Seth Dobbs (he/him): Do you spend time thinking about what the future might bring? And if you do, do you prepare for the future or do you try to resist changes that the future might bring? Hi. I’m Seth Dobbs, and this is the Principle Driven Leadership Podcast, where I share principles of leadership along with examples of how to apply them, to help make you be the best leader you can be. These principles are based on my years of experience as an executive leader, in building teams and organizations, and in coaching others to become leaders themselves. And I believe that not only can anyone develop leadership skills, but that everyone can and should develop leadership skills.

I think they’re essential in helping you achieve your best in whatever way you might be trying to make an impact. And that’s because leadership skills help you better influence others to effectively create durable results. And leadership is a journey, a journey that often involves facing the unknown. So there’s been a constant theme throughout the episodes of the season, revolving around change uncertainty and the unknown. And this is because you as a leader, need to be adept at navigating through change, through the unforeseen. I’ve seen otherwise rational people and competent leaders balk in the face of the unexpected change that impacts their plans. Hesitation can cause problems and a strict adherence to the original plan, as I talked about in episode 11, can sometimes be as fatal as having no plan at all. A leader’s role is deeply connected with working towards the future.

Leadership skills in large part are about trying to shape the future in big and in small ways. The further out you need to project as a leader, the greater the likelihood that you’re going to encounter unknowns in your planning. In fact, you’re often deliberately driving into the unknown as a leader to bring something new to your team, to the organization, to the world. The most successful leaders are ones that can flex and adapt to new information and disruptive events even while holding true to themselves and their goals. And as you’ll shortly learn, Principle Driven Leadership provides a framework to enable you to do just that. Now to help bring clarity to

all of this, I’m going to talk about four concepts in this episode. First, what change, uncertainty and the unknown really mean. Second, the difference between future-proofing and future prepping. Third, leadership’s role in the face of change. And then fourth, the three core principles of leadership, viewed through the lens of handling change. So first: change uncertainty and the unknown. I’ve talked about this in many different ways

this season ranging from flooding in the Amazon rainforest, taxi drivers refusing to go to the airport, to competition moving faster and more nimbly, beating you to your goals. To put this in more concrete terms, at least with respect to Principle Driven Leadership, I wanted to define these key three terms: change uncertainty and the unknown.

So first, change. Things change all the time.

More specifically decisions and actions occur daily that can alter, transform, switch the course of events, the way we think the resources you have on hand. Change refers to all of these things from the micro to the macro. And you as a leader are often even leading change, meaning you’re making decisions and actions that deliberately change the course of events the way others think and so forth.

In the context of leadership, the simplest way to think about change is that change is basically an event, a decision or an action that plays out differently than what was laid out in someone’s strategy or plan. Next, I want to talk about uncertainty. Uncertainty is typically represented in risk management. It’s the elements in your strategy that you actually aren’t certain about.

You can look at weather as a great example of this. Weather changes constantly with different degrees of predictability or lack thereof. And since you don’t have any direct control over the weather. You learn to be adaptive to it.

Having myself lived in both Chicago and Denver I’ve long ago learned to wear layers of clothes depending on the season that are easy to add and remove because temperatures can and will shift, sometimes radically, during the day. So I know there’s going to be changes. I don’t know the exact changes that are going to happen, but I prepare for it a bit. But the differences between Denver and Chicago is such that I’m far less likely to grab an umbrella or a raincoat when going off to work in Denver, than I would be in Chicago. So uncertainty represents possible changes

we have some visibility to, whether or not we choose to prepare for them in advance. And then there’s the unknown. This is a change that is unforeseen. It can be about finding yourself in a situation that no one or at least no one on your team has been in before. And this isn’t necessarily bad. In fact, to be clear, sometimes you as a leader are leading into the unknown deliberately. Now in terms of leadership , the unknown is a step past the uncertain. And that it’s often represented by things that we simply aren’t able to foresee and plan specifically for. The unforeseeable is by definition something you can’t predict. But you can predict that something unforeseen will occur. And to think otherwise, honestly, to think that you’ve thought of everything is a level of hubris, of pride that will rapidly bring about disaster. The best way to prepare for the unknown is by having clarity of vision and having a team that can face reality.

Thinking about how you might face that reality, the reality that there are unknown and unforeseeable things headed your way brings us to the second concept,

the difference between future proofing and future prepping. And these are different philosophies of addressing the unknown and unforeseeable. Now one mindset I’ve encountered quite a bit is future-proofing, and this is the notion in developing systems or processes, developing your own skills, solutions, methods, and so forth that are future-proof. It’s a concept that’s about making an investment in some kind of resource that I just described that is fixed and will remain valuable while being fixed

when change occurs. Perhaps more literally, the definition of “proof” in this context is very interesting. Being proofed against the future means being able to resist or repel it. Proofing is giving something a resistant quality. And certainly there’s a lot of appeal to this concept to making an investment in something

and knowing that the fruits of the investment will hold steady for a long time, regardless of what changes come. It’s also very difficult to get this right. Since you’re trying to prepare something to survive the unknown without any material change to what you’re developing. This is the kind of thinking that can lead to the solution fixation I discussed in episode eight. Or just in general, make it very difficult to face the reality of change when it’s in front of you. Now as someone who spent much of my career in technology, I did not take that approach in developing my skills and growing throughout my career. More specifically, I didn’t develop just one set of technology skills that I felt would be durable for my career, which is a really good thing since most of the programming languages and platforms of my early days have not stuck around. Instead, I focused on adapting, not so much just jumping on whatever was trendy, whatever was new,

in fact, there were many lucrative and trendy technologies that I actually passed on. But rather I was mindful of how the industry was changing, how I could continue to be valuable as things changed, how I could be who I wanted to be with an eye to the longer term future. I think of this approach wherever you apply it as ” future prepping”. That is, rather than thinking of something being fixed that will hopefully endure through all the changes around it, you should be preparing yourself, your team, your company, by building a team, a system, a method, whatever it might be that enables you to read the signs and adapt as the uncertainty and unknown unfolds in front of you. Perhaps even enabling you to instigate change when the opportunity is there. Again, this isn’t about chasing every fad, every new idea, every opportunity that presents itself. It’s about adopting the mindset that if you’re not actively working towards a better future state, you are passively letting that future state get away from you.

Knowing when to hold steady in the face of change, when to adapt to change,

and when to instigate change is central to good leadership. And that brings us to concept number three: understanding leadership’s role in the face of change.

Facing the unknown is fundamentally why we need leaders. You can think about it this way: management skills are for handling the known. Leadership skills are for handling the unknown. Management skills are very important in defining and executing process for greater efficiency. And it’s great for dealing with the known. It’s things that are known, that you can start to make more efficient. Leadership skills on the other hand are in large part, helping you address the unknown.

So much of the season has been about facing adversity, things that are unexpected, things that have hit you, that you didn’t think would happen. The challenge that management skills have in the face of the unknown is that it’s hard to use a process to deal with something that’s an exception to that process, that was unforeseen and the definition of that process. And this is why we, as leaders need both skills.

We need management skills and leadership skills. Management skills by definition are directing others to efficiently deliver specific results. And you need those in the day-to-day, but they are centered on the known. And in many of the stories that I’ve told this season, these management skills break down when you’re faced with change, with the unknown. This is where leadership skills really shine. Now it’s interesting,

I’ve met folks that I think enjoy the notion of being in charge and seek leadership skills, but don’t seem to want to do the hard work of leading of dealing with the unknown. And I have to say that if all you’ll ever deal with is the known, all you really need is a guide, perhaps a manager. But not a leader. Said a different way,

if all you want to do is deal with the known you aren’t ready to lead. When going to a place you’ve already been , you can follow a guide, a map, a set of instructions to get there. But when an accident causes a two hour delay on your journey, you can no longer follow that plan. And you don’t know when it’s going to occur ahead of time. And so you have to adapt to that. That’s where leadership skills come in, understanding the objective and redirecting.

A strategy that doesn’t allow you to adapt to the unforeseen is no strategy. It’s just wishful thinking.

So how do you as a leader get there. And that gets us to topic four of the day, the three core principles of leadership.

Leadership skills are influencing others to effectively create durable results. This is a framework that enables you to adapt by centering on achieving, not just doing. By leading this way, you make it much easier to adapt in the face of change uncertainty and the unknown. Now, throughout this season, the three core principles of leadership have been lurking in the background of everything I’ve discussed this season.

So now it’s time to bring them back to the forefront and bring all of the stories together. All of the concepts of this season back together.

First let’s talk about vision.

The first principle of leadership is that leaders provide vision, a vision defined by achieving. And this keeps us out of the mire of problem fixation, of a lack of alignment. This kind of vision provides the beacon to guide you through uncharted waters. It is the influence principle and influence is key here because in larger and larger systems of people, you’re not able to tell everyone what you want to do, even if you really wanted to. But by providing the outcomes you’re trying to achieve and why you’re trying to achieve them, the people that you lead have a framework to guide and influence them in the heat of the moment. Even in the face of unknown. And there’s purposeful change.

Vision ensures purposeful change can be realized and enables you to respond, not react. So, whether you’re holding steady, you’re adapting or driving change, the decision to do that is made with purpose.

The second core principle of leadership is that leaders resolve problems. This is about, recognizing changes occurring. Being able to work through conflict. This philosophy provides the means for navigating uncharted territory. You should think about it this way, the measure of your team, your organization, your company, your ecosystem, whatever you might be leading -isn’t in the absence of problems, but rather how well the people you lead rally together to face the unknown, the unexpected adversity, which of course ultimately is a measure of you as a leader and your ability to face and fix reality. Knowing what reality to face, what changes are impactful, what are preventing you from utilizing your vision and changes and what can be ignored or deprioritized is central to leadership and navigating change.

And the third core principle of leadership is that leaders create more leaders. It’s about coaching more people into creating, owning, and driving vision. Coaching more people into recognizing and facing adversity. Doing this creates greater reach for you and seeing change and in reacting to it. Ultimately, you should want everyone in your team, your organization, your company, to have leadership skills. You can think about the fire ants.

When the calamity hits, they stopped going about their immediate job and rallied together. This is what you want for your team. And you can’t have leaders rallying like this without vision, without a culture of problem resolution. Without being aligned and autonomous.

Leadership by definition is about change.

In fact leadership and change, I think always go hand in hand. If there isn’t change involved, if there isn’t something new, , some new horizon we’re trying to reach, what are we actually leading people through or to? When there’s no change to handle, you’re more likely operating and managing. But leaders keep an eye to the future. Anticipating change, navigating uncertainty and recognizing one unforeseen circumstances prevent you from reaching your vision. If you’re leading, you’re actually likely a change agent, a vector of change. But not the only one, one in millions and millions of vectors of change that are occurring all around you. And because we are in this vast ecosystem, this is why I always expect things to change. I expect the unforeseen, even if I don’t know what the change will be. This is why we need leaders. To guide you through purposeful change with strategy, provide the tactics to create forward motion and to help you change tactics and even your strategy when the unknown blocks you from reaching your outcomes from reaching your vision. This is leadership.

So I want you to think as a leader, what changes are you hoping to make today, tomorrow and into the future?

What might get in the way of these changes, of that vision? And how will you deal with it when the unknown inevitably arrives?

Thanks so much for joining me, please subscribe and share with a friend if you liked it. Send thoughts and questions to contact@pdlpodcast.com and join me next time, when I’ll be joined with my behind the scenes podcast partner, Laura, to answer some of the questions and comments we’ve received throughout this season.