It’s a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world, according to management gurus. Unforeseen, global “black swan” events seem recur with increasing frequency and impact. For instance, the COVID-19 crisis today or the financial crisis of in the last decade. The playfield has become unpredictable. How do you, as a Business Leader navigate your enterprise?
Though all businesses get impacted in some way, particularly vulnerable are startups and small businesses. Recent studies globally have found that more than half the businesses worldwide have been impacted by the pandemic. A report by International Trade Center (tabled below) suggests that over 50% of small businesses and about 25% of large businesses risk closure due to the Covid-19 black swan! This is unsettling for all stakeholders!
SMALL BUSINESS, GREATER RISK (Study by International Trade Center)
As a business leader, what can you do to survive and grow?
You start by revisiting all old goals and plans, and begin rewriting every playbook. Likely that your team has reduced in size and is working remotely. You now need to engage them differently, for which a new operating mechanism needs to be devised and put in place.
High Alignment replaces High Touch. Goal Clarity and Processes help with alignment, in the absence of closely knit teams @ the workplace. What get executed better by a remote workforce are well defined processes around micro-tasks.
Coaching helps
The current pandemic emphatically exposed the vulnerability of all leaders – from startups and small business to large, well-oiled, global systems. Many businesses folded up as their leaders truly could not figure out a comeback!
You have no choices about how you lose, but you do have a choice about how you come back and prepare to win again. PAT RILEY, NBA Player and Hall of Fame Coach
Leadership Coaching helps business leaders overcome perceived inflexibilities in their plans and strategies, consider rapid alternatives and pursue a new game plan with equal faith, even when facing mounting odds.
Change is hard to handle for most people. The best leaders and champions handle such demands on them by leaning on a Coach to help them navigate the journey of change. The Coach helps create the space for you to totally accept the situation, followed by an energetic exploration of new possibilities, and then the emergence of clarity for the way forward.