by Karen Morley
In our mid-COVID world, we’re grappling with what leadership is and could be in the future. There’s plenty of despair and frustration. At the same time, many are looking to use the opportunity to create a better, fairer and more inclusive future: the World Economic Forum’s ‘The Great Reset’ project1 is just one example.
The pain of leading in a crisis
Yet, how do we create a world of growth and abundance, when it feels like we’re in a world of pain?
Most leaders I speak with want more certainty, much of their planning attention is focused on tomorrow. They want and need to feel less pressure. They’re working too hard; work seems harder and more complex now. And the downside of being safe in lockdown is the sense of restriction it imposes. A better future is on everyone’s minds, yet seems a luxury for later.
Rowan was promoted two levels up to bring about cultural change in a non-performing division of her organisation. Lockdown commenced the next day. Half of her people were immediately reassigned to COVID-related work. Rowan created a sense of order for the remaining teams, while still expected to deliver the full result. And just when it looked like there’d be a chance to settle into a business-as-usual approach, a larger organisational restructure looms. The threat of massive change is unsettling to say the least.
Cue high demand, uncertainty and stress. It all feels exhausting and relentless. Glimpses of light at the end of the tunnel are dimming rather than brightening for Rowan. As we work our way through waves of COVID lockdowns, hope that things will revert quickly to ‘the new normal’ is dissipating. This is a long haul.
Cognitive strain results from too much effort and the existence of unmet demands, such as Rowan and many others are experiencing. Strain increases vigilance and suspicion. It decreases comfort, intuition and creativity. As we know from the work of Daniel Kahnemann2, high levels of demand and effort, exerting self-control to stay on task, and intense concentration all deplete energy.
How to avoid the pain
How to create desired futures amidst this uncertainty and complexity? It comes down to three fundamentals for leaders:
- Paying attention to what’s most important,
- Feeling aligned with a sense of purpose, and
- Maintaining energy and a sense of vitality.
The superpower that underlies these capabilities is psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility increases the quality of decisions, and helps manage composure and wellbeing.
Psychological flexibility (see Figure 1) is the “ability to be present in the moment with full awareness and openness to our experience, and to take action guided by our values”3.
Figure 1: Elements of psychological flexibility
Being present means being fully conscious and aware, which means managing attention. Attention is that most precious of resources for leaders; according to Ron Heifetz4, disciplined attention is the currency of leadership.
When your attention is focused it’s possible to see yourself in your context, to be in contact with what is going on around you. Under usual circumstances Rowan was especially competent at this. The new challenges, relentless pace and long work hours in her new role meant that capacity was often spent. Thoughts became a staccato blur of what needed to be done, what hadn’t been finalised, prioritising and reprioritising on the fly. Rather than feeling focused, Rowan was increasingly confused, even at times somewhat dazed.
When what we do aligns with purpose, we’re doing what matters, and from that flows a sense of vitality. Being guided by values develops meaning and purpose. Otherwise, we feel lost, adrift in the overwhelming ocean of options.
Opening up means accepting reality for what it is, without denying it or feeling stuck in it. We’re not fused with the current reality, or the one ‘right way’. We are open to change, adaptation and alternative ways of thinking.
How to increase psychological flexibility
Psychological flexibility for leadership can be increased by consciously shifting perspective.
As an avid travel photographer – when such a thing was possible – I always explored with my camera at the ready. The way that I use my camera helps me more rapidly make sense of the drama and chaos I experience when visiting new countries. Two key options give me the chance to both give up my perspective and take new perspectives. I manage my perspective, and the amount of complexity I deal with, by framing and zooming. I can frame my shots to heighten or reduce the familiarity of information around me. I can zoom my lens to examine things in more or less detail, to narrow or widen the scope.
This metaphor has proved a useful one to help navigate complex, unfamiliar territory. By increasing or decreasing, narrowing or widening my shot, I can manage the perspective I am taking.
Zooming and framing give four ways to get perspective, to manage psychological flexibility: Endorsing, Examining, Enlarging, and Exploring (see Figure 2 below).
Figure 2: Four ways to get perspective
A narrower frame, focusing in on the familiar, helps when complexity is high. Endorsing what I know helps to avoid overwhelm, and to recharge. It’s a retreat to the safety of the known.
Mindfulness is a great foundation practice. Focus in on this breath, this sensation. As a practice, it provides a familiar way to manage attention and create calm.
Other tactics we used for increasing Rowan’s sense of ease:
- A clear, repetitive cadence for her day, to reinforce familiarity,
- A visual display, in her case a mind-map, of what’s known, agreed, and what’s left to do.
In Aditya’s case, what he needs to change is clear. How he needs to change is also clear. Why others need him to change is loud and clear. What Aditya wrestled with was his own motivation to change. He’s not fully committed to the value of the change, given the energy it requires.
On the upside, he was open to seeing things differently.
We started by framing using his purpose and values; we kept the lens familiar. We focused on doing what matters, to him. Without this, nothing else will make the right kind of sense. We examined how he could live his purpose and values in the new, unfamiliar territory. He could feel his resistance softening. This gave him a sense of renewed focus and energy.
Other tactics that helped Aditya examine new perspectives:
- He primed his day to attune his engagement: he used catchphrases and reminders to reinforce his purpose, to switch off, to be compassionate to himself and others
- He tracked and primed his mood: in a good mood, he would access his intuition and it would feel easier.
The power of shifting perspective
Robyn is another good example of the power of shifting perspective. Her responsibility for the organisation’s crisis response to COVID-19 found her stuck fixing daily crises. While in a sense it was why the role existed, she was also aware that their approach needed to be much more systematic.
She thought a couple of members of the crisis response team lacked systemic thinking capability and that the crisis-focus fed their sense of self-importance. She felt responsible for making sure things were done ‘the right way’. She felt let down by her colleagues.
The approach we took was to move to enlarge the way she saw the situation. She sought a perspective that would be more workable; one that gave rather than sapped her energy, that created rather than reduced options for everyone.
Viewing the same situation from multiple positions – I, you, and we – helped to increase her flexibility.
She was able to shift out of first position, ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘my’ perspective, and move into third, ‘we’, to see more of the interplay between herself and her colleagues. Plotting the dynamic of interactions allowed patterns to become clear.
Robyn was able to shift into second position to imagine the perspectives of her ‘problem’ colleagues. She humanised them by thinking about their needs and interests, and what she knew about their personal circumstances. Her empathy for their experiences immediately increased her compassion. They stopped being ‘the problem’.
By keeping the frame narrow while widening the lens, she widened her view and in doing so, freed herself from an unhelpful perspective.
Exploring requires the greatest shift in perspective. There’s no better approach than Sohail Inayatullah’s Causal Layered Analysis5. It provides a comprehensive and integrative way to explore multiple perspectives and levels of analysis.
Questions to increase flexibility
A final tactic that helps to keep an open mind, avoid the trap of certainty, and explore new territory is to ask good questions. Here’s a few based on my experience, and Jennifer Garvey-Berger’s work6:
- What don’t I know about this situation/person? What might I learn from this situation/person?
- What do I believe? How might my thinking be wrong/limited?
- What’s another way to think about this? And yet another? And still another?
- How does our disagreement help us to increase the possibilities?
- What can I enable?
These questions help shift perspective, which increases psychologically flexibility; it is an absolute must for a world made more complex and where there are no easy answers. The more flexible you are in your thinking:
- The less stuck you feel.
- The less ‘fused’ you are with any one way of doing things, which opens up multiple options for the future, and
- The easier it feels.
In the midst of our COVID-19 crisis, you can balance your future focus with day-to-day realities by increasing your psychological flexibility. You’ll be able to pay attention to what matters most, feel aligned with your purpose, and retain your vitality.
About the Author
Dr Karen Morley is an Executive Coach, an authority on leadership coaching, and a thought leader on gender and inclusion. She has held leadership roles in the public sector and higher education. She is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Karen helps leaders understand the value of inclusive leadership to organizational as well as social outcomes. She is the author of Beat Gender Bias: How to play a better part in a more inclusive world; Lead like a Coach: How to Make the Most of Any Team; and Gender-Balanced Leadership: An Executive Guide. Contact her at kmorley@karenmorley.com.au
References
World Economic Forum, (2020). The Great Reset. https://www.weforum.org/great-reset. Accessed 19 July 2020.
2 Kahnemann, D. (2011) Thinking, Fast and Slow. US: Penguin,
3 Harris, R. (2009). ACT Made Simple. Oakland, Ca: New Harbinger Publications.
4 Heifetz, R.A. & Laurie, D.L. (2001). ‘The Work of Leadership’, Harvard Business Review, December, 131-141.
5 Inayatullah, S. (2009) Causal Layered Analysis: An Integrative and Transformative Theory and Method. In Glenn, J & Gordon, T. (Eds.) Future Research Methodology, Version 3.0. Washington, DC: The Millennium Project.
6 Garvey Berger, J. (2019). Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps: How to Thrive in Complexity. Stanford, Ca: Stanford Briefs.
