How to distinguish between competing priorities in a complex business environment?
For business leaders, the world is becoming an increasingly complex place.
Artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotic automation, industry 4.0, the internet of things, these all promise a future very different to the present.
Technology is transforming products, services and business models.
It is reshaping society and the expectations of consumers.
CEOs must navigate the best path for their organizations.
Yet, in such challenging circumstances, often operating in volatile rapidly changing markets, how can they filter the noise, detect relevant signals and continue to make the right decisions for their stakeholders?
How can they chart a course through chaos?
While there is no magic solution that allows hard-pressed business leaders to cut through and make optimal choices for the organization, there are a number of factors that can help.
1) Spreading your energy and Stretching your time
Perhaps the starting point for leaders is acknowledging that the constant flux they experience in their everyday lives is here to stay.
Most business leaders are already on overload.
At home, for example, they start and end their day attached to screens, always linked to the world, dealing with demands from both family and work.
At work it is similar story. They are constantly ‘on’.
The people who leaders manage, their peers, the board that they report to, their stakeholders, are all similarly stretched.
As a society we have lost the ability to relax, to press pause and take a moment to gain some perspective.
Whatever personal route they take, leaders need to recapture that ability.
Mindfulness is enjoying popularity, but there are many other techniques.
Leaders should be able to gauge their own energy levels and those of the people that they lead.
Know when it is time to take a break, take a breath, regroup, consider and evaluate, and then push on again.
2) Knowing unknowns
Leaders often have to deal with unknowns.
CEOs can take steps to ensure that information is filtered and fed to them, but there will always be limits to their knowledge.
No matter how good their peripheral vision, there will always be blind spots.
The best leaders understand that asking for clarification on a topic shows strength of character not intellectual weakness.
Having worked on their Self-awareness, they know the areas where they are less capable or knowledgeable and find this cover in their network.
They trust and pay attention to these people, who may be C-level executives, frontline employees or external coaches.
Business Coaches or Talent hires, especially if they are outside a leaders’ direct sphere of operation – profession, industry, market, or function – can often offer valuable unbiased opinions.
Part of this process means having the courage to tolerate mavericks and alternative perspectives.
Encourage radical thinking that challenges the mainstream.
Protect organizational ‘free thinkers’ by finding a means for them to communicate their views in the least disruptive manner.
3) Business and Culture Alignment
CEOs cannot make all the decisions in an organization.
Leaders provide clarity of purpose.
They set the direction or roadmap, establishing the broad context and parameters within which decision making can take place.
This decision-making framework should be one of the threads that underpins an organization’s culture.
Although the means of reaching the proposed destination can and will flex, the end goal, the organization’s vision, must remain reasonably constant.
Otherwise initiative fatigue can set in, depleting and diffusing energy.
When the direction is well-established, and clear to all employees, it allows day-to-day decision making to be pushed out into the organization’s value chain, to the person best equipped to take that decision at that point in time.
To the people who have the knowledge and experience at a granular level to distinguish the essential from the extraneous.
Summary
To climb to the summit of a Leadership model, leaders require a combination of professional will and personal humility.
They are leaders that value the advice and wisdom of others.
In a society, where many people are searching for authenticity and meaning, those seem like reasonable leadership characteristics to aspire to.
Next Steps
Learn more about how CFO Coach can help:
I help CEO’s earn higher ROI from FMCG Manufacturing Opportunities through Value Maximization on Profit & Cashflow so you can have the Next level of Success, Impact & Abundance.
About CFO Coach:
Discover the proven methodology that Powers Business Growth Opportunities, Profitability and Cashflow by delivering Outstanding Business Outcomes to position CEO’s, Entrepreneurs and Business Owners for Success as we Leverage our Experience, Expertise and Relationships.
DO YOU WANT TO HAVE A BUSINESS THAT GIVES YOU THE NEXT LEVEL OF SUCCESS, IMPACT AND ABUNDANCE?
Your ability to create a business that delivers the kind of life you truly desire hinges on your ability to think Strategically to help you generate more Value Creation Opportunities.
WHAT DO YOU NEED HELP WITH?
✔️ On Demand Virtual CFO
✔️ Strategic Leadership Advisory
✔️ Finance + Business Performance
✔️ Talent + Team Performance
✔️ Business Insights + Intelligence systems
✔️ Growth Opportunities + Advisory
✔️ Profit Maximization + Cashflow Optimization
✔️ Performance Tracking (KPI’s)
✔️ Business + Financial Models
✔️ Raising Debt or Equity Capital
✔️ Corporate Restructuring
✔️ Succession Planning
✔️ Creating a Freedom Lifestyle Business
WHAT IS OUR OFFER?
Our Signature solution, CFO Xcelerate Launchpad™ has been tried and tested to help CEO’s Optimize Cash Flow, Maximize Profit and Grow their Business & Impact
We’ll help you Xcelerate™ in a way you have never thought possible.
Insight Beyond Numbers™
Includes:
✅Mentorship in Personal Productivity & Proficiency
✅Strategic Thinking Coaching
✅Strategic CEO Mindset Coaching
✅Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Coaching for CEO’s
👉 RESOURCES
Get access to the 3 Secret Strategies to Grow & Scale Your Business e-book
Join our Free Facebook Group
Free Complimentary Strategy Call
Ask me: To share my free e-book on Simplicity on Emotional Intelligence.
Coming up in 2022, my New ebooks on Emotional Intelligence for CEO’s, Mastering Emotions, Leadership Guides for C Suite executives and much more
𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗬 𝗧𝗢 XCELERATE?
👉 WANT TO KNOW MORE
Irfan.Sayed@cfocoach.co.zm
WhatsApp +260967924720