Welcome

These are times of distress and challenge, which places great demands on leaders. It seems we look to the leaders we want, not necessarily those we need. We wrestle with people’s expectations. Today, as I was in my bank, a woman looked at me and said, it will be so good when we are back to normal. I smiled and said, it will be a New Normal and I did not have the heart to say much more.

As I hear from leaders who are associated with Mentor about their experiences I have been asking myself, how can I best resource people in the trenches? Particularly, with knowing that going forward things will be different. To that end I have decided to create this blog as a place to share with you all.

As Ronald Heifetz (Harvard Academic) mentions in his book “Leadership Without Easy Answers,” in times of global crisis leaders, need to distinguish between technical challenges and adaptive challenges. Technical challenges are where we know the problem, we know the solutions, and we know the resources required to implement the solution. It is about utilizing the system to get there. Adaptive challenges are when the issue is unknown and we struggle with how to deal with it. COVID-19 is an Adaptive Challenge. 

One way to deal with this Adaptive Challenge is to establish Core Competencies. Over the years I have found these an essential tool when working through challenging times of change. I feel a leader will need to be proficient in these to lead forward. Over the next few months I will give you my best thinking on what these Competencies should look like for leading your team in 2020 and beyond.

Warmest

Bruce