Challenging times require new skills. With some foresight and effort, technology leaders can not only be resilient but also thrive in times of uncertainty.
To say that the world has been dealing with significant uncertainty over the past 18 months might be the understatement of the year. Tasks that were once so routine they didn't deserve a millisecond of consideration, from how and where we worked to commuting were changed only to be changed again.
Many workplaces have been shaken from preparing for the economic calamity and freezing expenses to dealing with shortages in the face of record demand. On a personal level, many are tired and have experienced psychological lows and perhaps the occasional high brought on by more time with family or flexibility in life and work.
It can be difficult to thrive in this type of environment, especially with the temptation to simply throw up your hands in the face of so much uncertainty and renounce any ability to shape your personal and professional future.
Starting with you
Responsibilities don't begin and end with our role in the workplace for most of us. While you may be a technology leader by day, you're likely a caregiver, friend, parent, partner, and a variety of other roles. Many of us wear multiple roles at any given time and now we have to quickly pivot from providing leadership and strategy to our organizations to comforting a child out of sight of our webcams.
It's not easy to give your best to this multitude of roles without taking care of yourself. As the calendar turns to the New Year, it's a great time to reflect on your current mental, physical and emotional state. Avoid the need to launch into a dramatic but probably unsustainable “resolutions” regime. If you've been sitting on your couch for 24 months, deciding to run a marathon in March probably won't do much more than create frustration and more stress.
However, you should also avoid the need to make vague promises to yourself, such as “eating healthy” or “reducing stress.” Just as you would manage a work-related endeavor, set realistic, measurable goals, with checkpoints along the way to measure and adjust progress. Allow adjustment of a “stretch” goal, or perhaps even the ability to make the goal loftier.
Disconnect from expectations
Perhaps the worst part of the recent uncertainty is the constant adjusting and abandoning of expectations. Vaccines promised us a path back to “normal” before the parade of COVID variants began, just as most office workers have seen a series of “return to work” dates postponed or abandoned.
The problem with pinning your plans and hopes on external or environmental factors is that they are often outside the influence of you or any other individual. No one can predict or control a pathogen, just as a government official cannot create a policy that is not subject to change based on external factors.
One tool that has worked for me during these uncertain times is the simple mantra of “expect nothing and embrace everything.” Instead of pinning hopes and dreams on an event or condition that may or may not materialize, expecting nothing frees you to deal with reality as it occurs.
This may seem fatalistic until you implement the second part of the mantra and “embrace it all.” An uncertain return-to-work date could mean more time at home to finish a project or spend with family, while a canceled trip could provide an opportunity to explore areas closer to home.
If you expect nothing, you will rarely be disappointed by circumstances. And if you can embrace some part of all that life offers you, you will find surprise and delight, rather than shock and frustration, in the unplanned.
Creating a thriving workplace
One of the main reasons to consider your well-being first is that it allows you to be a more effective leader. No matter how effective your “game face” is, you will never be operating at your best as a leader if you are about to face everyday life.
Once you practice the habits that make you resilient in your personal life, you can apply similar thinking to your technology leadership role. If the uncertain market for tech talent becomes problematic, explore flexible staffing and nearshoring and build scalable capacity while letting someone else worry about hiring talent.
If you continue to have to restructure your project portfolio as the external environment changes, instead of focusing primarily on discrete projects, focus on broadly applicable capabilities and create more organizational flexibility. Perhaps external factors allow you to “kill” a legacy system or an unproductive program and provide the perfect justification for a new effort that has long been stuck in debate and approval.
In addition to your usual metrics and measurements when judging the performance of your initiatives, add one about whether the program offers more flexibility for your organization. This applies to all technology leadership considerations, from acquiring new hardware and software to implementing a new methodology or even something as mundane as a team meeting schedule.
Encourage your team members to share how they handled uncertainty, whether through “work from home hacks” or interesting initiatives they’ve heard about other companies implementing. Uncertainty is a two-way street, and one direction leads to risk aversion and restraint, but the other can lead to experimentation and innovation.
The simple, conscious (and sometimes complicated) act of viewing an uncertain environment as an opportunity for exploration and innovation quickly becomes contagious. Many of the leaders I spoke with mentioned that they have seen more creativity and innovation in their teams in the last 18 months than in years of previous efforts.
There is more than enough fear and hate to go around. Use your leadership platform to recognize opportunities to defend old norms and constraints and turn uncertainty into opportunity. You'll engage your teams and do great things for your organization while you're at it.
