Preparing to lead effectively through emerging challenges
Leadership is always dynamic, never static. Here are some ideas for how a leader can prepare for, identify, and respond effectively to emerging challenges and, ideally, turn them into opportunities.
By Janet G. Hering and Patricia A. Maurice
29 October 2024, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13927518
Every leader will have to face problems within her organization at one time or another. Even if an organization seems well-oiled, change is inevitable and any change creates risk and potential for new problems to arise. How a leader responds to change, including turning problems into opportunities, can set the stage for her future success (or failure) and define her legacy.
What can be done in advance
Even before a problem becomes apparent, a leader can take steps so that she is as well prepared as possible. These measures can be helpful under ordinary conditions but are essential in a crisis.
Recruit trusted informal advisors. The most valuable support that a leader can have is a circle of trusted advisors who are willing to provide honest and critical but constructive feedback. In a 2023 post, Janet pointed out that “good friends (inside and outside the organization) will tell us what we need to hear, even when we may not want to hear it [1].” No single individual is likely to be able to provide feedback on all types of leadership challenges and advisors within one’s own organization may have conflicts of interest. A leader should have multiple advisors whom she can consult.
Establish a good working relationship with your External Advisory Board (EAB) if you (can) have one. A formal EAB can have many benefits. Choose trustworthy members who offer perspectives and expertise beyond your own. Both of us have served and relied on EABs over the years. With the right members and clear expectations, EABs can help identify and navigate new challenges and opportunities and provide support when needed. Don’t forget, though, that an EAB often has a reporting responsibility beyond your organization. This can affect both the charge to the EAB and how the EAB’s message is crafted and received.
Build your network. A broad network can be a valuable source of information on emerging trends and developments. More distant contacts (so-called “weak ties”) may be particularly valuable in accessing information that might be overlooked by one’s inner circle of “strong ties” [2].
Know your organization. As Patricia wrote in her post on dishonest colleagues, a leader should know her “institution’s faculty handbook, chain of command, and what legal advice is available” [3]. This may seem obvious, but it is often not the highest priority when a leader joins a new organization. Don’t put this off until it becomes urgent.
Build trust within your organization. A leader who can tap into a reservoir of trust has a huge advantage in a crisis. But trust takes time to establish. Trust is built over time by acting with integrity, which is a key leadership characteristic as we highlighted in a previous post [4]. A leader who articulates her goals, values, and principles clearly will have a strong basis for building trust.
Identify potential foes. Sadly, no matter how hard you work and how committed you are to helping others succeed, not everyone may be wishing for your success as a leader. This appears to be particularly true for women leaders, especially in organizations that have not had women leaders in the past. Don’t be paranoid but do be on the lookout for potential foes and have an advance plan for dealing with them proactively, especially in a crisis.
Be wary of overcommitment. As a woman leader, it can be incredibly easy to be perpetually over-committed. You can succeed for years despite burning the candle on both ends, but when a big change and/or crisis arises, you need time to study, consider, and discuss before you act. By avoiding over-commitment, you will give yourself time to think creatively [5] and have some flexibility in your schedule when you suddenly need it.
Spotting emerging challenges and opportunities
The earlier an emerging challenge or opportunity can be identified, the easier it is to develop a good response strategy. This doesn’t mean wedding oneself to a fixed course of action but rather considering potential options and triggers to guide future decisions.
Stay engaged within and for your organization. Don’t spend too much time out of the office, which can lead to growing out-of-touch. In the worst-case scenario, problems fester and key decisions are delayed. Conversely, if you are too cocooned within your organization, it will be hard for you to spot emerging challenges and opportunities. A good academic leader in STEMM needs to be out amongst the cutting-edge researchers and powerbrokers – listening, learning, advocating, and contributing. Keep track of how you and your organization are perceived by the broader community. Ironically, you may hear about developments in your own organization from external colleagues. Being an effective leader for your own organization often means leading more broadly, such as by contributing to (inter)national committees, providing keynotes at workshops and conferences, and serving on high-level advisory boards. Serving on an EAB for another organization can be a golden opportunity to learn from and assist other leaders.
Pay attention to trends and developments. We previously discussed the importance of situational awareness and foresight for leaders [4]. It can be difficult for a leader to know which trends and developments might have an impact on her organization; taking a broad view can minimize the chances of being caught off guard. One type of development that is inevitable in any organization is staff turnover (e.g., retirement or other departures of key personnel, changes in intermediate leadership positions). A leader can prepare for such inevitabilities by providing opportunities for more junior colleagues to gain experience that will help them to take on additional responsibilities in the future if and when needed.
Evaluate potential consequences for your organization. Some changes can be easily accommodated while others can profoundly impact an organization. A leader should be aware of and work to strengthen the capacity of her organization to weather change. This includes planning for some redundancy in key systems and personnel and encouraging information exchange and cooperation within the organization. To the extent that trends and developments can be anticipated, it is worth prioritizing measures that would be needed to respond to changes with the greatest potential impact on the organization.
Budgeting for change. Developing a budget that recognizes the potential for change can be critically important. While perpetually committing to maxing out or even exceeding a budget can be exciting and ambitious, retaining some level of flexible and emergency funding can be a godsend. Many problems can be solved with a little flexible funding.
Consult with your team and advisors. Running through possible scenarios with team members and advisors can help a leader to have a broad view of emerging challenges and to keep an open mind about how to address them. Having frequent, low pressure (even ‘playful’) discussions of future scenarios can encourage innovative approaches, as presented eloquently by comedian John Cleese [5].
Have a communication strategy. Outlining the basics of communication strategies for urgent and/or sensitive issues in advance can save time and energy when a crisis arises. It’s worth thinking in advance about who needs to know what, and which communication channels should be used for what information. Leaders should be aware that ‘internal’ communications can quickly and ‘virally’ spread beyond an organization, that information conveyed by email can easily appear online anywhere, and that using social media can backfire explosively.
Responding effectively
Ideally, preparatory scoping and planning gives a leader the time and space needed for an effective response. Even in the heat of the moment, it is worth taking some time to craft one’s response.
Evaluate urgency. A sudden development can appear more urgent than it actually is. A leader who reacts under (perceived) time pressure may make a decision that she later regrets. Don’t let a problem fester but don’t rush.
Get feedback on possible options. Tunnel vision is a common consequence of making decisions under pressure. Quick, even informal, consultation with trusted advisors can help a leader assess options rather than taking the first one that occurs to her.
Be ready to deal with negative responses. There’s no decision or action that will please everyone. This is especially true in a crisis. Taking some time to think through who is likely to respond negatively and why can help a leader engage productively with critics once the urgency of the situation has abated.
Communicate your decision and its basis as clearly and openly as possible. Good communication can help to promote acceptance of a decision and to offset criticism. Especially in a crisis, it’s not always possible to be fully transparent, but a leader can at least be clear about why some information cannot be shared. A leader should avoid the appearance of deliberately obscuring information. This is likely to exacerbate distrust.
Within every problem lies an opportunity. This may sound trite, but successful leaders find ways of turning problems into opportunities. Investors have long recognized that a stock market crash can be a good opportunity to ‘buy low.’ Taoist philosophy, for example, emphasizes the essential duality of all things. A low tide can expose weaknesses in a bridge or pier – when a major problem occurs, look for systemic weaknesses that have been exposed and for potential opportunities. This will help you to emerge all the stronger.
Don’t lose faith in yourself. Much has been written about women having low self-esteem and low self-confidence. Even women leaders can be subject to this phenomenon. Understand that you often learn the most when you are forced to confront and weather a storm and that mistakes are themselves great learning opportunities.
Concluding thoughts and questions for further discussion
Every leader needs to be ready to face challenges and make decisions under pressure. Even with the best preparation, some events will, inevitably, be unanticipated. In such cases, a leader can best prepare by ensuring that her team members and colleagues have the capacity and willingness to respond appropriately to unforeseen events. This requires not only that a leader invest in maintaining sufficient redundancy and offering training, but also that she creates and sustains a culture of individual agency, information exchange and cooperation, and responsibility to the organization.
In closing, here are a few questions to stimulate further thought and discussion:
· Do you feel prepared to make decisions and take actions when your organization is facing a new challenge?
· What could you do to increase your preparedness?
· Have you had to make decisions and take action under pressure in past situations? What do you feel could have helped you in such a situation?
Notes, links, and references
[1] Hering, J.G. (2022) “Eight Questions for Women Embarking on Academic Leadership”, https://www.500womenscientistsfribourgbern.ch/post/eight-questions-for-women-embarking-on-academic-leadership
[2] Anon. (2022) “The real strength of weak ties”, Stanford Report, https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2022/09/real-strength-weak-ties
[3] https://www.epistimi.org/blog/liar-liar-campus-on-fire-how-to-cope-with-dishonest-colleagues
[5] Cleese, J. (1991) “Creativity in Management”, Video Arts, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb5oIIPO62g