From Uncertainty to Opportunity: Essential Lessons for Leaders

Key principles for finding opportunity amid uncertainty

People and purpose

1. Anchor on values and guiding principles: In the race to confront new challenges, many leaders will naturally succumb to the tendency to focus on the urgent over the important. Senior executives play a crucial role in keeping purpose and values at the center. Review major decisions through the lens of organizational purpose and values, conveying clearly defined guiding principles that enable everyone to orient themselves and stay aligned. Your culture is an asset in a volatile world, but it will be put to the test. Role model an unwavering commitment to the firm’s mission, vision, and core values, particularly when facing difficult trade-offs.

2. Avoid communication gaps and enable leaders to lead: Uncertainty causes anxiety, and silence is often seen as bad news. A lack of communication will not be construed as continuity; it will be seen as insularity or indifference. Even if you’re waiting for the dust to settle, it’s important to say so. The best leaders convey a sense of realistic optimism. Equally important, these leaders resist the temptation of reverting to command-and-control styles and empower their own leadership teams to lead.

Agility and long-term strategy

3. Don't toss your playbook but actively seek to evolve it: Relying on the playbook that's historically made you successful could be your undoing. Established patterns may no longer be reliable. Keep your foundation intact and be wary of knee-jerk reactions that threaten long-term strategy, all while remaining intentional about challenging your long-held assumptions. Remember: we often hold on to outdated strategies out of a sense of emotional attachment, rather than rational reasoning.

4. Increase the pace and collaborative intensity of scenario planning: Strategic decrees rarely succeed, and they’re especially unlikely to gain traction in environments characterized by dislocation and change. Accelerate the development of scenarios and make the evaluation of them a collaborative exercise. Defensive measures are essential, but the best leaders also think strategically during times of uncertainty about opportunities to go on the offensive.

Information sources and decision making

5. Increase the frequency and intensity of customer interaction: Organizations tend to retreat internally during moments of change and disruption. The best leaders resist this instinct and push their organizations to engage more widely and deeply with customers. Don’t allow a flurry of internal activity to distract you from your most important source of insight and your best opportunities to create value.

6. Inject productive tension into your decision-making culture: An early test of the quality of your strategic choices will be the vibrancy and intensity of the debate and disagreement that precedes them. Don’t encourage debate for its own sake but be wary of decisions that seem to be made by default. Invest in expanding the variety of your information sources—whether news, data feeds, stakeholders, or advisors. Agree to disagree and commit. Doing so will lead to better choices and a stronger sense of respect and trust across your team.