My colleague Chris Cavanaugh recently made the observation that people find themselves in one of two groups these days: lamenting or inventing.
Many of us are looking backwards and lamenting.  We grieve what has been taken away, either from us personally, or someone we know:

• our retirement account
• our job
• our house
• our club membership
• our assumptions about the way life works
• our confidence that we know what we are doing

We tend to place our security in these things.  And now they have been stripped away and we stand naked, embarrassed, vulnerable.  Lamenters find themselves in one of the five stages of grief:  Denial – Anger – Bargaining – Depression – Acceptance.
If you’ve been able to reach Acceptance, then you are pretty close to the bridge that takes you forward toward invention.  Inventors have stepped out of paralysis with the past and are engaging the future.
The ‘rising tide that lifted all boats’ over the past years has now receded and grown choppy at the same time.  And it’s been choppy not just for you, but for for EVERYONE — your competitors, your employees, your customers.  This presents opportunity for Leaders to exploit.  The game is shifting.  Leaders and their companies can move boldly to lead the shift, or they can stand still and try to survive as one of the shifted.
As we observed in a previous post, effective Leaders are always leading the shift — by innovating, developing, keeping their eyes on the horizon.
To one degree or another, we’ve all been lamenting over the past few months.  And on any given day right now, we probably find ourselves bouncing between lamenting and inventing.  The Leadership question then, is,

How can we spend more of our day inventing?

Here are some thoughts to help you move forward:

• Get fearlessly oriented to the future. It’s coming, whether you are ready or not.  It will be different. But instead of being scared because it’s unknown, embrace that difference for the opportunity it presents.

• Recognize that experience can be a liability. Dartmouth Professor Vijay Govindarajan has been studying leadership experience for the past 25 years.  In a recent  Wall Street Journal article, he remarked that companies “overestimate the value of experience.  Experience becomes a liability in times of change.”  I remind my Leaders frequently — What got you HERE won’t get you THERE.

• Identify all your long-standing assumptions. Assumptions, which drive our behavior, generally remain unspoken, hidden from sight.  Get all your assumptions out in plain sight — how you make money, how your competitors compare to you, why customers buy your products.

• Question those assumptions. Do they still stand up to scrutiny?  Do they help you?  What are some new assumptions you need to add to the mix?

• Gather as much intelligence as you can. Top Leaders are getting out of their office and talking with customers, employees, industry analysts and others to expand their perspective on the changing business environment.

• Develop your plan. Recognize anything you do right now — using old methods, developing new ones — carries risk.  Realistically assess the risk and move forward accordingly.

• Hustle. The Leaders I know who are bullish on their future are very active right now.  I think tee times will be easier to come by this summer.

Years ago, the Roman Leader Cicero summarized the choice between lamenting and inventing this way:

“Let us not go over the old ground, let us rather prepare for what is to come.”

Where do you find yourself right now — lamenting or inventing?  How is this impacting your Leadership today?

FORWARD THIS TO A LEADER.