Many UK businesses that rely on Europe for trade and custom will be feeling the pressure radiating from Brexit uncertainty. How you manage and motivate your teams during these turbulent times will be the key to its future success. As a business leader, now is the time to shine.
There are many professions, such as professional sport and the military, where uncertainty and pressure are the norm. What if you could apply the same tactics used by coaches and generals to help your employees adopt a winning mindset that will support them through coming months?
In the last decade I have spoken with some of the world’s most impressive and prolific leaders, from Sir Alex Ferguson to military generals and even the Performance Director at the Cirque du Soleil, about what it takes to win.
I started out on this journey after choking in front of 120,000 people in an England game against India. It was then that I realised my mindset was the key to my success. This set me on a research quest, to go inside the mind of champions and to share their insights for the benefit of all of us in our daily lives.
In doing so I have distilled the secrets of their success to help business leaders to develop and maintain a Winning Mindset.
Here are four tactics to help you lead effectively in these uncertain times.
Stop blaming others; own the situation
With our current situation there are plenty of people you might feel like blaming, if that is what you are doing, get over it!
Great leaders don’t waste time blaming others: that may win you sympathy but is a waste of energy. Uncertainty creates opportunity so start by owning the situation and making a plan that turns the uncertainty into an advantage.
Pressure is a privilege
Having played in and worked with some of the world’s highest profile sporting teams, I’ve seen how they use pressure as privilege and use this mindset to tackle potential issues head on.
Worrying about what could or might happen leads to distraction, so it is important to embrace the challenges ahead. Building the positive belief in your team that they can win from any position is the ideal.
Rehearsing how to make decisions under extreme pressure builds belief in how the team can work together to solve complex problems. Do you take the time to run pressure testing scenarios with your team? It is a great investment of time and you may be surprised at who thinks the most creatively and efficiently when you do.
Don’t micromanage – enable
An effective leader needs to have confidence that their team will know how to find solutions while under intense pressure. It’s especially important in businesses where the actions of one team player can impact on the entire set up.
It takes a leap of faith to set the strategic direction of your business and then trust your team to achieve that, especially if this is a business you have founded. But, as a business leader, you need to look up and out for the next trends rather than controlling everyone’s to-do list.
It may mean that you are having to relinquish control, but by trusting and empowering your team, you will unlock more creativity and leadership and create a stronger team as a result.
Be fluid not fixed
Rapidly changing situations calls for leaders who can bring together diverse project teams to fix problems and exploit opportunities, fast. You can’t predict and prevent all the problems you are going to encounter, instead prepare your teams so they can assess and respond quickly rather than being emotionally derailed or bogged down in corporate bureaucracy.
Deploying teams to future proof your business is key. For example, what if your biggest client is affected by Brexit uncertainty? What if your logistics company folded? What if your top talent left to join a rival. If confidence comes from our preparation, then these activities help businesses to navigate uncertainty and turn disruption to their advantage.
Setting yourself and your teams up for the challenge is critical because your mindset will be the key to your success. So, whether you harness your core strengths and past success stories or look for inspiration from outside your business, you have to do something.
Our human instinct to stay in our comfort zone during coming months will dominate, but the leaders with the Winning Mindset will turn this period of uncertainty into a competitive advantage.
By Jeremy Snape, Sporting Edge (www.sportingedge.com)
Sporting Edge is a high-performance training company that unlocks the Winning Mindset in business. Founded in 2005 by former England Cricketer Jeremy Snape, our unique approach to corporate learning helps businesses to stay ahead of the game.
This innovative approach is powered by our digital library of over 600 bite-sized interview insights from elite coaches, neuroscientists and experts in strategy and communication. Thousands of executives around the world have on demand access to these success strategies. By fusing these exclusive video insights with practical tools from performance psychology we deliver fresh thinking and improved results to our ambitious clients.
Great article!