conditions or indicators in the immediate future are not representative of reality and can make the situation feel especially hard to control. Ensure you are orienting your team to the horizon and grounding yourselves in longer-term goals.
• Understand and coach around people's fears. Sometimes the biggest hurdle we face is our reaction to reality. As an executive coach, it's my responsibility to have a deep understanding of each client to help them find paths forward. Leaders must also seek to be coaches; they need to know what each team member is like. With this understanding, you can ensure their fears do not act as a “brake” and establish a context to help them achieve.

Empower to increase learning.

VUCA environments increase the likelihood of misalignment. We tend to become concerned with operating quickly and act without coordinating across teams. Managers must counteract this by building a shared understanding and prompting fast-paced and continuous learning. That way, when action occurs, it happens in line with a shared plan.

• Achieving is about more than activity. “Doing” can feel good but don’t confuse it for achievement. Even though it may feel counterintuitive, spend more time planning and diagnosing problems. This ensures you're staring at the right issues, taking the right actions and building a shared understanding that will pay dividends.
• Learn at a high speed. We often assume learning is constant or happens at a uniform rate. However, it's the responsibility of the manager to empower others to learn at an increased speed. In these environments, a small divergence can compound quickly into a large schism and rapid evaluation is needed to prevent this. As an Apache helicopter pilot serving in combat theatre, I needed to scan the cockpit instruments faster and be more alert of the surrounding environment.
• Diagnose challenges constantly. Work as a team to diagnose challenges and isolate the barriers preventing growth. Time spent synthesizing this information will build a collective understanding of how to navigate the present ambiguity.

Unify around a shared purpose.

Leaders must always instill a sense of common purpose in their organizations and create a shared mission. Bringing perspective and empowering the team can only take you so far. The ultimate energy and drive come from a shared purpose where each person feels a part of something larger than themself.

• “Mission first, people always.” This phrase from my time at West Point and the Army resonates when the toughest decisions need to be made. Every decision needs to be reinforced and anchored to the broader mission. As these decisions are made, spend time explaining the principles you and the leadership will use to guide the team.
• Alignment on purpose is stronger than alignment on decisions. It’s a necessary reality that people will disagree with a decision. These individuals will move on when they trust the intent and values of the decision. Share the reasoning for decisions and openly acknowledge wrong ones. In six years of coaching C-suite executives, I have learned unity around purpose is one of the largest determinants of growth.
• Culture and leadership become clear in times of crisis. In uncertainty or hardship, strong cultures grow stronger and weak ones break down. A strong culture enables each person to perform at their highest potential. Envision what you want the story to be on the other side of this challenge and take steps toward it today.

These are suggestions, not prescriptions, for ways leaders can create these contexts. In challenging and uncertain contexts like the current one, reflect on your principles and what values are central to your leadership style. Then look at the above bullets to think about which resonate and how you may incorporate these ideas.

In the past six years, I have specialized in coaching pre-IPO, early-stage C-level executives and founders. In small and rapidly growing companies, I have seen these principles tested, but they also apply to larger companies, only requiring more coordination across leadership levels. Regardless of the scale of decisions, these principles can be incorporated as you lead your teams and position them for growth.