Francis Wade | Disruptiveness as a leadership tactic

Donald Trump’s first weeks in office present the biggest distraction chief executives have ever witnessed. Apart from daily news explosions, there are material threats to their businesses. But is there a way for you to transcend continuous surprises?

Many leaders believed that COVID-19 was the most significant disruption of their careers. The world came to a halt and took years to return to normal.

But today, the constant stream of shocks originating from the United Stated puts the pandemic in perspective. That was nothing compared to this situation.

Several C-suiters have responded by reprising their inner ‘harum-scarum’ skills. Joining in the adrenaline rush, they live in permacrisis, chasing after short-term problems. They believe they can muscle their way through this crazy season by cranking up their energy.

Fortunately, some leaders have realised constantly playing problem-solver-in-chief isn’t sustainable. It’s downright dangerous.

History offers a cautionary tale: General Edward Braddock’s leadership at the Battle of the Monongahela (1755). Ambushed by French and Native forces, he abandoned his headquarters and rode into battle himself. Soon, he was fatally shot, leaving his troops leaderless. Consequently, the British suffered massive losses, and the French capitalised on the chaos, prolonging the war.

How can you ensure you won’t ‘Braddock’ your company with short-term bravado?

Recognise the danger: Hopefully, you don’t face guns or actual bloodshed. Instead, your organisation probably confronts existential threats from competitors, government regulations, new technologies, and evolving customers.

Consequently, if you fail to lead, staff could be laid off, shareholder value could be destroyed, and market share could suffer. So would your personal legacy.

But you can’t accomplish these things by chasing into daily battle. In fact, when you lose track of the overall context, you abandon your leadership position.

Instead, you must distrust your instinct to act from the front. And then step back to see the bigger picture. But will you?

The cure lies in capabilities you probably didn’t practice in school: foresight, strategy, and discipline.

While you weren’t promoted based on these skills, now you need them more than ever. Therefore, acknowledging your weaknesses in this area could be a humbling first step.

Have a game-changing destination: Corporate history is littered with companies which fixated on immediate problems, with disastrous results.

Jack Welch (General Electric) laid a mid-term trap for his successor, eventually destroying hundreds of billions in value. Boeing’s leaders did the same, sacrificing safety standards. Wells Fargo pressured salespeople to rack up their numbers, leading to massive fraud.

Short-sighted goals are fine, but in the absence of a long-term game-changing context, they aren’t enough.

A disruption such as Trump 2.0 engenders a near-term focus. Here are two ways leaders are responding.

Some are arguing that long-term thinking has been put on hold. Why? Things have changed too much. They promise to resume the luxury of thinking strategically when life returns to normal.

As we speak, this perfectly reasonable and popular piece of conventional wisdom is making the rounds in Jamaica’s C-suites. Some are even using the passage of COVID-19 as proof.

But what if the first month of Trump 2.0 is merely a preview of the next four years? Here’s a better alternative.

Use the disruptions to reinforce a long-term destination: Facing declining playing card sales in the 1960s, Nintendo embraced disruption by pivoting into electronic games. After experimenting with toys and arcades, it launched the NES (1985), reviving the gaming industry. This bold shift transformed Nintendo into a global video game powerhouse, proving that disruption can drive reinvention.

The main challenge is not the choice of the actual destination. Instead, consider the difficulty of getting your stakeholders aligned with a vision some 15-30-years away…in the midst of a panic. In other words, even as they respond to the day’s drama, they are taking concrete actions to bring about a faraway future.

To put it another way, the disruption fuels their larger inspiration.

Case in point: arguably, the failure of The West Indies Federation in 1961 was a major blow to countries in the region. But it also provided the fuel for Jamaican independence. Self-determination didn’t go away, it merely took another route.

Many leaders in both the public and private sector lack the skills to escape the Braddock trap.

Be different. As Warren Buffett says: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.

Now is the time to resist the temptation of reactive leadership. Step back, set a long-term course, and let today’s turbulence propel your company toward a future worth building.

Francis Wade is a management consultant and author of Perfect Time-Based Productivity. To search past columns on productivity, strategy and business processes, or give feedback, email: columns@fwconsulting.com