The CEO of a real estate firm updated me on his business. “Robin, right now, all of the outside investors that participate in our deals are ‘pencils down’ – no one is proactively doing deals. They are waiting.” This got me thinking. When momentum slows down what should leaders be doing?

This Week’s Edition

How should leaders spend their leadership time as the economy slows or stalls in some areas? Preparation. Preparation. Preparation.

Clarify Your Thinking

When market activity slows down, leaders have options. They can lament the loss of momentum or they can prepare for the coming wave of opportunity.

Leaders can get stuck in short-term thinking,  overly focused on the minutiae  of a declining marketing. They can get caught in the doldrums – a period of inactivity, stagnation or depression.

Even though they are working furiously, leaders often mistake activity for productivity, and believe that productivity can produce future momentum. This type of leadership situation ends up playing tricks on a leader’s thinking:

1.  Maybe I’ve hit my leadership lid .

2. This downturn may be  too much for me to handle .

3. These conditions could take us down.

Old Thinking: I doubt anything will change anytime soon. I don’t know how to maintain our momentum through this current situation. I’m stuck, frustrated and don’t know what to do next.

New Thinking: At some point, this will pass, and I better be ready for the next wave of opportunity. What skills should I develop? What’s the next new thing I can explore to advance the business?

Thoughts Lead to Actions

One CEO client of mine famously said, “professional momentum is not created in your 40’s.” His comments highlight that effort over time is the real formula for creating the future momentum you want. The problem: it takes time and it takes effort.

Who has the patience for actually focusing on something for a long period of time? Not many. Apparently, the average human attention span is now a mere 8.25 seconds. Yikes!

To succeed as a leader, you have the opportunity to use focus and your time wisely. If you do both, you can master the full set of skills you need to be recognized as an expert in your field.  Malcolm Gladwell  refers to this as your  10,000 hours  in his book, Outliers.

What do you need to do  to prepare for the next wave of opportunity ?

Step 1: Determine the additional skills you need to be the leader you aspire to be. Get trained. (i.e., public speaking, negotiation, empathy, etc…)

Step 2: Crowd source ideas from people in your organization on how to: improve the business or launch a new revenue stream.  Collaborate. (i.e., improved SOPs, innovations, new audience segments, etc…)

Step 3: Don’t wish this season of time away. Use the time to prepare, prepare, prepare.

Numerous leaders just this week shared with me a variety of initiatives they have in the works when most of their competitors are “pencils down”

• Plans to start a new business leveraging an existing platform

• Desire to target new audience segments for existing services

• Disrupting their own products through innovation

Boost Your Performance

When the pandemic hit, I felt a call to support the leaders that were on the front lines of the business catastrophe. I launched a video series called “Panic or Plan.” The main theme was: it takes just as much effort to panic as it does to plan. Which will generate the better return? Watch this week’s video for additional ideas on how to leap frog the competition during this time of uncertainty.

What’s Your Opinion?

What are you doing to prepare for the coming wave of opportunity? Share it with me at robin.pou@robinpou.com.

If you are going to be a leader, you might as well be a good one. Don’t let doubt count you out. Have a confident week!

Robin Pou, Chief Advisor and Strategist

We live to make bad leadership extinct so forward this newsletter to others who strive to be confident leaders. 

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What is “The Confident Leader”?

During the Covid-19 Pandemic, I began a video series called “Panic or Plan?” It was designed to equip leaders to navigate the doubt they experienced and to rise in the confidence they needed to lead during turbulent times. It took off. I then started this newsletter to equip leaders in the same fashion each week for the doubt that crashes across the bow of their leaderSHIP.