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Organizational Leadership, Personal & Professional Development

Stop Talking About Soft Skills!

Listen to this article. (Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.)

Warning – This might read like a rant from a guy who has been in the business of developing people and leaders for a long time. While there might be a rant tone to what follows, the points I hope to make are important and timeless. I’m writing it to you personally – I hope that you rethink your personal perspective on the topic. And I am writing this to organizations to help them rethink their beliefs and approaches to what up-until-now have been called “soft skills.”

If you are wondering about the genesis of the term “soft skills,” it was coined by the U.S. Army. According to Wikipedia, in a formal training manual in 1972, soft skills were defined as “important job-related skills that involve little or no interaction with machines and whose application on the job is quite generalized.”

By my estimation, people started discounting the term within a year or two. 😊

Seriously, while I understand why the Army chose the term “soft” to define this bucket of skills, the term makes it easy for people to downplay or discount them.

There are several reasons why, including:

“Soft” isn’t typically a word seen as a positive – unless you are talking about a teddy bear, your cat’s fur, or your new socks.
“Soft” skills are less tangible and measurable, making it easier to discount them.
Most of these skills are things we have done in our lives – maybe not well – because we have/can do them. This makes it easy to downplay the importance of improving them.
They can be considered as traits rather than skills. If you feel like some people are naturally better listeners, it follows that these are genetic gifts rather than skills we can learn.

None of these perspectives are helpful when thinking about skills like communication, conflict resolution, influence, relationship and trust building, collaboration, empathy, decision-making, and more.

Why? Because while technical skills are important, and often are the baseline needed to do work, it is this list of skills that differentiate one person from another.

Would you rather have a solid technical performer who excelled in the skills above, or a person who is average in those skills but a technical whiz? Chances are, in 95% of roles, you would take the first person. While you can find notable exceptions of highly skilled technical experts who succeeded without many of these skills – they are rare and are notable simply because this combination isn’t the common, normal or the best chance to achieve greater impact.

So, what is the solution?

Let’s start by not calling them soft skills. Let’s call them what they are – human skills.

These skills are the things that tend to make us better leaders, and more effective human beings. If the needs of jobs are changing, these human skills are more transferable and less likely to leave anyone obsolete. And further, in a world of AI – knowing and being clear on the skills that AI can’t replace or enhance is a competitive advantage for both individuals and organizations. When you improve your human skills, you become more valuable, flexible, and move closer to your potential.

Calling them human skills changes the way we think about them. It elevates their value, leaves them less likely to be compared negatively to an alternative (unlike soft vs hard), and reframes them in a positive and more accurate light.

So, for everyone’s benefit, call them human skills – because that is exactly what they are.

One of the ways you can consciously work on your human skills is by joining us for Virtual LeaderCon 2025, Sept 22-25. During this free event you can learn from and with the experts and thought leaders who join me. Perhaps more importantly, you will be a part of an engaged group of learners (like you) to explore and build your human skills. We’ll bring the experts, the platform and process. You bring your time and desire, and watch amazing things happen.

Leadership, Organizational Leadership, Personal & Professional Development

5 Essential Shifts Every Leader Must Embrace Today

Lots has been written about the future of work – and how it will look different because of viruses, technology, and geopolitical change. There is little doubt that the future will be different. Recently I asked readers this question: as a leader, are you ready to lead in the future? It is a fair and important question, but there is a problem with it.

Generally, when we think about the future, we are thinking about something “later.” Preparing for some far-off future event or set of circumstances is valuable but leaves us with little sense of urgency. Grammatically, “the future” is both five years and five minutes from now.

Thinking about the future as imminent keeps us on our toes mentally, and urges us to act now, not push the procrastination button.

In the article I mentioned above, I cited five areas leaders should be thinking about since they will each impact their ability to lead successfully. But those five things are impacting us today, not just “in the future.”

I’m going to be direct about each of these five shifts, and urge you to reflect on your current comfort, competence and confidence in each area, and then beg you to act today to improve in at least one of them.

AI

AI isn’t really new, and even LLM’s that most people associate with AI aren’t new anymore either. Even if you tone down the hyperbole (both positive and apocalyptic), you can’t ignore that AI has, is, and will change your business and your practice of leadership. If you aren’t acknowledging, adapting and applying that fact today, your leadership effectiveness and potential are already fading.

Distributed Work

Last week I wrote: Even if you work in an industry where people have to be onsite (warehousing, manufacturing, retail, etc.), this societal view of work still impacts you. This means that even if your team is fully onsite, the needs and expectations of work are changing. If you are expecting things to go back to 2019 someday, wake up. Today is the day to make sure you are becoming more comfortable and effective in meeting the needs of and leading your team members wherever they are working.

Culture

I know you have a work culture. But is it the one that serves your goals and your team effectively? Culture is no longer a squishy topic to spend some time talking about at the annual leadership retreat. The best leaders today are making decisions daily on how they lead in ways that support and direct the culture of their teams and organizations in positive ways.

Uncertainty

It’s time to stop bemoaning the uncertainty you face or waiting for it to subside. The world isn’t static and won’t be (ever). As a leader, you must acknowledge and even embrace uncertainty. When you do you build confidence in your team and create a competitive advantage compared to other organizations.

Flexibility

The world will continue to change. And while our values needn’t change, our approaches must. If you are leading the same way today you did five years ago, it is time to wake up - because your effectiveness has dropped (whether you realize it or not). And if you aren’t willing and able to effectively flex now, that downward effective trend will accelerate like a ball rolling down a hill.

Which shift will have the biggest impact for you as a leader (or the leaders in your organization)?

Each of these (and much more) will be explored during Virtual LeaderCon 2025, from Sept. 22-25. If you are serious about leading better today, you will find at least one session that will change your perspective, offer you new approaches, and build your confidence. Find at least one session and join us – at no cost to you.

Leadership, Organizational Leadership

Are You Ready to Lead in the Future?

Listen to this article. (Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.)

An article with this title could have been written anytime in my lifetime, and ideas for the future could have been shared. But I believe that as difficult as leadership has always been, when you look at the changes and demands that will be placed on leaders in the future, the role is harder than ever. Asking the question “are you ready to lead in the future?" is one every leader must ask – and every organization must consider as they develop their leaders too.

Here are the five biggest shifts leaders must acknowledge – because each comes with new demands placed on us.

AI

No list about the future of work is complete today without conversation about AI. As leaders, there are several things we must consider and continue to act on.

What are you personally doing to learn how to use these tools and apply them to your work and the work of the team?
What are you doing to understand the broader perspective of the use of these tools in your industry and more broadly?
Are you giving your team time and resources to learn how to use these tools?
How are you engaging with your team to gain their perspectives including opportunities and concerns in using these tools?
What are your expectations of your team in terms of when, how and what tools to use?

Distributed Work

It goes without saying that how people think about and experience work is different since the pandemic lockdowns. Even if you work in a industry where people have to be onsite (warehousing, manufacturing, retail, etc.), this societal view of work still impacts you. Here are some questions you need to be thinking about.

What is your personal feeling about the effectiveness of work when people aren’t physically co-located?
How is your personal feeling helping or hurting you as a leader?
Are you actively building your skills in leading people not in physical proximity to you?
Are you adjusting your expectations of the what, when, where and why of the work as the context and location of work changes?
How are you supporting your teams/team members in building their skills to work in these new ways?

Culture

Culture is a topic you can’t avoid if you want to get great work done and attract and retain the talent to get that great work done. Here are some culture questions to regularly consider.

Are you having ongoing conversations about culture?
Are you taking your responsibility as a facilitator and example of culture seriously?
How much time do you spend thinking about, talking about and improving culture?
Do you have a stated aspirational culture?
Are you providing people with clear expectations and skill development in support of the culture you desire?
Do you use the aspirational culture as a filter for the decisions you make and how you communicate them?

Uncertainty

The level and amount of uncertainty we face as leaders has never been higher. It can be hard to deal with uncertainty as humans, let alone when the stakes are higher when we put our leadership hat on. Consider these questions:

How do you deal with uncertainty personally – and is that serving you?
How does your organization typically deal with uncertainty?
How are you providing people with the skills to acknowledge and deal with uncertainty more effectively?

Flexibility

I’ve spent a lot of time in the last two years thinking about, writing about and teaching people about flexibility as a leader (for example, here’s a link to my book, Flexible Leadership.)

Like the rest of the items on this list, much more can be said about this capability, but here is a place to start.

Are you leading like you were 3 or 5 years ago? (If so, chances are, you are becoming less effective.)
Do you understand that flexibility is the master skill that will help you address the other things on this list (and 20 other things too?)
Are you willing to lead differently in order to better serve your organization and team?
How often do you stop to consider how you could flex your approach to a situation, versus simply doing what comes naturally or is your habit?

Readiness – what this article urges you to consider - is a big hurdle to cross. It involves awareness, mindset, a willingness to build new skills and try new things. And ultimately to accept that to succeed you must be willing to change. This article hopefully helps with the first two of these steps, and we want to help you (and the leaders in your organization) with the other steps too.

One of the ways we can do that is with our upcoming Virtual LeaderCon 2025, where experts and thought leaders will join me and an engaged group of learners (like you) to explore and build skills in areas like these and beyond. We’ll bring the experts, the platform and process. You bring your time and desire, and watch amazing things happen.

A person engaging in a video call with a diverse remote team on a tablet, representing virtual collaboration and hybrid team communication.

Long-Distance Leadership, Organizational Leadership

You Need a Real Hybrid Work Strategy (Not Just a Compromise)

The shift to hybrid work was born out of necessity — but continues with over 60% of companies having some kind of hybrid arrangement, and they aren’t thrilled with the results. In fact, the recent statics show that 77% of Fortune 500 companies have flexible or partly remote arrangements, but report dissatisfaction from both organizations and individual employees. Not only that, but (part time) remote work has not radically fallen off since the pandemic nearly as much as people think. Return to office strategies have largely been a lot of noise with so many workarounds they are almost irrelevant.

Continuing without a clear strategy is a recipe for confusion, disengagement, and missed opportunities.

Let’s explore a critical starting point: the difference between treating hybrid work as a compromise and treating it as a strategy. Here are four key reasons why it’s time to go beyond just “making it work” — and start being intentional about how hybrid work supports your people, your culture, and your results.

Compromises React—Strategies Align with Purpose

When hybrid work is treated as a compromise, it’s often reactive: a quick fix to appease conflicting demands (like “let people work from home, but only Tuesdays and Thursdays”). A strategic approach, on the other hand, starts with the why — your organization's goals, values, and how work gets done best. It’s about designing hybrid work around outcomes, not just location. If you take this approach you’ll not only be talking about where work gets done, but what work gets done when.

Does your current approach reflect your culture and business goals — or are you just splitting the difference?

A True Strategy Builds Equity and Clarity

Compromises often result in uneven experiences — where remote workers feel left out of key decisions, meetings, or development opportunities. Those in the office feel penalized for showing up, (why do we get all the dirty jobs?) A strategic hybrid model is intentional about creating equity between in-person and remote team members. It ensures policies, communication norms, and performance expectations are clear and consistently applied.

If people are asking, “Am I missing something by not being in the office?” — you don’t have a strategy. You likely have confusion.

Strategy Enables Leadership at All Levels

In a compromise model, managers often feel like they’re constantly juggling logistics instead of leading. A well-defined strategy gives leaders tools, training, and frameworks to lead intentionally in a hybrid context — whether they’re onboarding new team members, coaching performance, or building trust across distances. Too many organizations think that teaching remote leadership skills is only important if you have a fully remote team. Not so.

Hybrid leadership isn’t just about tools or tech — it’s about mindset and behavior. Strategy makes that shift possible.

Without Strategy, Culture Happens by Accident

Every organization has a culture — whether they’ve designed it or not. Hybrid work without a strategy leads to unwritten arrangements, silos, and mixed signals. A strategic approach makes culture visible, repeatable, and aligned — across offices, time zones, and screens.

You don’t have to choose between flexibility and culture. But you do have to choose to be intentional about both. Making how you work a conscious strategy instead of letting it form by default will help you be more successful. We can’t recommend training all leaders in the principles of remote leadership even if it’s a hybrid arrangement. A good idea is to start with our Long-Distance Leadership series.

Organizational Leadership

Overcoming Resistance to Training

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Last week I wrote about some of the reasons people don’t want to go to training (read it here). Today I want to help solve the problem that I outlined in that article. Let’s talk about overcoming the resistance to training.

If you want to overcome the resistance to training, while you need to know what the objections are, there are some things you can do both organizationally and interpersonally to lower resistance. In other words, when the items below are in place, you will lower overall resistance before you get to specific objections.

Organizational Actions

There are some things you can do organizationally or structurally to set all training up to be seen in a better light and be more valuable. Here are some important things to do:

Match training with real work. There are always plenty of things we could teach employees that would be helpful. But when we focus training on the most important skills that drive organizational success, we will reduce the resistance to training.
Clarify expectations. Make sure your leaders are prepared for the conversation around people attending training. The value of the training, the purpose for the training, the expectations of use of the training are all critical to melting the resistance to training.
Create behavior matches. The leaders of training attendees are critical in reducing training resistance. When people see others exhibiting these new skills (especially their boss), they begin to believe that the training is important to work success.
Make it good. Hopefully this goes without saying. But many of us have been to (too much) training that was sub-par, ineffective, or a one-way lecture. If you want people to be open to attending training, make sure it is a useful and valuable learning experience.
Focus on learning, not training. I’m using the word “training” here to keep us all on the same page. Remember though, that while people may not love going to training, human beings are learning beings. Because of people’s past (sometimes bad) experience with training, we recommend using the word learning more and training less.

Interpersonal Actions

While there is plenty we can do organizationally to set training up for success, individual employees are still making their own assessments about how useful and important training is to them. Make sure your communication about training and the conversations leaders have with their folks meet these criteria too.

Show them relevance. Help people see why this training matters to their work and organizational success. If you have prioritized and designed effectively, this becomes a one-on-one marketing exercise.
Connect the dots. People care about the organization’s success but want to know too how learning new skills helps them. Connect the dots for people to see personal value in attending training and using what they learn.
Keep the quality bar high. When people have positive experiences with training, they will have less resistance to the next session.
Follow-up. Training is an event, but learning is a process. If training stands alone, people won’t see relevance for long. But if there is follow-up from their leader, coaching around the skills, and ongoing support for applying what was learned, people will be more open to the next learning experience.

Now What?

If you are doing these things, you will experience far less overall resistance to training. The resistance that remains can be addressed in individual conversations by understanding their concerns and addressing them one at a time (the article linked above can be helpful as a starting point).

There are generally three kinds of people attending any training workshop:

Prisoners – they were told to attend (and would rather not be there)
Vacationers – hey, it is better than going to work!
Willing learners – people with an open mind or those who are anxious to attend and learn something new.

Remember that your goal is to not lean into simple compliance (going because they have to!) and try to help people see at least some value, so they go with at least an open mind, rather than feeling like a prisoner.

Transferring training into workplace behaviors is hard enough – doing it with prisoners is nearly impossible.

Organizational Leadership, Personal & Professional Development

Why People Don’t Want to Go to Training

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It might seem odd for me to write about why people have objections to training, since most readers (maybe you) are “all in” for developing yourself and others. If you are focused on and invested in development and self-improvement, you most need to read this. Why? Because you might not acknowledge – or even realize – that not everyone is seeing the world the way you do.

The truth is, lots of people have objections to training – and until you know what those objections are, you can’t possibly help people get past them. Whether you are thinking about this for members of your team or across your enterprise, you can’t shift the mindset of others until you understand their current mindset and belief.

Biggest Objections to Training

I’ve written these in first person on purpose. I want you to read them as if these were your thoughts. Put yourself in the shoes of the person who thinks/feels that way as you read them (even if that isn’t your personal feeling or experience).

I already know it. Why would I need to go to training if I already know the material?
It won’t be relevant. If I don’t believe this will help me, why would I want to attend?
It will be boring. It will probably be “death by PowerPoint.” No thanks.
I don’t learn in a “classroom.” I’m a hands-on learner, and classroom learning doesn’t work well for me.
Virtual training isn’t helpful. Classroom isn’t great, but virtual, while I sit in front of my computer? No, thanks. I get distracted and don’t learn anything anyway.
It takes too much time. If they could just get down to the point, maybe it would be helpful. But I don’t want to spend <insert length of time> on that topic!
I have too much to do. Even if I wanted to go to training, when I get back, I will be so far behind. It’s just not worth it.

The list could be longer – and you may have some you would add; if you do, mentally add them to your list.

Having this list of objections is important. Not all of them apply to everyone or to every organization. Spend some time understanding what people’s concerns and objections are. Think too about which of these you understand, and which are largely foreign to you. Next week, I will share some ways to overcome these objections.

Organizational Leadership

Making the Case for Investments in People

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I’ve been writing here and elsewhere for over 20 years mostly for audiences of leaders and prospective leaders, and those who are responsible for developing leaders in organizations. And when talking to those responsible for developing leaders, all too often I hear that budgets for training, learning and development are limited or non-existent.

The fact is, organizations are always investing in something, it just isn’t always in their people. So rather than bemoaning that fact, I want to help you think about why we invest (in anything) first, before we shake our heads as to why employees aren’t at the top of that investment list.

The Biggest Reasons Organizations Invest

Let’s look at criteria organizations use to determine which or what to invest in. Put on your business hat…

Strategic Alignment. Does this investment support the long-term mission, vision and core objectives of the organization?
Expected Return on Investment (ROI). What is the rate of return on the cost invested (and over what timeline)?
Risk Assessment. What are the risks (market, financial, reputational, or operational) to the investment?
Resource Requirements. Does the organization have the resources of people, infrastructure, technology and additional capital to support this investment?
Implementation Timeline. How quickly will the investment begin to generate returns?
Growth Potential. How can this investment aid or create new market demand or revenue growth?
Competitive Differentiation. How can the investment create or maintain a competitive edge?

Organizations consider some or all these criteria when considering any investment. When you know the criteria being used, you can begin to put investment in developing people in the context of these criteria to help sell employee development as a best investment decision.

Employee Development as an Investment

Let’s take each of those criteria and translate investments in employee development into each of these areas. But before you do that, make sure your organization sees resources used to develop people as an investment and not a cost. When you get people to make that mental determination, you can then use the criteria far more effectively to influence investment levels in employee development.

Strategic Alignment. What is the role of our talent in our long-term strategies? Can we meet our strategic objectives without a strong and developing team?
Expected Return on Investment (ROI). How can we consider investments in employee development on a rate of return basis? Doing this will help us invest those dollars more wisely.
Risk Assessment. What are the risks we expose ourselves to if our talent isn’t keeping up with the pace of change and the needs of the organization? What does that cost us?
Resource Requirements. How important are more talented and skilled people to make all our investments provide great return?
Implementation Timeline. How can more talented and skilled people speed up any implantation efforts? And how will that positively impact all other investments?
Growth Potential. How does a more skilled and prepared workforce impact our overall growth potential?
Competitive Differentiation. How can the investment in people create or sustain a competitive advantage for the organization?

This isn’t meant to imply that investments in employees will always be at the top of the investment list for a given organization in every time period. It should however help make investments in employees a realistic inclusion in investment decisions, and one that adds to the effectiveness of nearly every other investment choice that will be made.

Leadership, Organizational Leadership, Teamwork & Collaboration

The New Work Flexibility: When Work Happens, Not Just Where

Listen to this article. (Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.)

The Pandemic taught (those willing to learn) that flexibility in work is possible and desired. And while the news and some senior leadership teams tell us that more of the work needs to take place in the office, the world has changed, whether some like it or not. Not everyone is or will be working on-site five days a week. We can call this the “where flexibility” and it is here to stay.

But the new work flexibility isn’t as much about where we are working as it is about when we are working.

For about 100 years, the generally standard working hours (but with many deviations of course) have been 40 hours per week across 5 days. Is that still necessary?

As teams have left offices and expanded across time zones and oceans, we’ve figured out (or are figuring out) how to work asynchronously. And technological advances have given us tools to help us do that more effectively. Yet too often we default to the long-standing start and end times for everyone.

As powerful as habit and “we’ve always done it that way,” is, it is time to consider additional flexibility in when people do their work.

This isn’t really a completely new idea. Over 35 years ago, when I worked at Chevron, they instituted the option of a 9/80 schedule – people would work their 80 hours in nine days over two weeks rather than ten, getting every other Friday or Monday off. It was a hit.

Many people in a variety of industries work 4 – 10’s – or forty hours in four rather than five days. And there are shift workers who have a variety of configurations of 12-hour shift patterns too. I believe more of this type of flexibility may have application in your organization, even if you haven’t considered it before, but the type of new work flexibility I speak of is more than those important options.

New Work Flexibility

New work flexibility is about providing situational flexibility that both supports the business needs and helps team members make work fit better into their lives. For it to work well it can’t simply be a perk for employees but rather something that works for mutual benefit with the organization too.

What might it look like? Here are a few thoughts to consider:

Shifting shifts. Can you have a variety of start and stop times, that allow some people (or based on time zones) to match work and home life differently?
Seasonal hours. Is there seasonality in your business or for your team that could allow great work to be done and give people some other options?
Situational flexibility. Are people able to flex their schedule for a part of a day to manage appointments or something else in their lives?
Other options. What other scheduling options could you consider – or what others might be valuable to your teams?

What is the point of all of this?

The point is to find new ways to get great work accomplished and support the needs of the team in new ways too. When we open our minds up to new possibilities, and work for a win for everyone, we can move past cookie-cutter approaches like we have experienced in the past.

In clothes, it is sometimes said that “one-size-fits-all” means it fits none. Increasingly in a complex world of work the same can be true for schedules.

Next Steps

Nothing I have mentioned here is brand new. And not all of what I have suggested will work or apply in every situation. But don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. The new work flexibility of when we work doesn’t have to mean creating policies – in fact, policies quickly become restrictive, even if that isn’t the intent. Rather, new work flexibility is about finding schedule solutions that meet the needs of both the business and team members. Doing this well will create new synergies, build productivity and engagement, leading to better business results.

Coaching & Developing Others, Leadership, Organizational Leadership, Personal & Professional Development

Navigating Uncertainty with Confidence

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They say that the only things that are certain are death and taxes. How about we add uncertainty to that list? While life is full of uncertainties, large and small, in the world of work, there seem to be more now than ever. And even if that isn’t true - there are plenty. That means if we want to lead successfully and confidently, we must learn how to navigate uncertainty more skillfully.

What Most People Do

Through observation and study, there are three basic approaches most people take to uncertainty.

Be the Bull in the China Shop. The proverbial “bull in a china shop” is someone who is reckless or destructive in a delicate or sensitive situation. In conjunction with uncertainty, that means they plow forward with their plans and approaches, ignoring any signs of a context that is uncertain. The “bulls” act as if nothing has changed and just keep moving – often leaving chaos in their wake. While it is possible that taking action is a positive thing, not acknowledging or adjusting based on what you know (and don’t know!) will likely cause problems.
Play Ostrich. The popular myth is that ostriches bury their heads in the sand when they feel threatened. While it is just a myth, people often do something similar during times of uncertainty by trying to ignore the signs and consequences. The fact is, that ignoring it, or trying to “wish it away” isn’t a very effective way to deal with uncertainty individually, and certainly not as a leader.
Freeze Up. Another common response to uncertainty is to recognize it but become immobilized by it. In this case, the uncertainty overwhelms us to the point of us being unable (or unwilling) to act. In some ways, this is the opposite of the “bull in the china shop,” replacing indiscriminate action with no action at all. Often in uncertain times, there are things we can and will be best served to do, even if we don’t have all the information.

If you are like me, you have probably done all these things or certainly have seen each of these responses in action. And chances are you agree that while understandable, none truly help us navigate uncertainty in ways that are helpful.

A Better Way

Here are three things you can do that will help you deal with uncertainty for yourself and especially as a leader.

Realize that uncertainty is real. Uncertainty is real and is everywhere around us. And not just the big global, societal, or technological uncertainties either. You don’t really know how the customer will respond, what your team will say or think, how the traffic will impact your day, or a thousand other things. We must realize that it is real. Ostriches need not apply to be your coach. Once we acknowledge it as a natural and common occurrence, we will be more open to the adjustments we might need to make.
Consider the context of your situation. A big key to navigating uncertainty is to look honestly at what you do and don’t know – and what you can and can’t know about a situation. This allows you (or you and others) to begin to consider what you might try or consider in the face of what you don’t know. Like exploring the wilderness, when you have surveyed the landscape, you are better prepared and equipped to move in your desired direction.
Act based on context, not habit or preference. If we don’t consider context, we will operate on autopilot (see the responses above). But once we accurately survey the situation – even acknowledging the uncertainties – we can make educated choices or make small experiments to help us learn more. These may not be our natural inclinations. But it is these intentional choices to shift based on uncertainty that will build your confidence when you face the next uncertainty.

Navigating uncertainty as a leader is a critical skill today. The goal isn’t to remove all uncertainty, because we can’t. Rather when you know what you might do and have a process for approaching uncertainty, you will build your confidence in the face of the unknown.

Applying the above ideas (and avoiding the common responses) will help you lead more effectively, and with greater confidence.

Leadership, Organizational Leadership

Two Perspectives All Leaders Must Consider

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The title makes a definitive statement - “must” is a strong word. And observing leaders for over thirty years, I know that not all leaders think about what I’m about to tell you about. But all the most effective ones do. That means that if you are serious about being an effective leader, “must” is exactly the right word.

Everyone knows these two perspectives, but not everyone thinks about and acts on them both consistently. Here are those two leadership perspectives…

Content Perspective

If AI isn’t the word of the decade, content might be. We have content creators, tv shows are now content, you read content, and people talk about the content of a meeting. Leaders must be aware of and be thinking about the content or “the what” of the work.

What are the expectations and outcomes we need?

What are the key job requirements?

What result do we need?

What do I need to say/communicate?

What do people know?

What are the goals and the objectives?

All these questions come from the content perspective. These are certainly important questions and leaders need clear answers to these questions.

But it isn’t enough.

Process Perspective

The content perspective is looking at the world or situation from the outcome or “what” perspective. The process perspective is about the path, the approach or “the how”.

What approach will get us the best results?

How will we achieve the outcome?

What approaches have been successful?

How do I need to communicate my message?

How will we build collaboration and commitment?

Who will be involved?

These are also important questions. How we achieve outcomes matters. And, as a general statement, these are questions that encourage leaders to consider the viewpoints and perspectives of others – and not just their own.

Application

Intellectually, you know both these perspectives matter.

Practically, we all have examples where both aren’t considered.

Ever seen the sales leader who talks incessantly about the target – whether encouraging or exhorting – people about the target every day, without considering or examining process (“they know what to do!”)?
Ever noticed the leader who continues to tweak the approach and allows themselves and the team to lose sight of the goal?
Ever noticed the leader whose meetings never get any more effective? (Because they aren’t considering process?)

The point isn’t to pick a perspective and recognize both isn’t enough. The best leaders consciously and consistently consider and apply both all day long.

While I have seen many leaders who lean far to the process side as well as to the content side, I would suggest that the content perspective is the lean of more leaders.

If that is you, and you aren’t considering the process viewpoint, you may be seen as a micromanager and might have a hard time delegating (we need to get the results after all!). If you are locked in on results, you might be missing the chance to adjust, adapt or flex your approach – or allow/recognize the inputs of others into the process.

All humans, not just leaders, operate in ways consistent with what they see, value, and notice. If your viewpoint is all about the outcome and the content, you may not engage others as effectively as you could. If your focus is all process, you might find yourself missing targets.

Work is complex, and for us to lead it most effectively, we must have that full complexity in our view. Most importantly, that means our leadership perspective must include both the content and process perspectives.

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