Whether you love or hate decisions being made by the new U.S. administration, it’s time to step into confidence, courage, and creativity.
The new administration in the U.S. is swiftly making decisions affecting every industry. Here’s what we’re seeing in the conference rooms of businesses working to understand, accept, and respond in the best interest of their companies, employees, customers, and the planet.
A world in flux
It is the end of another normal…again.
Since the new administration took office in the U.S., we’ve been constantly delivering talks, workshops, and coaching worldwide, from New Jersey to South Africa.
We’ve facilitated programs on courageous leadership, strategy, talent development, product and service innovation, team-building, culture, transformation, and one-on-one executive coaching. We’ve worked across many industries, including retail, agriculture, consumer products, technology, healthcare, travel, fashion, and mining.
In every session we’ve had this year so far, conversations have been inevitably going to this question:
How do we navigate uncertainty, disruptive change, and discontinuity when all of this upheaval is, to put it mildly, incredibly inconvenient to our plans?
The changes unfolding each day are whiplash-inducing and happening at both the microscopic detail level and the broader systemic scale.
The organizations and leaders who are most negatively affected by rapid change are those who don’t stretch their imaginations far enough. People who get totally knocked off their game usually aren’t prepared with a mindset to create and adapt to anything possible.
Think about it: You can imagine dystopia, and you can imagine a zombie apocalypse. When you stretch your imagination, reality will usually not surprise you.
Changes, to name a few
In the last month alone, U.S. government decisions have caused companies to shift, pivot, scramble, mobilize, and realign their strategies, goals, plans, and [insert your choice of panic-based action word here].
Just a handful of the intertwined, complex global systems affected:
- Trade relationships
- Tariffs
- Staffing
- Taxes
- DEIB programs
- Citizenship status
- Efficiency and effectiveness roles
- Justifying work contracts, positions, and projects
- Proving price structures and financing
- Manufacturing and materials supply
Businesses are being forced to rethink everything. Regulations are shifting, industries are being reshaped, and winners and losers are emerging quickly.
Two opposing viewpoints and mindsets
With all the rapid change happening right now, we’re seeing two opposing viewpoints and mindsets in business.
One is opportunity-based (“never let a good crisis go to waste”), and one is fear-based (“that’s it, it’s all over”).
We’d like to offer a third mindset and viewpoint available to you—one based on (you guessed it!) courage.
Through the lens of courage and by asking leaders where courage is needed in their organizations and lives, we’ve been helping them figure out how we can leverage the decisions and outcomes from the U.S. administration to benefit our companies, employees, communities, and the planet.
Emotions can run high when discussing these topics; this work requires courageous creativity and “Yes, And” thinking.
Chasing certainty and predicting tomorrow based on yesterday is a losing game.
“Normal” is over. Every organization’s current resting state is chaos, discontinuity, and the unknown.
The way forward is to stop reacting and start creating.
4 shifts to create confidence and courage in uncertain times
Change your mindset from:
- Fear → Courage. Fear keeps you in a protective mode; courage expands your thinking and inspires you to do something bigger than your fear.
- Certainty → Confidence. You may not have experienced the exact situation you’re in now, but you have succeeded through difficult times before and can look for similarities.
- Control → Co-create. Find partners who can elevate and add to your vision. Then, trust them. We can go farther together than alone.
- Improve → Transform. In a time of significant disruption, your focus should be beyond minor tweaks to what you can do to transform current systems, products, and ways of being. Imagine wiping history clean, and you could start from scratch. What would you do?
The organizations thriving today aren’t waiting for clarity—they’re designing their future. They’re embracing disruption, not resisting it. They’re driving efficiencies and investing in innovation and resilience. They understand that the rules of business and leadership are being rewritten every day.
This is just the beginning. For what it’s worth, I’m optimistic. The future belongs to the bold.
Will you create your future or be caught off guard by it? How can you leverage what is happening to succeed and protect humanity?
No matter what happens, it’s up to us to remain strong be the builders of the best future possible—with courage, compassion, respect, hope, and love.
Co-written/edited: Shannon Geher
Research/images: FIN
