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Effective leadership during times of change and uncertainty

I have to confess to being something of a petrol head. I love internal combustion engines in all their forms, along with the vehicles they power. So how can it be that in the last three months, I have gone from owning two cars to being on the point of owning no cars? What kind of epiphany can have produced such a change of heart?
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Effective leadership means enabling people to seek out the best opportunities available to them and give them the courage to act even amid the uncertainty.

I have to confess to being something of a petrol head. I love internal combustion engines in all their forms, along with the vehicles they power. So how can it be that in the last three months, I have gone from owning two cars to being on the point of owning no cars? What kind of epiphany can have produced such a change of heart? And what does this have to do with effective leadership?

Well, no epiphany actually. Rather this radical transformation has come about through a set of small, more or less unrelated things coalescing into a happy coincidence. For example…

  • I am looking for more simplicity in my life
  • My wife has a new job that is nearer home
  • A ‘car club’ scheme has sprung up in our neighbourhood
  • I find I am able to work productively on the train
  • Our son has started going to school by bus

So it is that I find myself potentially joining the ranks of the carless, with the added benefit of knowing that I may be reducing my carbon footprint - particularly pleasing in the context of the Durban Conference. (Yes, for this petrol head at least, loving cars has always involved a certain guilty lump in the throat.)

The point I’m making here is that radical changes, be they in families or in politics or in organisations, usually happen not through intricate, long-term plans, but rather by people working with the ebb and flow of life; people responding as best they can to the emerging circumstances that come their way and actively seeking opportunities to move a little nearer to what they care about. The truth of the matter is that most organisations don’t know what is around the next corner – what the budget will be, who the new boss will be, what the new strategy will be, who the next restructure will affect. As the Yiddish proverb goes, A person makes plans, and God laughs.

So what does this mean for leadership? I think effective 21st Century leadership involves enabling people to seek out the best opportunities available to them and giving them the courage to act even amid the uncertainty. I also think it involves containing the energy thus unleashed by helping people get clear on what they care about and bringing together all those different perspectives in a meaningful narrative. Energy and containment, not in opposition, but in support of each other. Just like a smooth-running engine.

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