Sudden Change. Will you react or respond?
In life we have two fundamental choices: react or respond. In times of comfort leaders have the flexibility to react or respond. The pressure of choice is realized when a leader is forced out of their comfort zone. Outsiders will critique the speed of action, emotions, and the other forces that impacted the choice. In the end, leaders will ultimately have to answer for the outcomes their choices created for their people. Outcomes are driven by intent. Intent shapes actions. A leader must decide if their intent is to be REACTive or be RESPONSible.
It is impossible for a leader to prevent or anticipate every change that’s coming their way; that’s not a leaders job. A leader must create desirable outcomes for their people, but the world around them is not here to help them accomplish that job. Leaders will never operate in a state of euphoria. Internal and external forces increase stress, promote fear, decrease confidence and muddy information when choices are made in real time. Through it all, leaders are still required to lead. It’s never business as usual with threats and opportunities constantly over the horizon. Autopilot is not an option when so much is at stake. A choice has to be made.
The first choice is to react. Literally. The human brain can react to a stimulus in .20 - .35 seconds. A reaction is a predictable default to an immediate stimulus that rarely deviates. Reactions are a mechanism for “self preservation” and “advancement”. A car encroaches in a driver’s lane and they swerve to avoid being hit. Spectators pack stadiums to marvel at the plays athletes make with their fast reactions. Outsiders praise fast reactions because speed is thought to always create a competitive advantage. The ability to make mistakes is accepted in the spirit of moving fast and breaking things, until something goes wrong. A reaction can cause a glitch in decision making when leaders do not think through the first thing that pops up. Reacting to the initial choice, often unrealized, will set the course for things to come. Leaders have a tendency to forget that they’re human. All humans will react in agreement with their perspective of a given stimulus. When leaders have undesirable or outdated reactions a blaze of destruction will soon follow. Self preservation can cause leaders to make poor decisions to protect their ego, secure financial gain, or to hide incompetence. The desire for advancement leads to recklessness without real accomplishment.
As the world gets more connected, leaders can no longer look at their reactions as singular events. A subsequent chain reaction will perpetuate without deviating. History gives leaders the foresight to predict how their reactive choices will play out. When the human element is stripped, reactions (allergic reaction, chemical reaction, drug reaction, nuclear reaction, typical adverse reaction) carry on until another element steps in to create change. Leaders will see things they have never seen before as the world moves to unchartered places. Leaders decrease their chance of reaching a desirable outcome when they react to stimulus. Those actions do not tie into an end goal, but that was never the intention. Most choices are not split second decision.
The next choice is to respond. A leaders responsibility includes accountability, duty of care and trust to the world around them. Leaders are required to make the necessary choice to create a desirable long term outcomes for those they serve or could impact. Desirable doesn’t mean perfect. Desirable outcomes force leaders to override bad defaults to influence the right human behavior. When responding, leaders are forced to consciously assess the situation, apply intelligence, lessen negative consequences, and pull together the appropriate resources. When sudden change occurs and leaders respond to course correct a more desirable outcome is reached.
Responding does not mean slow to act. Leaders still have to make decisions at the speed of relevance. The good news is that leaders always have time to make a choice that maximizes the upside and limits the downside. The speed of decision making is often influenced by the preparation prior to an opportunity, threat or stimulus. Lack of preparation is never an excuse when it was always your duty as a leader to prepare. First time exposure to a new stimulus is not a fresh perspective.
It is important for leaders to define their desired outcome before responding. Success is dependent on the scenario. Success can show up on the balance sheet, in accolades, or position. Success can also mean mitigating risk or creating an advantage for the next opportunity. Leaders can only take advantage of future opportunities if they stay in the game. It is hard to measure responses in a vacuum because everything is interconnected. Leaders will not know the quality of their response until it plays out over time. Responses should be stressed in practice before they are executed in real life. A response stress test will give insight to outcomes before they play out over different phases and environments to better understand potential failure points. Leaders should avoid abandoning their preparation when anxiety, emotion, and fear trigger a reaction over a response. Spoiler alert, leaders will never have complete control to eliminate the realities of life. There is always something coming, so take the time to plan, execute and learn to better prepare for next time.
Being passive is not a quality of great leadership. Leaders are only valuable when they create desirable outcomes. No leader creates impact simply by holding a position. Leaders will need to update their resumes daily based on their choices. Sudden change is often conceptualized but rarely taken seriously until a great stimulus forces action. It is human nature to underestimate danger and overestimate ones ability to create favorable outcomes. We’re starting to see that anything can happen to anyone and any group. In an ideal world, leaders will prepare to not leave choices up to chance in the moment of truth. What comes in the future will not look the same as what happened in the past. There are no repeats. All outcomes will be determined by the level of preparation a leader puts into their choices. Great leaders will make sure their people come out on top. As a leader will you be REACTive or RESPONSible?
