3 Pivots Influencers Make When Facing Adversity.
Change is relentless. Some changes we joyfully invite into our lives such as a new job role, marriage, or adopting a child. We look forward to going deeper and embracing them because they help arrive at the desired destination. In such cases, we prepared and welcomed a personal transformation.
What does the exemplary leader do when unexpected adversity arrives?
How we, as leaders, face adversity brings with it new opportunities to increase our influence. When unexpected change comes, our motivation is placed under duress — our brains will challenge us to fight, flee, or freeze. What is your default?
Challenge is the crucible for greatness.~ Kouzes and Posner
Our mindset defaults to what we know most and practice regularly. Recency bias pulls us towards what worked last time. Or maybe we copy what worked for someone we read or heard about. Not knowing where to go brings tension and inner conflict.
We know we should trust ourselves and our perspective, but resist. From experience, experts that aren’t held accountable or don’t know our situation is not the way to go.
Truth is, only you know your situation best; relying on the experience of others in your unique situation may make things worse. Instead, leverage your strengths and your point of view and decide where to go. Take responsibility. Recognize using a map (especially one someone else gives you) doesn’t typically work anyway. Instead, we suggest in these times to move past the map and focus on leveraging your compass (your values and a principled approach), and be ready to pivot.
What is a pivot for?
You can pivot when you need to make shifts in your current course to accommodate or exploit change. Merriam — Webster describes a pivot this way:
“an offensive position of a basketball player standing usually with back to the basket to relay passes, shoot, or provide a screen for teammates”
Preparing to pivot at work
Before facing adversity and changing with the environment, you will have settled several things in your mind and are practicing sound techniques. Consider this preparation developing your playbook. A quick review follows:
Be a learner
Jeff Brown, the podcast creator, and host of Reading to Lead can expose you to many helpful ideas from a wide variety of authors in the business world. In fact, he even has a book coming out soon detailing how to get the most out of the books we read to help us excel in our careers.
Inspire yourself
Don’t buy into the lie that you can’t . . . (fill in the blank). Instead, read works that inspire you to choose yourself and live your purpose. Books such as Linchpin (Seth Godin) The War of Art (Steven Pressfield), and Called to Create (Jordan Raynor) are great places to start.
Ground yourself in your core values
Don’t compromise who you want to become for a short-term win. That is not winning. Trust is built by good character practiced consistently, over a long time. Want help with how to build trust, look to David Horsager as his book, The Trust Edge outlines the pillars of trust we all need to earn and maintain trust. You are going to need a lot of it as your foundation to keep your team together.
Build your network
Built it through investing in genuine relationships. As you do you may find yourself becoming a leader others want to follow. Servant leadership practices such as listening, foresight, and community building increase empathy for others as we live our lives looking for ways to give and multiply the good in others. One day, the law of reciprocity as described by Brian Tracy may work in your favor when adversity comes calling.
3 pivot types
In basketball, there are 3 pivot types. Each type provides new offensive opportunities; pivoting is not about retreating, but about advancing. We gain new options with each pivot. They include pivot for space, scoring, and/or putting several pivots together in a sequence.
In our personal development, preparing ourselves for a pivot is important. So important, in fact, that Jenny Blake even wrote a book called Pivot which you may find helpful in thinking about your next career move.
PIVOT 1: For Space
What may at first look like a retreat gives you new options to examine the environment. During this time you are actively searching for the next best place to advance your cause. The time of a pivot might be minutes, hours, or days depending on your circumstances. Be careful. There is not such a move as an infinite pivot. We call that procrastination often showing up as busyness. Actions to take include:
Reflect on your guiding principles. Ensure your move will be consistent with your character and invite followership.
Review past learning and explore new ideas you have been contemplating to inform your move.
Solve the right problem. While we can re-pivot out of a poor move, moving in a way that provides new options towards the goal is highly desirable.
Look to your trusted advisor for objectivity and hard questions.
Scan the environment for new alliances to help you.
Make your move in ways to involve other influencers that can support you now on your path or in the future.
PIVOT 2: To Score
In contrast to pivoting for space and away from the target, you see the opening you sought and press in. Time to put points on the board, or change the environment for one of your teammates to do so.
Execute the play. You and or your team know the plays drawn up during your preparation time. What you have already done now pays off.
Build on small successes. A game is not won on one scoring attempt.
Increase trust to build momentum by involving your team so you learn together and can celebrate together.
Acknowledge what you have learned and who helped you along the way to build strength and resilience.
PIVOT 3: Multiple Pivots
Whether by design or a change in the environment, putting a series of pivots together provides needed options. A sequence of pivoting for space and driving to score may be needed along with perseverance to stay the course. It is how the best teams meet their challenge and become great.
Most games we play have a set of rules and a time limit. Leading yourself well, amplifying your team's strengths, and managing the time are the keys to victory. When developing a sequence of pivots you will likely employ the following:
Create space. When you need it to give time to evaluate and involve your team.
Call the play sequence. Next, coach, orchestrate, and model along the way. Each member involved increases the chances of winning.
Leave everything on the court. Give your best self to each play. Contribute. Lead. Support. Consistency builds trust and your influence to lead others in the future.
Remember to celebrate. When we win we can celebrate the win. When we lose we can celebrate each other and what did go well.
Time for a reality check
Most changes coming our way seem to be thrust upon us. Not so much like a game. Unwanted, unplanned, and filled with uncertainty. Tragedy, job loss, or severe illness can feel like waves crashing down upon us making it hard to breathe. Pain and suffering are real and our hurts can leave lasting wounds.
Leaders of teams and organizations face special challenges at work because not only do they manage change in their own lives, they are responsible to help others manage theirs too.
The shepherd leader is committed to modeling good and helpful behaviors, not perfection. When done well, they bring new hope when leading their people through adversity. And in teams, adversity brings with it new opportunities for us to add value to others. When we are leading ourselves well; grounded in our core values, we can use our inner compass to help navigate others to safety.
What do exemplary leaders do in the face of adversity?
Let’s take the story of Damon Redd as an example. 2013 brought a calamity upon him that he didn’t anticipate.
On September 12, in just a few minutes, Damon witnessed a devastating flash flood strip 5 years of hard work out of his hands.
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through, to lose everything I had built”
When I spoke to Damon, after taking a pause and collecting himself, he told me, “I got to hit the reset button.” And he did. As the founder and chief designer of Kind Design, located in Boulder, he built back in ways to allow him to spend more time at what he is passionate about; the creative process and giving back to protect our lands and waters.
He faced his adversity with tremendous courage. He possessed what Angela Duckworth calls grit. He persevered. Back against the wall, he took one day at a time, asking for help from his community, then brought some of his best work into reality. His adversity brought with it new opportunities. Today, he says his business is stronger as a result of having gone through the devastating flood.
Last thoughts
Leaders know adversity will come. They prepare, make decisions, and pivot as needed. The most effective leaders leverage each challenge to build stronger teams and organizations.