"It's easy to talk!" some of you might think from reading the title. And so it is. Because each of us perceives pressure differently and the pressure given by our goals produces the most important effects. Effects on our well-being and the degree of anticipation inherent in future perspective.
Anticipation as an important element of forward thinking
"Anticipation is a central motivating force in everyday life, determining the performance or non-performance of an action based on the effects assumed to be obtained in the future. For people to enjoy life, they need the belief that the future will be a favorable one for them, providing them with a promising environment in which to do their work," says Wikipedia. Because anticipation is an emotion, depending on how we see the future (clear, good, promising, uncertain, ambiguous, threatening, exciting, hopeful, or hopeless), anticipation can involve pleasure, excitement, or anxiety about an expected event in future.
Therefore, the balance between pressure for results, concern for people, concern for self is found somewhere in our way of relating to what the future may bring us.
One of the essential concerns of a leader, especially at the executive level, in the management of a company, a business unit, direction or department, is the way in which he can influence that the predicted results become reality. How a leader applies pressure can make all the difference in sustaining year-round commitment from his team and the entire organization. Reality creates unforeseen events in the initial plan, environmental conditions evolve differently from what was estimated, and leaders react differently, work differently with this emotion, with anticipation. The line between excitement and anxiety is an extremely fine one.
Having worries, lows in enthusiasm or confidence that things will turn out as expected is perfectly natural. In executive coaching, very often the exercises of designing and visualizing the future, calibrating approaches and identifying potential risks are common exercises that offer the leader a safe space for discussion on all levels: the vision of the objectives, the vision of the team and the people who will contribute to the achievement of these objectives, the vision of oneself, the role and the most suitable way of assuming this role. I would not like to emphasize here that the space of one's own team is not a safe one, but that this reflection exercise guided by someone who has no involvement and potential stake creates a high-quality process hygiene and the opportunity for a thought-provoking process , of the hypotheses and assumptions involved in planning, of identifying the stereotypes and preconceived ideas that are incorporated in the processes of evaluating and estimating the evolution of things, all of which become, most of the time, invisible to those involved.
The future mindset
The future mindset is a mindset that balances optimistic vision (essential for a leader) with a pragmatic approach, based on gathering as much data as possible and thinking critically about how what we already know could influence different scenarios in connection with the future. The future mindset is a way of preparing for it, and it is predominantly optimistic. Forward thinking is a complex skill construct that we can train through these executive coaching conversations by projecting ourselves into different hypothetical scenarios about the future.
One of the basic conditions to be able to develop this future-oriented thinking is to do these exercises of projecting yourself in different hypothetical scenarios by what is called minimizing distractions and focusing on yourself. The coaching conversation space provides this.
Another aspect that the coaching conversation brings is the possibility to identify as many areas of opportunity as possible even where the temptation of critical analysis leads in a direction of viewing risks mainly. Because one of the essential questions that a coach can ask is: "In this situation that you could face, what is the opportunity to learn about yourself and how you could deal with the situation?". Even if you see a risk, you can also see an opportunity to train a new skill.
At the level of teams or organizations, the future-oriented mindset ensures flexibility and adaptability and encourages strategic thinking before the immediate, operational and short-term results-oriented, i.e. major focus on the next budget exercise to the detriment of programs or projects that support development on long term and changes spanning several years.
There is another important aspect to consider. The attitude to change and the approach to change by those with a future-oriented mindset aims at transformation and adaptation to general trends. Those who are more short-term oriented, on concrete and tangible results tend to approach changes as change initiatives to improve what already exists or organizational development programs anchored in history. "Different from last year..." or "20% faster..." or "53 less people...". Obviously, these approaches can produce results, but they don't transform significantly. We are all in this loop.
Expectations and accountability
One of the themes often addressed in coaching sessions is that of the expectations we have of different people and in different situations. Just as expectations can be a source, but not of frustrations, they are also an important ingredient of a future-oriented mindset when we know how to formulate goals and expectations that can be considered realistic taking into account the accumulation of resources that we are aware of and that we experience helps us to use them as close as possible to their potential. From my perspective, setting realistic expectations is about our emotional maturity and ability to self-regulate and continually refine what exists in our imagination and desire, and what is positive and possible. Once we succeed through an assumed reflection exercise in establishing these boundaries as healthy as possible, the chance of having this future orientation that balances expectations and pragmatism increases greatly and we acquire that inner peace that allows us to take responsibility our present and future actions. In the role of leader, we obviously have expectations, on the other hand, the people we lead expect from us a discernment that compensates them for the role we assume and that this exchange of expectations be a balanced one.
Aspirations versus ambitions
Aspirations are another basic ingredient in conceptualizing the future. Aspirations give us purpose and direction. Organizational transformation is very much about the shared aspirations of the leadership team regarding the impact the company can have in society, in community life, for managers, employees or shareholders alike. Aspiration is much more than achieving results and being competitive. Organizational visions that say... "we want to be number 1 in the industry" don't really inspire anyone anymore, especially in the conditions of this hyper volatile environment. But the aspiration to transform the industry, the aspiration to achieve the operational capacity that ensures an ecological business, the aspiration to do good to consumers or to innovate to solve problems that seem insurmountable today, give the opportunity to formulate visions about the future that to attract people with similar aspirations and not just those who want a job.
Diversity as an integral part of the mindset towards the future
Being right and always being sure are transformative assertions. It is very little possible to know today how our lives and businesses will change in the medium and long term. Collecting multiple perspectives and having the courage to be contradicted becomes an essential practice to maintain a level of quality anticipation and to be able to make decisions integrating as much information as possible to reduce the level of uncertainty and to create scenarios that to take into account as many perspectives as possible.
The discomfort that diversity creates is given by the fact that we make decisions and act on the basis of our own values and beliefs, and to keep people engaged and get them out of the zone of caution and sometimes blockage given pressure for results combined with certainty about with the future, the work we must do in understanding our own values and beliefs and becoming aware of their effect on our actions increases considerably. And that's still not enough. It takes getting to know those around you and understanding where their discomfort with certain possibilities comes from.
If we look scientifically at the innovation distribution curve, the statistic tells us that only 16% of people are future-oriented. Most of us, about 70%, have a short-term orientation, here and now. We think about what tactics to apply to get results next quarter or possibly to secure the year-end bonus. So, it's worth investing a little in developing a forward-thinking mindset, and I end this article by suggesting some simple ways.
First, we should not try to predict the future. Anticipating, defining aspirations and planning ways to achieve them through a multitude of scenarios provides a much healthier way to keep anticipation in a zone of positive emotions rather than a zone of anxiety and feeling out of control , when what I predicted doesn't exactly happen.
Review what you now think would be "impossible to happen" in an area of analysis of what could possibly happen and how we should prepare or learn to make it possible .
Track macro trends and movements, both economic and geopolitical. The media rather stirs up and presents reality in a way that activates all the concerns of the people. But analysts get up in the helicopter and look at larger phenomena, not because they can necessarily prevent their effects, but so that they can prepare possible courses of action. Even if the reality will concretize only one of the analyzed scenarios, a great gain of the practical application of the forward thinking is the development of critical thinking of leadership teams and teams in general, a skill without which it will be difficult to manage in a future with extraordinary dynamics, as it already shows.
Publiched in PRWave