Embracing the Power to Predict the Next Normal
The challenge isn’t predicting the next normal. It’s creating it.
I heard the term “next normal” when a friend texted me from a Board retreat. I believe McKinsey used “next normal” first.
Leaders always create the next normal. Things change when new replaces old. Something goes away and the “next normal” cools and hardens. That was true before coronavirus!
Tomorrow reflects who we are today.
Showing up:
The way you show up today predicts the world you experience tomorrow.
How leaders show up now reflects the future of organizations.
Organizations never rise above the way their managers genuinely show up.
The way you show up comes out in what your team becomes.
#1. Fearful leaders end up with cautious teams. We smell fear and it’s contagious. If you have influence your fear contaminates others.
#2. Forward-facing leaders produce optimism. (During COVID-19 it’s cautious optimism, but it’s still optimism. “We’re going to come out better on the other side of this.”)
#3. Backward-facing leaders invite foot-dragging. You can’t build the next normal while pining for the old normal. (Nostalgizing is useful, but destructive in large doses.)
#4. Confident leaders – the belief that you will prevail – build can-do organizations. I’m not suggesting over-confidence. An over-confident leader produces doubt in the team.
- Recall past success. How have you succeeded during past turbulence?
- Face brutal realities. Confidence is façade when based on illusion.
- Call everyone to bring their strength to today’s challenge.
#5. Compassionate leaders create loyal teams. Acknowledge difficulties and press into the future at the same time. Ignoring difficulties disconnects you from your team.
Solidarity is the bond of loyalty.
Stress produces GAS (General Adaptation Syndrome). The three stages of GAS:
- Alarm.
- Reluctance.
- Exhaustion.
You’ve hit exhaustion. How might you refill your team’s tank today?
The future is us.
How would you like leaders to show up during COVID-19?
What future are you creating based on the way you’re showing up today?
#4. Confident leaders – the belief that you will prevail – build can-do organizations. Why does confidence seem to be missing in the public now with “fear, doubt and uncertainty” replacing confidence? I continue to ask that ?? every day. I am convinced it has to do with how one is raised (with fear or with confidence). During this virus disruption time I’ve had much time to talk to my 25 yr old son about, “life, love and work” and “fear doubt and uncertainty vs confidence” keeps coming up. He agrees it is how one is raised as he compares me as Dad vs his friends fathers. Be Positive folks, time to work, Roger out
Thanks Roger. I think your observation about our fear soaked society has real merit. I see it every day. We can’t underestimate the power of those who raised us. In large part, there attitudes become ours.
I’ll add that politicians love to use fear to gather a following. I suppose we should add anger to the mix as well.
One of the biggest challenges we face as leaders is addressing the fear of change. Our brain is hardwired to resist uncertainty – it actually prefers a predictable, negative outcome over an uncertain one. How are we addressing uncertainty? Dan, your quote is spot on in that when we engage others and create the new norm, there is less uncertainty and less fear. Lean in!
Here is a link to a nice article on the Fear of Change. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-adaptive-mind/201809/how-overcome-the-fear-change?scrlybrkr=ad5ce56a
Thank Joe. You remind of the saying, “Better the devil you know than the devil don’t know.” We’ll stick with current frustrations to avoid the potential of a new frustration. Perhaps leadership is about confronting the devil we know?
Thanks for extending the conversation.
How would you like leaders to show up during COVID-19? With a sense better days are coming and plan accordingly. Granted if tomorrow puts up a brick wall, figure a way to go around or tunnel under.
What future are you creating based on the way you’re showing up today? Planning future projects in the design stages as if we are moving forward. The client bases have adapted and are providing accessible sites to work and maintain production.
Thanks Tim. You know, I’m such a fan of forward-facing leadership. I feel that in your comment. It feels encouraging.
I like the mindset reflected in the Stockdale Paradox “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose —with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality whatever they might be.” ~ James Stockdale …And the mindset he reflected “I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”
My own credo is less eloquent “God is a builder..” “Help me understand where I fit, and step up.”
Adm Stockdale, I remember him talking to us for 3 hours on an October Saturday in 1975 at the USNA and he said those very words. One of the two most positive Christian men I’ve met in my life.
That’s so cool, Roger. I never had the privilege of hearing Adm. Stockdale in person. MY first exposure was in Good to Great and the Stockdale Paradox. Cheers
He was such a gentleman, walked in all white hair uniform big smile. He said relax guys and he talked on and on about his faith and what got him and his men through his captivity. An evening I will always remember and I was 18 at the time.
Thanks Roger, what a great memory this must be — i appreciate you commenting.
Yes even 45 yrs later the image of that man walking into the room and his confidence, his shine, his demeanor and his faith story is embedded within me. A truly great Christian and leader.
Thanks Ken. Love the Stockdale quotes. In the post above, I linked to something I wrote about those very ideas.
So much to be said for where do I fit…or where is my greatest possible contribution. cheers
Thanks Dan – I love this. I think that the concept of the “next normal” can feel overwhelming. Leaders can take what has worked in the past that may serve the future and combine them with new ways of working that serve their teams now and in the future. Optimism is so important in creating certainty for teams. We can only be optimistic. It can only get better. I love the concept of using this as a learning experience that allows growth as individuals and businesses.
Creating a ‘new normal’ that is only a version of the old will be to waste the opportunity presented by this crisis. Maybe fear comes from having to cope in a world not designed for the betterment of all – from dealing with not just environmental impacts but the imposition of your fellow humans. Reducing fear of the future is also about making today a better experience too. Today is most people’s reality.
“The new normal” feels like something that the world (or the office) has blundered into. “The next normal” feels intentional, forward looking in a rational manner and most importantly, planned. I’ll be asking my team this morning to think about what their “next normal” might look like and what I can do to focus energies in that direction.