“People often claim to hunger for truth, but seldom like the taste when it’s served up.” – George R. R. Martin
Occasionally, a topic hits home for the visitors to this space. Both last week and the week before, the topic has been the idea that a vast number of leaders appear to be either confused or in denial about the world they’re actually living in. Based on the responses we received, we aren’t the only ones who’ve noticed. So, we’ll go to the well one more time before we move on.
A number of this past week’s feedback artists feel strongly that not only are leaders delusional about their own people, they’re delusional about people working for other organizations. Primarily, competitors.
Too many leaders spend hours agonizing over a vision and strategies designed to achieve wild success. They consider products, pricing, customers, maybe employees, possibly the government, and so on. Then they launch themselves into the world to execute the world’s greatest ever plan, only to find out that their competitors aren’t cooperating.
You cannot predict with certainty what your competitors will do, but you can predict with absolute certainty that they will do something. The individuals leading organizations that do something like what you do are sitting around thinking and planning, just like you are. And I guarantee that their plan isn’t to do whatever you want them to.
How do you adapt when someone in your industry does something unexpected? Maybe they design a new product, or a new way of delivering a service, or a better way of hanging on to top talent. Whatever it is, what do you do when suddenly your competitors do something that catches you off balance?
You won’t know exactly what that competitor disruption will be, but you can be prepared to respond to it. How agile is your pricing? How agile is your production process, regardless of what you produce? How quickly can you make change? Regardless of what your competitors do, if you’ve built an organization that can adapt quickly, then you can respond quickly, even if you had no idea what was coming.
Think about the organization you lead. Can you describe yourself as ‘agile’? Can you honestly say that you can change directions quickly? Trying to succeed without agility is like trying to run a marathon without being in shape. You can have a plan and a dream, but the execution will be a disaster. What do you need to do to get ready?
