It is time to RE-THINK and RE-START

RE-THINK and RE-START

The Pandemic is not only bringing a lot of negative consequences to organisations, teams and people but also about how organisations are governed and led.

We need now to restart and rethink the way we work, especially for CEOs. 

Now when working-from-home will be the new norm its changing many roles in the organisations. One role that will have to change the most is the CEO. Now and in the future a CEO needs to learn how to listen to the organisation and not so much “see” what is going on and judge how co-workers perform at the office. This new situation is demanding completely new ways to lead organisations.

Figure 1: New ways to lead…

This is a unique opportunity to find new and creative innovative solutions. It’s time to change. It is time to restart and rethink. 

The following questions needs to be answered:

• How is the business landscape defined, today and say +5 years from today?
• What are the strategic needs, today and say +5 years from today?
• Who are the customers having those needs, today and say +5 years from today?
• Why are they having those needs, today and say +5 years from today?
• What are the alternatives, today and say +5 years from today?

When addressing the needs either they are outspoken or not outspoken it is very important to understand the difference between needs, wants and wishes. 

Figure 2: Who will become your NEW customer?

Redefining the business landscape and see where can I take my organisation to grow faster and bolder.  The aim is to find new areas for doing business and also to find new customers who has those needs. Aim for at least 10x numbers.

In order for enabling the CEO to challenge his/ her own leadership style one could start by answering many questions, here are some: 

ASPIRATION

Questions for CEOs to reflect on to help calibrate their aspirations include:

• Where should we be aspiring 10x higher and/or 10x faster growth?
• How can we define and describe new strategic needs that are aligned with  this aspiration?
• What beliefs or long-held assumptions do I need to explicitly reset and rethink with my Executive Team, the organisation and with our stakeholders to achieve this?
• What do we say no to, or stop doing, to create the additional capabilities to go bigger and faster?

SEIZE

As CEOs begin to seize the unique opportunities at hand to recalibrate their co-workers, team, and company operating models, they should reflect on the following questions:

• How can we work differently to enable the impossible to happen when going to the future (including our decision making, processes, resource allocation, communication, and location)?
• How can we back-logging the future to todays situation so we become fast and agile and spend time on things that we don’t need in the future?
• What learnings and operational capabilities should we bring forward into the organisation for the future?
• How will this change my day-to-day routines as I run the company as CEO?
• How will this change routines for my Executive Team Members?

OK, good start here is some more questions to answer:

POSTURE
By reflecting on the following questions, CEOs can use this moment as an opportunity to recalibrate how they show up every day:

• What qualities am I bringing to being and showing up today that I should continue to bring into the future? In-real-life and in online settings.
• Going forward, you need to create an aspiration list that needs to be injected in to the “to do” lists. How will this change the way you lead?
• How can you hold your self and your Executive Team accountable?
• How will you ensure that others will help you going forward?
• Will you consider changing your Executive Team due to the need for new capabilities?

Aspire, Challenge and Become will be key in mining out the Best Way Forward. Since so much changes have been forced on to us all. The CEO needs to coach co-workers so that they can get a better and deeper understanding of the current situation and that what was normal will never ever come back. 

SET EXPECTATIONS
Many co-workers may be thinking that after a while we will go back to how it was before the Pandemic. Therefore the CEO needs to do a conscious, deliberate choice to adjust co-workers expectations to include “to be” as well as “to do” considerations. This will have as a consequence how the CEO and Executive Management Team select, train, coach, recognize, and reward old leaders and appoint new leaders.

As CEOs decide how to make this shift permanent, together with the Executive management team, should consider the following:

• What will we look for differently in leaders as a result of what we have learned during the Pandemic?
• What actions should we take in the near term to reinforce what “being” attributes will be of elevated importance going forward?
• How can these attributes be hardwired into our co-workers model to ensure they are institutionalised in how we develop, reward, and promote?

Best Way Forward (BWF)
The aim is to learn how to run an organisation that will be working part-time in the office and part-time from home.

• Have I as a CEO understood what it takes to enable my co-workers to work from home?
• Have I as a CEO understood the implications working-from-home means for their respective families?
• What does it means for the so called “family-system” now when parents are working-from-home?
• Can I as a CEO trust them for being productive?

The role that will be challenged the most is the CEO role in finding the Best Way Forward. 

Are you, as a CEO, ready for this challenge?

If not dot hesitate to give us a call.