Terrifying Unpredictability
Events can come thick and fast in senior leadership. They arrive from nowhere, take over your working life and throw your best laid plans out of the window.
I am not referring to emergencies serious enough for someone else to be sent in and take over such as the natural disaster, police investigation or cyber attack.
These are led by someone else and you are just one amongst many on the scene. You do not have the expertise, and often authority, to resolve the problem (and you will not be thanked for trying). At least then, someone knows what they are doing.
The problems come when they are not serious enough to warrant that level of intervention, so they are left to you. The buck stops here, whether you have any idea what you are doing or not.
This can be terrifying enough, but you do not control when they happen. Sure, you can have robust policies, strong managers and good leadership. All of this helps, but all it does is cut the percentages.
On top of that others do not know the impact it has on you, the hours they absorb and the wreckage they can cause to everything you want to achieve.
I am talking about the
HR case which blows up and, despite all efforts, will not go away for months or years. Endless hours with lawyers, huge costs and covering responsibilities for someone you cannot yet replace.
audit or other piece of regulation which uncovers issues which require urgent and drastic intervention.
removal of a large chunk of your budget without notice with instant cataclysmic consequences.
When so much is suddenly at risk what can you do?
Here are four ‘how tos’ for dealing with terrifying unpredictability.
1. Embrace the chaos, but don’t let it swallow you
Events, and responding to them well, is part of the job. This is what you chose when you applied for a senior leadership role.
You can create the most robust procedures, have transparency and clarity all around, but you cannot control it all or seek to try.
‘Chaos’ is an overused term, and the truth is that some people enjoy it too much. If there were no fires to fight some people would be lost. Those same people also get swallowed up when the fire is too big to control, or when the usual methods do not work.
The process of managing difficult issues also generates opportunities for change. You find out where your practice has to improve, and who around you is ready to step up when you need them. The change you had been looking to make can be given a very helpful push by the issue you are managing.
The task then is to identify the opportunities and exploit them.
2. Curate your team in advance
It is your job as a senior leader to have the support services in place before you really need them.
Whether the issue is related to health and safety, human resources, planning departments, accountants, insurers or lawyers you need to know who they are even if you do not talk to them for months. The risk of suddenly having to find them is making a hasty decision and ending up with a service which is one or more of too expensive, inappropriate or low quality.
Curating these services takes time to research, and when you suddenly have to respond you do not have it. Consequently one issue creates another as the bill mounts up over time. This is particularly true if you try to fix the issue yourself first, without expertise or advice.
These services can also train you, and those around you. I have been on the ACAS email list for almost 20 years. The snippets of guidance and training which comes through it is still invaluable.
Often people tell me that the circumstances they face just could not be seen and therefore could not be prepared for. I am not a fan of the black swans concept. It reinforces a lack of planning and foresight. Your ‘unforeseeable issue’ is someone else’s bread and butter.
3. Others need to see the issue through your eyes
The trick is to own the narrative but not keep it to yourself.
A core group needs to know what is going on, the rationale for the decisions you are taking and the input you need from them.
The buck may stop with you in terms of the final decision, but the thinking that leads up to that decision can and should be shared. Unless you provide enough detail that means the core group can see the issue through your eyes, they will not be able to contribute.
This requires some collective responsibility. As I say many times, collective responsibility does not have to be equally shared. The buck stopping with you does not absolve others of their own responsibility, which includes the quality of dialogue and thinking about the issues. Hold your silence and ensure they come to the fore.
Go round the table and ask for input wherever necessary. Make clear you are not going to do the heavy lifting with every aspect of every decision. There may be some details you cannot share, but that should not prevent a discussion in the first place.
4. Delegate hard
If a large chunk of your time is going to be spent sorting out a serious problem in the months to come, do not wait to delegate. Do not dilute or hold back. Far better to have delegated a little more than necessary than not enough.
‘Deputising’ is often taken to mean ‘in the absence of’, for holidays, sickness and personal emergencies. Yet managing the problem may mean you are potentially absent from what you would otherwise be doing for a huge amount of your time. It may feel odd asking others to act up while you are still there but that is the job they took on.
Do not wait to go under before you start to do this. Often the most important decisions come right at the start, and you need your maximum brain power and energy to make them. They can save a lot of time and energy down the line.
I have written a couple of blogs about delegation that go into some detail - check out
Remember that
The unpredictable nature of the job is also part of the fun. It brings experience and opportunity you would not get in jobs which carry less responsibility.
When it is over, write a long note to self about the lessons learned and keep it somewhere you can find. Even better, keep a chronology as you go along. If the issue is going to result in a formal process you will be well served by having that available in any case.
How can I help you?
1. One to one coaching programmes for senior leaders who are swamped by their jobs so they can thrive in life. Click here to discover where you are on your journey from Frantic to Fulfilled? Just 5 minutes of your time and you will receive a full personalised report with guidance on your next steps!
2. Team coaching programmes - working IN a team is not the same as working AS a team and yet they are often treated as if they are the same. I help teams move from the former to the latter, and generate huge shifts in productivity and outcomes.
3. Talks, workshops and seminars - including topics relevant to the two areas above plus explaining Gen Z to Gen X.
