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Jul
14
2016
Being a VUCA leader in a VUCA world
By Hilary Reen.
What does VUCA stand for?
You may have heard the term VUCA used recently. It stands for:
Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous
A few words that describe the business world we live in and the issues we may be currently facing or may face in the coming months, especially following the Brexit result.
Change management is top of the agenda for many leaders. In order for your organisation to approach, pass through and then thrive after a major upheaval or significant restructuring, it does require leaders to lead themselves, to lead others and to lead the change with efficiency and effectiveness but also with compassion.
Change management programs such as our Managing Change training course can provide you with some good processes, models, roles and tools for managing a change program in your organisation.
4 steps to becoming a fair and professional change leader
In addition to this, here are four quick, simple and cost free behaviours that any leader or manager can use which can help demonstrate your support and confidence in your team and build their trust in you as a fair and professional change leader. They can be summed up using exactly the same VUCA mnemonic:
Visible, Understanding, Communicative and Approachable
- Visible: Be seen, more so than usual when perhaps you might be tucked away in an office. Sit in and share wherever possible the office space with your team, walk around the office and notice how your team are behaving. Spot tense flash points and negativity and deal with them quickly. But even more so notice when your team apply best practice and value-based behaviours and publicly acknowledge and praise them. Increase your visibility to them and their visibility to you.
- Understanding: Your team will be worried about the impact on their roles - reduced job security, limited career opportunities, disruption to work/life balance and financial future. Take time to talk with and listen to your individual team members to really understand exactly what their personal concerns are so that you can tailor messages to suit all your team members. Where possible offer specific suggestions or guidance to individuals.
- Communicative: Talk to your team frequently – you probably already hold regular team meetings and one-to-one’s. It is easy during a difficult change program to let these communication channels slip due to workload, because you feel you have nothing new or positive to say or because you feel these just invite the team to 'shoot the messenger' with their anger, worry and negativity. But the opposite is true, frequent and regular communication is essential even if is nothing new to say. Keep communicating, because as we all know rumour and gossip flourish in a vacuum.
- Approachable: By being visible, by communicating regularly and by taking the time to understand individual concerns, your employees will see you as someone who is approachable. Someone with whom they can discuss concerns, share ideas and their own suggestions for change. Someone they can trust to be working for them as well as for the organisation. You will gain their commitment and loyalty through and beyond the change.
Being a VUCA leader can help you lead your people through the toughest changes and enable them to emerge as a strong, united, and focused team. But don’t just use these steps during a period of change – why not practice them everyday…
Find out more
Our Managing change training course based at our training suite in central London is next running on 20 July. Receive 20% off this course if you quote ‘Happy Birthday’ when placing your booking.
Hilary Reen is a passionate and effective communicator. A Chartered Member of the Institute of Personnel and Development, Hilary is also a practitioner of NLP and holds certifications for the administration and practice for several psychometric tools. She is a member of the UK Values Alliance, an organisation focused on putting values at the heart of UK society.
