I’ve worked with CEOs, Fortune 500 executives, social entrepreneurs, and other leaders worldwide to unlock their leadership potential. In these times, one leadership skill is needed more than ever, and that’s the capacity to navigate uncertainty.

This past year has been a real test even for those of us who are comfortable with change. In many sectors, from hospitality to education, the global pandemic caused an epic shake-up no one could ever have imagined.

At a personal level, many of us faced ups and downs, with restrictions on how we gather, new financial and job pressures, and worries about our health and that of loved ones. This past year, I faced a terrifying battle with long COVID that completely upended life as I knew it, and it reminded me once again why it’s vital for all of us to build our inner capacity to navigate uncertainty and volatility. 

The reality is that while our lives may eventually stabilize a bit, uncertainty will always be present in our ever-changing world. So here are four tips that can help you navigate it powerfully:

1. Normalize uncertainty. It’s not our circumstances that destroy us; it’s our resistance to them. In a world changing by the day, we have to accept that we can’t control everything. And that’s hard because so many of us are wired to want total control! But the more we try to control it all, the less “in control” we feel.

As I work with leaders to accept that some things will be out of their control, they often share how liberating it is to let go of this silent burden, the dead weight that’s been sapping their energy. Normalizing uncertainty gives leaders the freedom to focus on things in their control instead. 

2. Develop grounding practices. Many studies show that our decision-making can be impaired when we’re under stress as two of our body’s hormones, cortisol, and dopamine, hinder executive control functions in the brain’s prefrontal cortex. So if you need to make centered decisions in volatile times, shedding stress and getting grounded is critical.

One grounding practice I started this year is a daily evening walk in the park, which gives me space to decompress from the day and approach the next day with clarity and intentionality. Your grounding practice could include a short morning meditation, a one-minute pause between meetings to clear your mind of clutter from the last meeting, or a regular video chat with a colleague or coach to work through stress.

Whatever practice you choose, it’s important to recognize that your internal mental state is deeply linked to performance, so cultivating this capacity is not just a nice-to-have but a must-have if you wish to lead powerfully.

3. Embrace polarities. In times of stress, we often resort to “either-or” thinking when we should be embracing “and” thinking.

For instance, in an unpredictable business environment, rather than being frugal or revolutionary, smart leaders might decide to cut back on costs in some areas and invest in new opportunities in other areas.

This type of thinking can be helpful in our personal lives as well. For example, after hearing from numerous doctors that “so much is still unknown about long COVID,” I had to learn to embrace two seemingly competing ideas: find acceptance for my chronic health issues in the short term and continue to be optimistic in my search for a cure in the long term.

4. Widen your lens. When confronted with unpredictability, we need to expand our thinking to see what we might be missing. One way to widen your perspective is to surround yourself with people from diverse socioeconomic or cultural backgrounds and those who bring cross-industry experience or other forms of divergent thinking.

For example, in my current workplace at Teach For All, we have explicit hiring criteria around diversity because we recognize it makes our decisions and solutions stronger. Other ways to widen your lens include joining external networks, where you can get exposure to new perspectives, and building a diverse, personal board of advisors whom you can reach out to for counsel.

Looking at situations from a new vantage point may help you see new possibilities that weren’t visible before. This matters particularly in uncertain times and when dealing with complex problems where no one person could hold the entire answer. 

You can’t control everything around you, but you can choose how you respond in every moment. If you embrace uncertainty with curiosity and creativity, you might not only survive in this rapidly changing world—you may find ways to thrive in it.

Denial, anger, bargaining, and depression have all been in the mix of emotions experienced in the last two years. Still, after each of these, it has inevitably come to the final stage of acceptance for many.

For Google, that moment seemingly came in May 2021 when, after its latest plan to open offices was disrupted yet again by spiraling COVID-19 cases, it threw its proverbial hands in the air and accepted that there was no way of knowing if or when normal business would resume. 

The remote and hybrid work genie is officially out of the bottle and settling in for the long stay. It will inevitably impact how leaders view the years to come and what attitudes, skills, and adaptations to their practices will be needed to best navigate and excel in the new world of work.

The second major reckoning coming to leaders is the need to filter major and minor decisions through the lens of their resulting social and environmental impact. With a recent PWC report finding that 83% of consumers think companies should be actively shaping ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) best practices rather than reacting and adjusting, not only is there an urgent moral argument for leaders to get their houses in order quickly, but a compelling business case. So how will these dynamic forces that are instigating once-in-a-generation change impact leaders in 2022?

1. Virtual Workplaces will get smarter … way smarter.

Many leaders think that they’ve recreated their physical workplace into a virtual one with a corporate Zoom package and a Slack subscription. The reality is, it isn’t that easy. Leaders will need to be smart as they set about building a digital equivalence to something physical that took decades to refine. They’ll also need help. Most leaders wouldn’t contemplate asking Bill in HR or Jenny in IT to come up with designing a new office, but for many, that’s exactly who is being tasked with curating their virtual workplace. I expect to see an entirely new category of specialists emerge, people who create advanced digital workplaces. These next-generation, virtual work environments won’t necessarily be curated with all new technologies (let’s be honest, there’s a lot of those already) but could skilfully combine existing platforms with evolved processes and leadership practices. The goal? To build trusting, collaborative teams that can drive together productivity and innovation — from bedrooms to boardrooms.

2. Impact leaders will be challenged to have impact. 

Speaking in May 2021 at a New York conference hosted by the Wall Street Journal, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon (pictured above) aired his view on why JP employees should all return to the workplace. In his view, by the following September or October, “It will look just like it did before, and everyone’s going to be happy with it.”

The inescapable truth is that, while a return to the office for Dimon and other JPMorgan employees would be a welcome resumption, for others, it would undoubtedly represent a significant step backward. Corporate leaders tend to come from privileged groups, making it harder to appreciate the realities of in-person work environments for those who experience many physical or social impediments. For many, a virtual environment levels the playing field. 

Working in a non-physical workplace allows people not to be judged physically. Recognizing that a one-size workplace doesn’t fit all is step one. Decisively acting on it to create new and dynamic structures that work for diverse teams is step two and what impactful leaders will be increasingly challenged to do. 

3. More corporations will get in the ring. 

In September 2021, Salesforce, a company with a global workforce of more than 56,000 people, led by CEO Marc Benioff (pictured above), offered to relocate Texas-based employees and their families after a Texas abortion law went into effect. While not directly commenting on the law itself, Salesforce took a vocal, public stand by recognizing and respecting deeply held and different world views. “If you have concerns about access to reproductive healthcare in your state, Salesforce will help relocate you and members of your immediate family,” they told employees.

Throwing substantial corporate weight into the ring to back consequential causes or counter perceived injustices will, in my opinion, continue to be a growing trend with the lead taken by brands such as Salesforce but also brands such as Ben & Jerry’s, Patagonia, Lyft, Levis, and others. They will set a standard for others to follow.

From discussions about burnout, stress, workplace safety, the great resignation, and workplace inequality – chances are – leaders have had to navigate difficult conversations more frequently than ever before over the past 20 months.

In fact, a recent survey from SHRM found “41% of U.S. employees feel burnt out from work while another 23% report feeling depressed.” The survey also identified that a large set of employees are “struggling with negative emotions, concentration, and motivation.”

As these challenging discussions continue to occur between employees and leaders, even the most skilled leader may walk away from each conversation with the question, “did that go well?” ruminating in their mind.

While there is no magic blueprint for navigating difficult conversations, leaders may be missing out on key opportunities to connect and effect change with their employees during these talks. To optimize their approach, there are a few best practices leaders can implement into their communication arsenal and a few common pitfalls leaders should keep in mind to ensure they are tackling difficult conversations in a manner that provides positive outcomes for both their employees and the organization. Here are some common pitfalls for leaders

Taking a rational approach to an emotional problem.

One of the first mistakes leaders can make in their approach to a hot button issue is finding a rational solution to an emotional problem. Let’s face it, life is messy, and sometimes there is no direct path in solving a particular issue. Tackling a difficult conversation in this manner becomes a square peg round hole scenario and may inevitably push away the employee as they do not feel heard or understood.

Approaching the conversation from an internalized perspective.

For example, let’s say an employee has booked time on your calendar to discuss the issue at hand. Understandably, from the leader’s perspective, the question they start their thought process with as they prepare for the meeting may be, “What does my audience need to experience before committing to what I need them to?” 

Unfortunately, that’s the wrong question, as it creates an internally-focused mindset and positions the conversation through the leader’s biases, filters, and expectations – not the employees. 

For example, in his 2011 book, Psychology, Peter O. Gray cites an example of how internalized biases can go array in a clinical setting, writing “a doctor who has jumped to a particular hypothesis as to what disease a patient has may then ask questions and look for evidence that tends to confirm that diagnosis while overlooking evidence that would tend to disconfirm it.” Bringing an internalized perspective to a workplace conversation as a leader is akin to approaching the symptom and not the disease.

Enforcing compliance versus commitment

To build employee loyalty and longevity, leaders need to build an experience that allows employees to align themselves with the company’s goals. Wagging fingers at employees and telling them what to do is the wrong approach as it creates an impersonal experience and relegates commitment to compliance, ultimately stifling productivity and ownership. 

Workplace commitment requires creating an environment where the employee aligns their self-image with what they are being asked to do. According to the employee platform, Smarp, 69% of employees say they’d work harder if they were better appreciated. Fostering appreciation from a leaders-to-employee standpoint starts with building long-term commitment.

Tackling difficult conversations with a Three-Step Approach

Leaders generally overestimate the understanding they have of what their employees are thinking. To avoid a scenario where difficult conversations fall flat, leaders can begin by adopting a three-step approach to create an environment that allows leaders and employees to arrive at the core truth by building understanding, commitment, and trust.

Playing the long game 

As leaders prepare for these conversations, they must gain a complete understanding of the employee’s long-term goals within the organization and identify vital short-term goals for the employee that can help them arrive at the long-term goal. For leaders, it’s about playing the long game. Leaders are often operating under stress, and it is easier to focus on short-term tactical goals to immediately relieve the present stress. However, if these short-term tactics do not build up the larger picture, they only serve as a band-aid for the current issue instead of a long-term resolution. Therefore, leaders must show up to the conversation with a complete understanding of the employee’s long-term goals. Before the meeting, leaders should conduct adequate research to gather all pertinent information from the employee’s colleagues, direct managers, and additional stakeholders who work closely with the employee to bring a well-rounded understanding.

Encourage employees to always protect their self-image throughout the conversation

In building commitment versus compliance, leaders need to encourage employees to protect their self-image during these conversations. In short, refrain from speaking to employees like a parent. People react the strongest to what they hear first. Because employees perceive how leaders communicate down as proof of how much they are respected, leaders need to encourage their employees to protect their self-image during these conversations.

Leaders need to think through the message they will be looking to communicate during the meeting and ensure that they’re doing their best to frame the message around the employee’s perspective on their concerns and motivations – not the leaders. In understanding these circumstances, leaders will be able to connect with employees in a manner that they did not expect, as the leader will feel heard and seen.

Build ongoing trust through post-conversation follow-ups

Leaders need to build trust over time with their employees, especially as they tackle difficult situations. One way leaders can prove to their employees that they genuinely heard their employees and are there to help facilitate a clear path forward for them is through the process of following up. For example, leaders can use a takeaway from their conversation and give it back to the employee at another time – hopefully at an unsolicited and unrequested time – to demonstrate that the leader actively listened to the employee and continued fomenting trust in the relationship. A recent report by ADP demonstrates the effectiveness of building trust, with individuals being 12 times more likely to be engaged when they trust their leader. Additionally, leaders need to stick to their word and do what they say they would during the conversation.

Tackling difficult conversations requires a mind-shift

For leaders, listening equals learning. When it comes to effectively navigating difficult conversations, it’s about creating an environment in which the employee can be pleasantly surprised by the leader’s ability to develop genuine bonds in a situation that could have otherwise become adversarial. It requires leaders to set the stage by providing an environment that incorporates proper understanding, allows the employee to protect their self-image, and builds trust by showing the leader is ready to follow up and advocate for the employee. 

While it may seem like a simple switch, leaders need to be wary that they do not fall into the trap of approaching an emotional conversation from a rational-only perspective, bringing their own biases into the conversation, and enforcing compliance versus commitment.

I have been fascinated in my years of working with military leaders, observing them once they pivot into leadership roles in the private sector.

The question I have always had is: do they make better CEOs and leaders because of their military experience, or are they successful in the private sector because they started as exceptional individuals in the first place. What does the military experience add? So, I have decided to share with you my recent conversation with a former military official who should know the answer to my questions. Here is what Derren Burrell, Founder of Veteran Ventures, had to say.

I‘m fascinated by the Bush Center Leadership program you just completed. Could you tell me about it and its value to leaders like you? Would you recommend it to others?

In May, I was accepted into the George Bush Institute Stand-To Veteran Leadership Program. For the last five months, I’ve had the honor of working as a scholar with an illustrious group of leaders in the veteran community. Working on solutions across the myriad of veteran issues (entrepreneurship was but one topic), all fifty of us came through with more drive, purpose, and ambition to be better leaders and servants to the veteran community and the world around us. This includes becoming more effective business leaders as well. It was a diverse group of veterans, and impressive to see their resolve.

Generally speaking, I think the business community has high regard for individuals who are trained military leaders. Do you see a fit between the skills learned and deployed in the military and effective corporate management responsibilities?

Absolutely! The skills exhibited by the Global 500 CEOs are the same attributes taught by our nation’s military. We have published a white paper on Why Veterans Make Better Entrepreneurs. This paper goes into great detail on how the skills developed in the military not only lead to success on the battlefield but also in the boardroom. 

To summarize this paper: grit, dedication, and discipline are critical factors in business operational excellence, and no one displays this better than a veteran.

You’re in the business of financing start-ups or early-stage companies run by former military personnel. How is this different from any other VC Fund?

VVC interacts exclusively with companies that have military veteran leadership, recognizing the value of military experience, training, and character in business operations. Our value proposition lies in our granular understanding of the military culture, significant connections within the federal government & defense industry, and working knowledge of the government procurement process.

What gives military veterans a possible accelerated ability to succeed in starting and successfully managing new businesses? Could you give me an example?

The military mindset is one of execution. The veteran’s battle-tested leadership gets things done, as there is no second-place option when serving our country. This same mission-accomplishment attitude follows them after they take off the uniform. History is filled with a plethora of examples of veterans who survived and thrived in the business sector. We are seeking to develop the next Sam Walton (Walmart), Fred Smith (Fed Ex), Jack Taylor (Enterprise), Ken Hicks (Footlocker), Richard Kinder (Kinder Morgan), Gail Linger (RE/MAX), Sam Shoen (U-Haul), and the list of disruptive veterans goes on. Military veteran-owned small businesses have accounted for a high percentage of job creation, economic growth, investor return, and innovation through competitive advantage. 

I was recently invited to interview for a non-executive board position of a leadership program at a prestigious US university. Preparing for the interview gave me pause to consider my thoughts on this matter. What exactly constitutes leadership? And more importantly, what attributes sustain leadership over time?

Suffice it to say, my views are simply just my opinion derived from my own experiences both personally and professionally on a micro level and my broad observations on a macro, global level. Like everything else in my life, these views are not static; they are not from a textbook, a classroom, or a business self-help book.

They are from direct experience, both positive and negative, AND they are in a constant state of flux, ever-evolving and changing, as am I. First and foremost, do you think you are a leader? If so, you may possess many qualities that a true leader must possess or learn and integrate, but you may be missing or lacking other attributes which are essential to the whole. Leadership is also earned; it is not usurped, grabbed, or taken. There is something profoundly Spiritual and enduring concerning the true essence of leadership. The mantle of power is only given to (not sought by) those who can wield the sword, with the recognition that the sword is ALWAYS double-edged. Every individual in a leadership position must keep this awareness front and center and lead with this knowledge and understanding.

So, what are the key attributes of leadership? This is by no means an exhaustive list, but encapsulates the core essentials on the understanding that there are also variables in each of us, which makes every true leader unique unto themselves.

Vision

No matter how small their circle of influence, every leader has a vision, an idea of a better way of life, a better way of doing things, and a better product or service that benefits the community. But this vision must first recognize and accept what is, then build on this with a set of mutable strategic imperatives which gradually move the organization toward that vision of what will be. The acceptance of what is keeps the vision grounded and manifest in reality. But any vision must have substance. It must possess real inspiration and not just pay lip- service to it. Why?

Simply put, we have entered an era of rapid change where the key watchwords of the day in business and society are DISRUPTORS and INFLUENCERS. Without substance, disruptors simply tear down the old guard, hang out their shingle before the next wave of disruptors breaks on their shoreline defenses. There is nothing enduring here. There is no benefit or contribution to society, no legacy or intention to leave the world a better place than they found it. It is simply a process of riding the next wave of wokeness until your time runs out and someone else destroys your sandcastle and builds their own.

The term Influencer is probably the most banal, vacuous term yet invented in the English language. It requires its title holder to do anything of any substance, to leave behind anything of value. At its most vacuous, it is popularity for the sake of popularity—the sum total of more likes on an Instagram or Facebook page than the next person.

Vision, in my opinion, speaks to an ideal. As much as it benefits the visionary, it must benefit society as a whole or those who are impacted by the vision depending on the leader’s circle of influence. And more importantly, anyone who claims to be a visionary or have a vision must think long thoughts. They must understand the power of the double-edged sword they wield and actively and constantly strive to mitigate the negative impact of what they do.

Motivation

Every leader is by nature motivating others within an organization to work toward fulfilling their vision. Think about this carefully for a moment. It doesn’t just NEED careful consideration; it DEMANDS careful consideration. As a leader, you motivate and organize a business and its employees to act on your behalf. Pay aside, you are essentially asking someone to do your dirty work if that is what is required to fulfill the corporate vision. In effect, as the leader of an organization, the author of the vision, you are the parent asking your children to behave in a particular manner. To act on your behalf. They are your charges, and how they grow up and, in turn, become leaders or how they remain followers of your vision is your responsibility. That is the mantle of power that rests solely and firmly on your head as a leader. Shakespeare could not have said it better in his HENRY IV, Part II: “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” And it should because if you’re not uneasy, you’re not sufficiently aware of the double-edged sword you wield.

Integrity

Whenever leadership falls from grace or, more realistically, never cultivated grace in the first place, it is from a lack of integrity. It is often the missing link, the missing attribute between a leader who uses their leadership skills to exploit and those who wish to contribute to humanity. Profit and purpose are not mutually exclusive. The fixation on the stock price as the singular most important value within an organization has led us to the current economic and environmental imbalance in which we now, collectively, find ourselves.

Organizations and their leaders, including politicians and celebrities who hide behind public relations campaigns while behaving duplicitously behind closed doors, have no integrity. In truth, their “vision” is nothing more than a personal objective. It should not be called a vision. These people are not true leaders. It is a wholly inappropriate title for these so-called leaders, disruptors, and influencers.

The adage “as above, so below” also applies to “as within, so outwith.” In other words, the inner motivation and the outer action must match. They must be seamless or at least strive to find the balance where they mirror each other. When they oppose each other, it’s called hypocrisy.

Humility

People tend to give their power away to leaders, and the wrong type of leaders readily accept that power from those people. Any leader worth their salt will never allow anyone within their circle of influence to give them this power.
Tyrants are created this way. Many leaders portray themselves as humble, but this is often false humility. One sees this a great deal with spiritual teachers.

They project a sense of humility in public and behave as abusive tyrants behind closed doors. Equally, leadership is not about self-aggrandizement, which is as damaging to leadership as is false humility. Put anyone on a pedestal, and eventually, you will become disappointed and disillusioned. A wise friend once said, “the degree to which you seek approval is the degree to which you will be manipulated.” Wise words indeed!

Temperance

A Samurai sword is tempered over and over again and forged in a fire. First, softening the metal, hammering it into shape, then plunging it into cold water to harden and hold the shape in place. This is done layer-after-layer before finally polishing, sharpening, and finishing the blade.

A true leader evolves through this same process. They must recognize that they embody both the teacher and student role in equal measure. They are the blacksmith and the sword, as one. They are not, in fact, teaching anything but forging and tempering themselves and leading only by example. As soon as they believe they are solely the blacksmith (teacher) and everyone else is the sword (student), they hammer into shape; they have nothing left to learn or teach and are lost to their ego. Growth instantly ceases, either temporarily or, in some cases, permanently. They are energetically stripped of their leadership title, even if they still hold that title within the corporation. They simply become individuals pursuing a personal objective and paying others to execute that strategy – a pretender in a leadership role.

Impermanence

The difference between a true leader and a disruptor or influencer is this: a true leader recognizes that they are the guardian of a vision, a torch lighting the way to an ideal – a bridge between two worlds. They recognize there is One Light and many lanterns, and they are but a lantern, not the Light. They also acknowledge that they cannot complete this themselves, that at some point, they will need to pass the torch onto the next leader coming up through the ranks. They may not even know this person, but they are the one(s) who will carry forth and evolve that vision for the benefit and betterment of all who exist within their circle of influence. They do not seek power for the sake of power but readily relinquish it when the time comes. It is the opposite of a dynasty that seeks to hold onto power generation after generation and the opposite of a disruptor or influencer who attempts to fulfill their objectives for themselves within their lifetime.

In summary, and in my opinion, true leadership holds a vision, an inspiration toward a better world. Anything else is simply fulfilling a personal objective. It is not leadership.

Think of the last time someone at work—maybe your boss, your boss’s boss, or an HR person—told you a change was coming. Some new way to do something, or a restructuring, or a new system to learn.

What was your immediate response?

If you’re like most people, your first reaction was probably more negative than positive. Perhaps something like: “Aargh, as if the past 18 months haven’t been stressful enough.” Or maybe you thought, “This is going to be awful,” followed by a sinking feeling and a sense of being newly overwhelmed.

Why is the idea of change—especially change imposed upon us by others—so unwelcome? Given the past few years of massive change and disruption on so many levels, you’d think we would have gotten used to nonstop personal and professional change by now.

Our Anti-Change Wiring

Blame our experience as a species. Change has been dangerous for most of human history; the safest course of action has generally been to return to the known. If there was a famine, you wanted to get back to eating regularly. If there was an invading army, you wanted to get back to peace and prosperity. If there was a plague, you wanted to get back to (relative) health. You get the idea. Most of the time, homeostasis—returning to a previous set of stable conditions most supportive of survival—was the way to go.

Over thousands of years, this has resulted in people seeing most change in a way that can be summarized in three words: difficult, costly, and weird.

Difficult means “I don’t know how to do it” or “things will get in the way of me doing it.” Costly means it will take time and resources, and perhaps other things I value as well: my identity, relationships, power, or reputation. Weird just means strange and unnatural. Assigning these three negative qualities to change has kept us focused on maintaining the status quo for hundreds of generations.

And while this impulse is still appropriate in some ways—if we’re too hot, our impulse to cool off is still helpful—in many other ways, our deeply wired-in impulse toward “the known” simply doesn’t serve us anymore.

In today’s world, being capable of and comfortable with change is a necessary response to the rapidly changing world we live in. From addressing the climate crisis to resolving inequities in society, to operating our businesses in ways that respond to ever-evolving customer needs and expectations (organizationally, economically, politically, and sociologically), maintaining the previous status quo is quite often no longer the safest choice. In many situations, it’s now the most dangerous choice.

Rewiring Ourselves for the 21st Century

So, what’s a human to do? How can we revise this thousands-of-years-in-the-making response to change? Luckily, we humans have a powerful tool at our disposal that can help us do just that: we can decide to think differently.

We do this every day without realizing it. For example, let’s say you decided when you were a kid that you didn’t like Brussels sprouts; the only ones you ever had were soggy, unseasoned, and overcooked. So, your mental monologue—your self-talk, if you will—about Brussels sprouts is: “They’re disgusting.”

Then, one day, a friend who’s an excellent cook says to you, “Try these Brussels sprouts. I know you think you hate them, but these are cooked differently with ingredients you like. I bet you’ll enjoy them.” And because you trust this person (but are still probably thinking, “Oh gross”), you gingerly take one bite. They’re delicious; they’re sautéed with salt and pepper, and maybe a little bacon. Suddenly, automatically, you’re thinking differently: “Wow, yum! I guess Brussels sprouts can be good!”

Making Change Easy, Rewarding, and Normal

In the same way, you can decide to think differently about a change. When you notice yourself thinking that a particular change (especially one you know you need to make) is going to be difficult, costly, or weird, you can consciously decide that, instead, it could be easy (or at least doable), rewarding, and normal.

Here’s how this might look in real life. Let’s go back to one of those common change situations I noted earlier. Let’s say you’ve just been told that your organization is bringing in a whole new approach to invoicing clients, and invoicing is now part of your job. Maybe your first thought is: “Oh man, I bet this is going to be complicated (difficult), and the last thing I need right now is something new that’s going to take time to learn (costly). Worse, this doesn’t look like anything I’ve used before (weird).”

But as you now know, thinking this way about change is not your only choice. You have the power to change your mind. You can decide to say to yourself: “I bet there will be some training on how to do this (easy/doable), and they’re saying it will ultimately save us some time and be easier for our clients (rewarding). Susan is in favor of it, and I trust her (normal).

When you start to think differently about a change, you generally start to feel differently about it. You go from worried, irritated, overwhelmed, and unhappy to curious, a little more relaxed, and maybe even hopeful. You’re starting to rewire yourself—to change your response to change.

Change Is Our ‘New Normal’

Every indication is that the pace of change in our lives and in the world will continue to increase. It doesn’t look like we’re ever going to return to a time when everything is mostly status quo; we no longer have the luxury of relying on our impulse toward homeostasis and staying with what’s worked in the past.

Having the ability to accept and respond well to necessary change will become more important with every passing day. Therefore, I invite you to rewire yourself in this way: to learn to think and feel differently about change, to become change-capable. It’s your best path to a successful, satisfying personal and professional life in this era of nonstop change.

No matter where you find yourself in life, you will experience setbacks. Yet, if you want to have a comeback, you have to be willing to change. 

We’ve been through a series of setbacks over the last year — a pandemic, economic downturn, massive job loss, racial strife, and social upheaval. Unfortunately, it’s been one setback after another. Yet, I’m here to proclaim that it’s now comeback time! The key to a remarkable comeback starts by elevating your thinking and having a positive outlook and a mindset that expects better times down the road. When I wrote the book A Setback is a Setup For a Comeback, it led to a call from Ford Motors in 2006 when the company had just experienced a huge setback. Ford was on the brink of bankruptcy and needed a big comeback.

I worked with Ford for three years, and in 2009, they rejected a government bailout and went from losing millions a month to making billions each month. After my time at Ford, I started getting calls from Fortune 100 companies around the world — General Motors, Verizon, Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson Dubai, Coca-Cola South Africa, and many more. Here are the lessons I learned from working with these companies that will help you create your amazing comeback too.  

As business leaders, we know that setbacks happen to everyone – even the most successful among us. The determining factor in what your result will look like is how you will handle the setback. If you give up and let the problems bury you, you may as well put up a tombstone and let your dreams rest in peace. But if you change your perspective, avoid getting flustered, and start to see your setbacks as a setup for a comeback, you can change course and go on to win.  

In my office, I have eagles everywhere to remind me to model the habits and actions of an eagle and not an ostrich. For example, when a storm hits, an ostrich sticks its head in the ground and says, “Let me know when it’s over!” But the eagle does the opposite; it takes flight and flies into the face of the storm. It flies through the storm and refuses to give up. Eventually, the eagle soars above the storm and gets a panoramic view of the whole situation.   

 The eagle acknowledges severe problems at a specific point, but instead of getting stuck in the moment, it looks down the road and realizes, “there is a solution ahead.” Business leaders need to develop a bird’s-eye view of their companies too. 

Right now, the lesson for leaders who face serious challenges ahead is not to hide and hope it will pass, but to fly high and keep looking forward. This strategy helped Ford and many other major brands survive during troubled times, and it can work for you. Always have the mindset that your best is still to come. Here are 4 ways you can apply now to start turning things around:

01 Vision

You need to develop a big vision for your future. Start thinking about what your life would look like if you had a magic wand and could tap your future and make it extraordinary.

02 Decision

You must decide if this setback is a “setback, period” or a “setback, comma.” A period means “end of the story, no more to this story.” Yet, a comma means “there is a pause in this story, but keep going because the best part is yet to come!”

03 Action

You must take action to turn this setback into a remarkable comeback. Two little birds are on a telephone wire, and one thinks about flying away. How many little birds are left? Two! What? Yes, until you take action on your decisions, nothing changes.

04 Desire

How badly do you want to make it happen? You must want it badly because life will test you and try you. So, get that big vision, make tough decisions, take massive action, and have great desire.

As employers look to reopen offices and recoup losses, they face a full-blown employment crisis dubbed “The Great Resignation” that requires new thinking about bosses.

It’s been a rough 18 months with multiple COVID-19 variants, burnout, and fears over health and safety that has resulted in a trend of increased employee disengagement. As a result, 11.5 million American workers opted out of corporate employment voluntarily in the 2nd quarter of 2021 alone, and 48% of America’s working population is actively searching for a new job or looking for new opportunities. 

As HR departments scramble and C-suite executives pivot, everyone in the corporate management space expresses their opinions on the situation. While many are targeting superficial causes such as benefits, compensation, generational laziness, and/or entitlement – a few see the actual root cause. It’s the manager. More specifically, the practice of management has exacerbated post-pandemic, as Gallup stated in their valuable 2018 Employee Engagement Report. 

It’s time for corporate leaders to take a hard look at how their businesses are structured, what is truly valued in their culture, and what they really represent. It’s time for bossing to end and modern leaders to make employees the top priority. 

In this article, we will uncover five reasons why businesses don’t need bosses anymore with solutions.       

As an example, Our Iceberg is Melting by John Kotter, and Holger Rathgeber is a top modern leadership book. In it, a group of penguins becomes alerted by an astute member of their community that their home may be about to melt into the sea. The book deals with what happens when urgent change is required, and teams must navigate to survive. There is a leader named NoNo in the story who is the primary antagonist of the group. Because NoNo refuses to see what everyone else is quickly coming to understand – their livelihoods are at stake. If they don’t make a move and fast, no one will make it. 

NoNo is a classic boss archetype – who is more concerned about his standing in the community and defending his personal needs versus doing the right thing for the greater good. Unfortunately, employees have been under the thumb of corporate bosses like NoNo for far too long. Similarly, in a recent analysis by The Predictive Index of the current turnover tsunami, “63% of employees who state they have bad managers are thinking of leaving their company within the next 12 months compared to only 27% of those with a good manager.” 

With that said, let’s look at our definition of a boss and bossing to determine the causes of employee turnover. 

“A boss is someone in a position of hierarchical authority who is primarily focused on furthering their own career interests. Bossing is the activity of leveraging this hierarchical authority to make workers adhere to their beliefs, values, judgment, and behaviors to gain access to their own future employment opportunities.”

Gallup states that an astounding 82% of people chosen for managerial positions are the wrong hires (bosses)! Are executives not paying attention to all this data out there, or are they too beholden to a model that doesn’t work anymore? When the penguins start fleeing for safer shores, it indicates that the bosses failed to keep the flock together. And now it’s up to the employees to define the market for one of the first times in modern employment history. 

Employees have spoken clearly – bosses will no longer be tolerated. To illustrate this point, here are five reasons why businesses don’t need bosses (as well as what modern employers can do about it).

1. Bosses can’t cultivate trust or talent

Bosses are usually masters at managing up and playing politics, but far worse at developing their people due to an inability to manifest professional intimacy with their staff – a fundamental component of the Trust Equation (credibility + reliability + professional intimacy divided by the degree of self-orientation). Without trust, the only way for managers to get things done is through browbeating, berating their employees, and creating active employee disengagement. Solution: Create managerial performance assessments that take employee trust into account. Managers with low employee trust scores should be flagged for immediate mediation programs.

2. Bosses thrive in toxicity 

When a person’s value system has been corrupted by over self-orientation, self-indulgence, and feeding ego needs, this desire for more taints their every action as a manager. They are harbingers of chaos who turn working for them into an emotional gauntlet that workers must successfully navigate daily to gain favor and avoid being denigrated and/or denied opportunities to succeed. Solution: Remove toxic bosses from the system ASAP and create new manager selection programs that focus on identifying individual contributors with low self-orientation but high task orientation and emotional intelligence. Assess alignment with the values of high-performance managers (trust, compassion, stability, and hope). Then only promote those who meet these criteria.

3. Bosses don’t care about equity, diversity, or inclusion

Bosses are all about aligning with the desired metrics of the day. They will do whatever they are told will gain them visibility and promotional opportunities, including fudging their recruitment, onboarding, and diversity and inclusion efforts to look good on paper. Self-absorbed bosses make sure they pass muster but make no effort to understand or create spaces for employees so their team members can thrive. This insidious box filling can give the impression of progress where none is occurring. Solution: Create “how-based” metrics that are harder to mask in regular team 360 managerial assessments with an emphasis on DE&I measures, tenure statistics at a demographic level, the overall hiring mix, demographics of those promoted into positions of increasing authority, and team productivity targets. You may convert bosses into effective managers simply by changing how (and why) they are incentivized using this measurement approach.  

4. Bosses lack the humility, will, and empathy to lead in the modern era 

Bosses are so busy focusing on what’s in it for them that they get lost in today’s increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world. As a result, they take every challenge personally, lose steam before the job is done, and burn out those around them. As a result, it inhibits their ability to help people navigate the constant changes and challenges in businesses today. Solution: Prioritize servant leadership as the most incentivized management style in the organization. This will allow companies to identify and leverage the future Level 5 leaders who use the paradoxical combination of humility and will to achieve results because of their empathy for people.

5. Bosses don’t solve customer problems

Bosses see their job as a means to an end. That end being their own prosperity. They are often poor listeners who regularly ignore issues brought to them by their employees in favor of doing whatever is easiest for them. When they are responsible for people who create value for customers, this lack of purpose demotivates good employees and may also cost the company revenue. Solution: What gets incentivized gets done. When customer orientation and problem-solving are genuinely valued and prioritized, managers will fall in line. Conduct calibration exercises where groups of managers are rated on solving employee concerns related to customer issues with role-play exercises. Film the exercises so they can review how they communicated in the training sessions. Lower-rated managers should be required to have coaching and training on this topic.

As you can see, many bosses create more issues versus adding value. The typical “boss” archetype now costs businesses talent, innovation potential, productivity, and revenue growth. It’s time to take an honest look at the overwhelming data. Companies must take action necessary to demonstrate that they are addressing The Great Resignation. There will be hope if businesses replace bosses with modern servant leaders. The Dawn of the Enhanced Employee Experience is within reach on the other side. Is your organization ready for this shift?

One of the challenges that most CEOs face is how to evaluate the performance of their executives. Because a CEO doesn’t have expert level knowledge on every area of a business, many CEOs feel ill-equipped to evaluate executive performance. But if the CEO can’t evaluate their performance, who can? And if no one is evaluating the executives’ performance, how can they improve? 

This need for consistent evaluation of executives is one reason it’s critical to have a Leadership System in place in your organization. A Leadership System specifies the key tools that management has at their disposal and how to use each. 

The following three tools can be used by every manager — including executives — to deliver maximum performance: management, leadership, and coaching. Let’s examine what it looks like to assess an executive’s performance based on each.

1. Management 

As an executive over a functional area, you make many critical decisions that affect performance, including: 

• Who you hire
• What responsibilities you assign
• What programs you pursue
• What you spend money on 

The list is almost endless. Every day, executives are asked to make many decisions large and small about their area of responsibility. As CEO, you may not be able to evaluate any one decision made by an executive, but you can certainly get a sense of how well they are using this tool. Do they hire great people? Do they utilize the strengths of each team member? Do they execute their assigned responsibilities on time and budget? If these and other areas are running smoothly, it’s a sign that the executive is skilled with this first tool of management.

2. Leadership

We define leadership as the ability to influence others to follow your direction willingly. While management is about making decisions and telling people what to do, good leadership answers why someone should enthusiastically do something as part of the organization. As CEO, you can evaluate your executives’ leadership impact within the organization by observing whether other employees willingly follow their lead.

Are the teams they manage eager to get on board with their vision and plans, or are they only doing it because the executive is “the boss”? If the executive left the organization, would you be worried that they might take many great people with them? As you evaluate the executive on their leadership, remember that great leaders have influence not only within their team but also across the organization. 

3. Coaching

Coaching is an interactive process for enabling the development of employees. One of my favorite questions to employees when I’m trying to evaluate their manager’s coaching ability is, “How has your manager made you better this year?” If the employee is not able to give some specifics right off the top, I know that the manager is not doing a great job of coaching. Members of an executive’s team should always be getting better, and it’s the executive’s responsibility to make it happen. Does this mean every executive should be teaching their employees some skill at all times? Not necessarily. Certainly, if the executive has some specific skill that will help the team, they can have at it. But the ongoing process of coaching is broader. And it is rooted in the executive’s responsibility to identify the resources that employees need to learn and grow as professionals. 

This manage-lead-coach framework offers CEOs a consistent, systematic way to evaluate their executives, regardless of how well the CEO knows the functional area each executive oversees. For some large and distributed organizations, you may have to use surveys to better understand how the executive is doing. But no matter how you gather the information, using these criteria to evaluate your executives is likely a significant improvement over most current systems.