For the last weeks, a lot of us have been operating on a day to day basis.

One step at a time, waiting to hear back from our respective government’s to understand what’s next for us and what we can expect tomorrow.

While some individuals might be familiar with that way of being as they may have already been leading their lives by being “last minute” people, the rest of the population and particularly leadership needs to be permanently navigating the tension between acting in the present while planning for the future.

Indeed, strategic posture has always been essential, and will always be essential to leadership.

Teams need to know : where are they going and why they are going that way.

Purpose and vision is what drive us every day.  It is what keeps our teams committed and engaged. It is as well the reason why your clients chose you.

Now as leader, the question, you could be asking me is while acknowledging the importance of purpose and vision : how can you possibly plan if you do not know what’s next ?

Here are a few tips:

• Examine yourself and your environment: engage in an open and honest channel of communication with yourself and with the people around you (your clients, your suppliers, your direct reports, your peers, your boss). Observe attentively and listen actively (click here to get a few tips on how to listen actively)

 

• Remind yourself that in reality even the most uncertain environments contain a lot of strategically relevant information. This pandemic even if it has been unprecedented follows the same pattern. Indeed, despite the multiple dimensions of uncertainty we are facing, we should still focus on the qualitive and quantitative information that is available to us.

 

• Avoid being binary, there are a range of options. Work maybe on 3 to 4 different scenarios.

 

• If not already done, build a culture of Agility that can help you quickly adapt and change the course of action if necessary

This time requires courage and resilience. You cannot stand still. Acknowledge that you may be making some mistakes but do not have them paralyse you; Rise and Lead.