How to be a VUCA Powerhouse Agent of Change

There is one thing that is constant and inevitable in business. It's change. And in today's world, the speed, the complexity, and stress of change can wreak havoc on both workers and its leaders, sending everyone reeling into chaos. So we're talking VUCA and how you can become a powerhouse change agent that alleviates the stress and fear, keeping your people, team, and business focused, productive, and optimistic about today and the future. Stay with us. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Shedding the Corporate Bitch, the podcast that transforms female corporate executives into powerhouse leaders by showing them how to shed the challenges and overwhelm along with any fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negativity holding them back. I'm your host, Bernadette Boas of Ball of Fire Coaching, bringing you powerhouse discussions each week to share tips, advice, and sometimes tough love so you create the riches in your work and life you deserve. When you woke up this morning, what changed? I'm sure something did. Something always seems to change, whether it's in our home lives, whether it's in our communities, in our workplace, or in the world itself. We have seen a great deal of change. And the speed of which change is coming to each and every one of us is at a pace that no one has ever seen. So what leaders especially need to do is to not only embrace the idea of change, but really to shift their mode of leadership in order to really adapt to what many people call VUCA, V-U-C-A, and that stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Because the traditional models of leadership through change no longer is relevant because, yes, the changes were there and they happened, some of them small, some of them massive. But at the same time, they weren't at the pace and the speed and the complexity that they are today. And so leaders need to adapt. Leaders need to get really comfortable with those changes, and they need to understand what a VUCA world provides them as benefits and impacts in order to be a very effective leader to really bring your team forward into the future. When you woke up this morning, what changed? Something's changed, whether it's within yourself, within your home, within your community, within the workplace, or in the world. Change is coming at us at such speed and complexity that many of us are getting so overwhelmed, so stressed out and burned out. And instead, what we need to do is find a way and find the tools and the processes to embrace it, to get your arms around it and understand it, and then to work through it. And that can't be any more true for the business world. Business leaders have to put aside their old-school, traditional way of change management and their approach to it to really understanding that we live in what people will call a VUCA V-U-C-A, and that meaning volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. If you look at the change that we are all being confronted with due to so many advances in so many industries, in technologies, in capabilities, in skill and talent, then we can't ignore the fact that it's a lot more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous than it has been in the past. And so you as a leader just need to find those ways of embracing it and shifting into a new mode of operation. Now, there's a lot of benefits to living in this volatile, complex, stressful, ambiguous world. There really is. Think about it. When you're hit with change, just really think, Put yourself in a situation where you might have had a small change or a very dramatic, life-changing situation. How did you shift and adjust? In a lot of ways, one of the great benefits of a VUCA world is the fact that it really enriches the decision-making process for yourself and for your teams because it causes you to get really laser-focused on the situation, on the desired outcome that you want to have for it. And then in between, what are all those steps and actions that need to take place and by whom? And so it really provides an opportunity for a leader to ensure that they're not working alone because it's impossible. It's impossible to work alone. It always has been, but even more so today. So a leader's core skill is to influence and bring together the people that are necessary to collaborate with. And to decision make with to where they are putting the plans in place that will lead themselves and their organization through the complexity in a very productive, effective, and profitable way. So decision making. But at the same time, through that, you know, you're getting very flexible. You're getting very agile in how you're operating. You have to be. You have to be able to go with the flow, but you have to go with the flow to where you're actually looking out into the future and adjusting as needed. You have to give up your old ways of doing things and find the new ways to kind of adjust, process, operationalize, whatever it is that needs to shift in order for your business and for your team to continue moving forward and being as productive and as effective as possible. So you find ways to adapt and ways to shift that ultimately turns out to be a lot more effective, a lot more efficient, a lot more beneficial to not only yourselves and your team, but also the operations. Of course, volatility of any kind means also risk, and therefore you're really a benefit of a VUCA world, so to speak, is really the ability to look at the changes that are taking place or needs to take place and really doing due diligence on the risks that might appear immediate or down the road. So then you can plan proactively and appropriately to ensure that those risks don't hurt. And if they do, they have minimal impact. To what it is that you're trying to achieve and you're working to achieve. So risk. So we have decision-making, agility, risk. You also have the fact that in change, and again, you could think personally, if not from a business perspective, but there's enough change in our business world on a daily basis to find an example. But think about the creativity and the innovation that comes out of chaos. That comes out of disruption, that comes out of volatility. All of a sudden, people get very creative. They get very innovative around the products, the services, the operations, the procedures, the policies, the compliance. They just get extremely innovative in order to make sure that they can get through whatever disruption or whatever chaos. They've been confronted with. I certainly, even from my own business perspective, one was leaving corporate, starting my own business. Big change, big volatility, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of ambiguity, not so much complexity. The complexity came in when it came to, all right, I had this whole infrastructure and this support system within a corporate world, and now I'm on my own. And therefore, there is complexity to putting those pieces in place in order for me to be able to continue operating the way I was accustomed to for so many years. That's just one small example. And you could probably come up with— say you lost your home, God forbid, but say you lost your home, you lost your job, you all of a sudden was offered a whole different job with a whole different, you know, role, position, even company. Again, you get very creative as to how you're going to work your way through those things, let alone from a larger enterprise organizational perspective. You certainly get, if all of a sudden, you know, your products and services take a hit because of the environment, the economics, the overall industry, well then trust me, I'm sure you'll get very creative and innovative around what it is that you now need to be developing and producing and selling, or what changes need to be made to the products and services you already have. So there's a lot of creativity that comes out of a VUCA world. At the same time, you certainly learn a lot about the people on your team, whether that's your leadership team or your core team. You get very laser-focused on whether or not you have the skills and the talents that you need, or that you have the skills and talents, but some of them need to be developed, whether that's tactically, technically, or even from a leadership perspective. So there's tremendous opportunity for growth and development of your people, whether it is your workers or it's your leadership. And so going through some, some chaos, some change really kind of allows you to see the true stripes, so to speak, of an individual to what characteristics, what skills, talents, even what passions that they have, you know, that then could help you work your way through and provide the opportunities, provide the development, provide the coaching and the mentoring to team members. The other thing when it comes to change of any kind is we talked about the decision-making and being agile and really kind of looking at the risks and the changes that need to take place and what that means today and tomorrow. And the other thing too, which you experience, whether it's a small change or dramatic change, is all that clarity then becomes a new direction, a new path, a new vision, a new strategy for how you're going to kind of move forward. And so you gain a benefit of yourself collaboratively with others to really come up with a new plan, a new vision, a new charter for yourself and the organization. Or maybe it's just for your team is another great benefit. Of course, when, when change happens, it can hit our pocketbooks. And what I mean by that more so is we talked about the innovative, creative piece with products and services that might have to be shifted. But with that comes the fact that it might have a direct impact to your customers, and that's the money in the pocket. It might have a direct impact to the type of customer, the volume of products and services you offer your customers, or they buy from you, and therefore you get extremely laser-focused on whether or not you have the right customer, the customers that you have. Do you have to make changes to the portfolio that you've been positioning to them? Do you need to make changes to the segment that you're going after? And through that, you're also making sure that whatever service, you know, that you are providing your customers is spot on, you know, that they're communicated to, they're updated, they're told of any risks. They're told of any changes that might be coming down the pipeline. But there's, you know, degrees of overall customer support that gets elevated and enriched during change because you want to make sure that you can secure your base while at the same time you're looking for new opportunities, new segments, new doors that might be opened as a result of the shifting tide, so to speak. And then, of course, if you are able to really kind of work your way through handling this new VUCA world, then you're creating almost a competitive advantage for yourself and for the company. So by ensuring that you're proactively and productively supporting your customers, looking at your products and services, looking at how you're operating and the efficiency of your organization, looking at what changes and shifts need to be made in order to adapt and in order to kind of keep up, if not advance forward beyond everyone else, then you're going to gain an advantage over your competitors. And I couldn't have seen this more myself. Again, when I started my business, I started it in early 2008, and who would have known that 9 months later, we would've been thrown into a recession. Talk about VUCA, talk about volatility, complexity, and uncertainty and ambiguity. No one knew what the heck was going on 'cause it was so unexpected, especially, well, to the majority, it was very unexpected. And so everyone was thrown into chaos. Well, I took the stance that this was a huge opportunity for me as a coach and consultant. Because of the fact that the businesses were gonna be thrown into chaos. They were gonna need support, guidance, advice, strategy, direction, innovation, creativity, every, all those benefits we've been talking about thus far. And therefore I did not go into the boo-hoo, you know, my business is struggling, I'm struggling, my clients are gonna struggle. I didn't talk myself out of sales by saying, oh, well, my client's not gonna buy because, you know, You know, the economy so bad. I just stayed focused on my end goal and I went out and I, you know, kind of positioned to my clients the fact that this is huge opportunity for you. You can get labor inexpensively, supplies inexpensively. You can find real estate or office space inexpensively as a result of the changes in the volatility that was in the marketplace. So, you know, huge, huge competitive advantages can kind of come out of a VUCA situation or a VUCA world of which we do live in today and we will live in as we go forward. So you definitely wanna be sure that you're just staying ahead of the curve. And of course, when it comes to holistically a business outlook, a business view, of the changes that might be happening, the shifts, the transformations in the industry, in the economy, in the world that might be happening. Leaders absolutely must have a global view of what's going on. They need to be on top of not only what's happening in their own bubble, but what's happening in the world around them so they can get ahead of the curve in a lot of cases, But at the same time, they can model what other companies, other industries, other segments are doing, learn from what's working and what's not working out there, while at the same time just making sure that they are staying on top of just what might continue to impact them as they're making changes and shifting and finding their new footing, if that's the case. Or that they're just stable where they are and they're moving and progressing as they move forward. All right. So volatility, complexity, uncertainty, ambiguity— they can seem quite draining, quite exhausting, quite stressing. They could create a lot of fear for individuals. At the same time, if you can learn it, especially as a business leader, to embrace it as opportunity, then it can be the most exciting, energetic, and exhilarating time as well. And if so, a lot of mindset is a great benefit out of kind of a changing world, is as long as you're adapting your mindset, but having a very optimistic, very rich, very empowered mindset, very open and creative mindset, you can make change work for you, especially chaotic, stressful change. You can make it work for you. And so consider those benefits to change and see which ones you can really embrace. Then, as tips, I want to provide you some tips around what you can do now that you've embraced change, whether you like it or not. But now that you've embraced change, what can you be doing? Well, go back to the beginning of the benefits, really create a vision, a strong vision. Be very clear on the purpose and the value and the direction that you're taking for yourself, for your leadership team, so to speak, but also for the company as a whole. And then be sure to communicate it very clearly to your entire organization, or if you're working on it for your own immediate team. Don't leave them in the dark. Your employees will tell you that as difficult as news could be, it's better to have it than for it to be held back as if it's a secret or if only, you know, a few people can know it. So they then can decide for themselves what they're going to do. But at the same time, in most situations, they can get on board to support the change that needs to happen. So have a strong vision and make sure it's communicated clearly. And then make sure that in that vision and in that plan, you're looking at the elements of VUCA. You're looking at the volatility and really understanding the risks that could be occurring, that risk that exists, and the mitigations that you're going to take as a result. Make sure that you're looking at the uncertainty. That you, your team, and the business is going to go through, even the industry and the economy that exists, and kind of proactively figure out what those uncertainties could be, what the impacts of them are, and then what are some strategies to eliminate or mitigate those uncertainties. And then, of course, the complexity, looking at the complexity, looking at everything, all the, you know, pieces that make up this change that you might be going through, this disruption, this— whether it's provoked by yourselves that you're deciding to make a small or a significant change, as well as those that you don't have control on, but at the same time you do in your own bubble, in your own space. You can look at what's happening out in the world and make those adjustments proactively and productively yourselves. So, looking at volatility, uncertainty, looking at the complexity, and then the ambiguity. Ambiguity simply comes from your people and your vendors, your customers, everyone within your sphere. Ambiguity comes because of the unknowns, because of what's not being said or what's being said, but yet not being said very clearly. It's due to the lack of research, due to the lack of attention and intention. Ambiguity just comes from having not filled the gaps and having these holes in understanding, having these holes in plans, having these holes in kind of what it is, the expectations and the new goals and direction and the vision that you have for your team, for your business, and for yourself. Ambiguity just simply comes because of a lack of communication and a lack of of clarity around the things that we've been talking about. You also want to make sure that you are really investing in your people. You're taking the time, and investing isn't always money. It's also time. And time is actually more expensive than money. But you're taking the time. You're being intentional and purposeful and thoughtful about really investing in your people, whether that is through communications and making sure that they are on board, they are informed, that they are supporting and supported. But at the same time, this is that time. Remember, this is that time that you're looking at the skills and the talents that you need today and tomorrow, what currently exists, what gaps you have. And then if you're finding those gaps in any way, shape, or form with current or new people that are needed, then investing in your people also means give them the support, the training, the coaching, the mentoring, the development that they need to then work with you and support you and work together as a, as a collective to get through whatever complexity and what changes are happening. Don't leave them in the dark. Don't leave them unskilled. Don't leave them untrained because that's just going to leave you that far behind and you won't have that competitive advantage that we talked about. If you're all of a sudden holding on to everything and you're, you know, feeling desperate and anxious about spending because of the unknowns. And then the next thing you know, when things kind of smooth out and open up, you're behind the 8-ball and that's not a good place to be. All right. Of course, through all of this, even through the benefits that we talked about. But one way, one tip that you can use to be a VUCA powerhouse change agent is to also ensure you're leveraging the technologies that are out there. Technologies to streamline, technologies to adapt, technologies to improve how people operate. Looking at all aspects from the user experience, meaning your people, to the operations, to the customer, to all aspects of your business. Make sure that if there are tools and technologies whether it's digitized or whether it's AI or whether it's time management, productivity, delegation type of tools that can help with performance and overall output. Make sure that those things are being evaluated and considered and invested in because those will also take away, take away any of the uncertainty, ambiguity, volatility your people feel as a result of being given the tools to help them streamline and work through the disruption they may be feeling. Of course, change, change, change requires a lot of resilience in yourself as a leader, but also each and every one of your team members. So you want to build a culture that really empowers individuals to contribute, to debate, to really strategize on the changes that need to be made, the things that need to be put into place, even the things that need to be eliminated and removed from the business. But, and giving them that opportunity to kind of build a sense of resilience within themselves that, yeah, it feels like crap right now and I don't know what to do and I feel out of control. And, but yet you as a leader are modeling the fact that, well, wait a minute, we're putting this vision in place, this plan in place. We're making these adjustments. We're considering the risks. We're getting the mitigation factors laid out. We're adjusting whatever needs to be adjusted. And therefore, through that, you are creating a sense of confidence and a sense of certainty and support to where then your people and yourself feel resilient, feel like, OK, I can overcome this. I can succeed through this as difficult as it is. And that by you modeling optimism and motivation and positivity with clarity on your direction and your vision, then that is helping yourself and others to really feel a sense of resilience. Okay. And at the same time, we talked about one of the benefits being creativity and innovation. You know, you want to foster that. You want to take advantage of that. You want to create masterminds. You want to create pods of innovation. You want to, use all the power, brain power that you have, all the skills and talents that you know and you don't know. You want to make sure that you're leveraging all of that in the new plans, the new visions, the new directions, the new operations, whatever the case might be. You want to really foster that creativity and that innovation, letting your people just come up with the most outrageous ideas because you never know what's going to stick. You never know what's going to create that competitive advantage we already spoke about. So through volatility and chaos, we talked about the fact that it creates a lot of opportunities for people and leverage all the brainpower that you have currently and even new talent that you have to really allow people to help you with that change, help you identify those new innovations, those new processes, procedures, operations, those new ways of working your way through and then coming out on the other side, gaining that competitive advantage because you stood out and you were resilient and you were firm in the direction that you were taking. All right. But change is here to stay. It's just going to get faster and faster and faster and more complex and more uncertain. And we can see it each and every day. Around us, not only, you know, in ourselves, in our homes and communities, but in the world. And even though we feel like it's out of control when it's at the world level or even the country level, even the state level, there's trickle-downs. There's especially, there's emotional, physical, emotional, spiritual effects, impacts on ourselves individually. And we just need to all find the tools and the strategies and the tips for becoming VUCA powerhouse change agents and embracing change as opposed to fearing it and running away from it. All right. Now, if you or anyone on your team struggles when it comes to change and they aren't sure of how they can be a valuable asset to you, maybe you're struggling to really understand how to navigate your team and your company through some disruption that might be happening, then be sure to reach out to me. You can book a call. Let's have a conversation, 30, 45 minutes. Let me give you some tips and strategies and some direction that you could be taking. Don't feel like you're alone out there. You always have a friend in me. But let's, you know, kind of collaborate and talk. And you can go to coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall. Schedule that. All right. But I am so honored that you were with us for this episode, and I'll look forward to having you for a future episode of Shedding the Corporate Bench. Take care, everyone. Bye.