Embracing Change With Simple Steps

By accepting and embracing uncertainty, leaders can gain clarity, increase innovation and ensure sustainable growth for their firms. Navigating uncertainty has become one of the top leadership skills in today's management.

These three strategies can help you turn unprecedented times into unprecedented actions.

1. Rethink Change - To stand up to uncertainty, you must start reframing it as an opportunity. Rapidly multiplying unknowns increases the pressure to rebuild and reimagine their businesses. Though the journey from uncertainty to clarity is formidable, addressing challenges with a lens of opportunity leads to more and better innovation.

When facing uncertainty, focus on the opportunities and ask yourself and your teams: What's your path to highest impact? In other words, what's the one thing you can do that would have the greatest impact on whoever you serve? That simple question will kickstart clarity and focus.

2. Make It Simple - A focus on simplicity can help. Simplicity is about focusing on the right things rather than doing things right. It's about focusing on the fundamentals, such as customer needs, and simple but powerful questions, such as "what do they need?" that help you get to the core of a problem and ensure you're solving the right one. "Keep it simple" means focusing on the strongest growth opportunities and having the courage to get rid of efforts that don't move the needle.

What are your top five priorities? Are they closely connected to your core strategy? If not, start again. Once you land on your top five, communicate them to your team frequently — and more often than you think you need to (e.g. at every all-hands, at team meetings, 1:1 sessions and more). This crystal clarity will reduce overwhelm for your team and allow them to pour their talents and energy into higher-impact work.

3. Keep It Gritty - Activating creativity and ingenuity and relying on existing resources rather than waiting for additional resources to get started. It's natural to feel overwhelmed during times of constant change and, in turn, gravitate to our comfort zones. But uncertainty is here to stay, and when you practice reframing it as an opportunity and find success through the application of the strategies above, you'll feel confident about how to navigate what's next — in business and beyond.