Political
instability, unstable sales trends, shifting business strategies, digital
revolution, technological disruptive innovations, environmental changes and
worrying scenarios about global warming and changes in human consciousness are
just some of the events that are shaking the markets, our organizations and our
lives at a whole.
All of them
have a tremendous impact on us as human beings and, hence, on how we lead
organizations and manage teams.
The VUCA term was first introduced in
the early 90s by the US Army War College to refer to the multilateral world
that emerged after the end of the Cold War and was characterised as being more
Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous than ever before.
In the business world the VUCA concept
took off after the global financial crisis started in 2008. Nowadays we live in VUCA times and
that is increasingly defining the challenges and opportunities of our immediate
future and, specially, the development of leadership skills.
The concept describes a business
environment featured by:
· * Volatile. Change happens unpredictably, especially for the worse. Some times in
a very intense manner and without prior advice.
· * Uncertain. Absence of information that can be taken as definitive, even if it is
currently true. Lack of clarity about present and future situation, and
difficulty to rely upon.
· * Complex: Confusion all over. No clear connection
between cause and effect. All organizations are affected, further than sectors
or areas.
· * Ambiguous: Not a single or unique interpretation. Even objective facts are
interpreted in different ways.
VUCA
environment has to do mainly with two aspects of Leadership: the set of
capacities and skills we develop and the way we interpret and react to the environment
(the conditions under which we manage and take decisions such as planning and
manage eventualities).
From the
observation and close work with a large number of leaders and managers we can
say that there is a short number of attitudes and skills that are common to
those who seem to be more successful:
· * Focus on your Mission and Values. Stick to robust values and a power generating
Mission for your company, department, unit or even for yourself.
· * Generate a Vision with the capacity to engage others around it. Create a compelling image of your
preferred future that may work as a focal point for your team and for you.
· * Build a broader understanding (systemic vision) of your company and its environment
looking at the whole picture, including the unseen relations and patterns.
· * Develop your Versatile and Agile Leadership skills and tools, specially towards:
o
Emotional
Intelligence and self control in stressful situations.
o
Self
energy renewal, positivism and enthusiasm.
o
Change
Management skills, tolerance to error and frustration.
o
Fast
learning (flexibility, self criticism and feedback)
Usually VUCA times come along with an increasingly high number of
changes at all levels of the organizations (business, processes, tools, etc.)
that personnel has to cope with. A
fragmented vision over management tends to separate things and disregard the
huge impact that change has on persons, especially on leaders. Organizations
that do not pay enough attention at developing the conditions and skills that their
leaders need usually suffer severe negative effects on the achievement of their
goals and, finally, on their bottom line.
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