Charting The Course Issue #13 - WHAT LEADERS SHOULD BE DOING RIGHT NOW
- Peter McLean
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
Issue #13, April 2025
April 9, 2025
WHAT LEADERS SHOULD BE DOING RIGHT NOW
I've been speaking with leaders and those with connections in sensitive areas of the globe, as well as local leaders, and there is no doubt that the US offensives against trade, alliances and even territorial rights are causing tremendous harm on the ground around the world.
With all the turmoil in international politics, trade and markets affecting every business and organisation at a granular level, the most pressing question for any leader should be:
"What should I be doing right now?"
Here are some key points from my "Lead With CLARITY" model that may be particularly salient to your current situation.
1. Courage to Challenge
Leadership, organisational change, innovation and adapting to varying circumstances all require the courage to challenge the status quo. Whether that's processes, anticipated outcomes, Polyannas or Prophets of Doom, you need to courageously step out and challenge current thinking, processes, methods, resources, alliances and key assumptions. And you need to help and permit your own people to do that!
Now, providing or provoking that courage requires a great deal of input. More than a pat on the back, but pointing to potential successes, past triumphs over disasters and crises, methods, areas for withdrawal, areas for improvement, and so on.
This should be a perennial practice for all companies and organisations, but alas we know that does not occur. If it did, there wouldn't now be the bloodbath occurring with US institutions and their correlated domestic and international mission and functions.
The greatest inhibitor to positive change is fear. You need courage to pursue it. Use great resources - both internal and external - to foster that courage. Bring in trusted people who can speak to yours to make that courage swell.
2. Learn Your People
That's ALL your people - your staff, your customers, your key stakeholders and even your key enemies. It's those countries, AND companies, who anticipated Trump's personal actions who are on a better footing than the rest of the world that is acting without concrete strategy and forethought. Even if they may not have fully anticipated the scale and swiftness, they "learnt" him last time and weren't going to be caught flat-footed this time around.
By bringing together the key people - a group of the "right people" who will have the courage, but also act together - they can provide insight, share objectives and work trustingly together to, for example:
comprehensively analyse risk
map out scenarios
determine realistic opportunities
set concrete objectives
develop strategy (which guides decision-making on a daily basis)
create actions you can immediately implement to move forward
The mix should include high and balanced performers, leaders who demonstrate cooperative and collaborative skill and propensity, subject matter experts and expertise, key sponsors or stakeholders, and any key advisors you can trust.
If you don't know your own people, you're far behind the game. You'll need to make herculean efforts and bring in the best to help you overcome that disadvantage. But throwing up your hands is just a surrender stance.
One of my favourite clients says to me that when challenges are thrown his way and the competition gets tough that energises him. Where his people throw up their hands, this is where he says, "Right, this is our challenge. We just have to be and work smarter to win!" and he brings in the expertise and resources (I've been privileged to assist) to help his people achieve those wins.
If you do know your people (and I don't mean "knowing your people" the way most do - I find that most don't have a clue how their people really think and what they're really capable of), then you also know you need the best to help them be their best.
3. Aim Higher Together
What you should aim for is not an individual devising the perfect solution - that's a recipe for disaster. High performers, high performing teams (as contrasted to committees and working groups) and high performing organisations all consider the input of many in order to achieve the best outcomes.
And leadership is about - you guessed it - leading others. It's bringing along and influencing others and even being led by them and others in order to achieve a great outcome. This has been true throughout recorded time.
One of the key impacts of "Working From Home", for example, has been the impact on individual and team resilience, perseverance and innovation. Aiming higher together - not just solely - means bringing together the heads of many to devise a better vision and outcome than you could alone. And it means that you are not alone, which is an extreme danger for any leader.
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These action priorities and more can be mapped out to a highly productive and powerful process that can be executed within days, if you have the expertise and skill to do so. It will provide tremendous certainty, energy, fruitful outcomes and, of course, clarity for your continuing decision-making and actions. And it can be done with any level or size of organisation.
But only a fool simply relies on his or her own intuition and abilities for accomplishing such tasks - the high performers and leaders among us know that outside agents, advisors, speakers and professionals provide perspective, process expertise and material benefits towards their leadership. We have the confidence in our leadership to know that great help makes for great results.
You know where you can get in touch with me for that expertise :)
LOCAL HEROES
You may not have seen her, but a young lady from Perth - as in, 16 years of age young - got through to the top 3 contestants of Australian Idol this past week. She only just turned 17 a couple of days before the final. It would be a little hard to miss the news, as even our State Premier tried to get in on the show (and our now-Opposition Leader also managed to get his mug in there at one point.) Gisella Colletti was the contestant.
She didn't make it to the Top 2, but I believe she reached the highest placing of any previous Western Australian contestant. That's a distinct demographic disadvantage in the competition, as all of the live broadcasts and weight of the population are on the East Coast. So, fabulously done to Gisella!! (And, let's be honest, she definitely had the best singing voice out of everyone. I say that both as a classically trained singer and as an audience member.)
But if you want to see peak performance at work, watch her penultimate appearance during the week - the Monday night before the weekend's Grand Finale, Part I.
Gisella gets up to sing a 30-second or so arrangement of Carmen's "All By Myself", also famously covered by Celine Dion, complete with the note carried through the grand key change. It's a dramatic moment that requires intense vocals and emotion to make it work. Most people should never even dream of doing it on stage.
So, Gisella gets up. Watch her calm herself, breathe deeply and centre her body, like any good athlete/gymnast. She then opens up her eyes and lifts her face, commences with the low intro and quickly ramps it up as she launches into that fantastic phrasing. It really is like watching a gymnast prepare, focus, breathe, look up, swing his or her arms up, run and then do that triple somersault vault - and absolutely stick the landing!
As a result of her work, she has any future she wants ahead of her in music. International artist Tina Arena is only one of the many that will take Gisella up on stage, as she's that good. All things going well, she can choose what she makes of her opportunities.
I know a little about Gisella through family (and, my little connection to fame: I have met her - she's genuinely a lovely young woman), but one of the things you can discover on her Instagram account is the years' worth of performing, auditioning, working at her craft even at her young age. She's had teachers, coaches, mentors, buddies - not to mention all of the family support the whole way.
She didn't arrive there overnight. She's been working hard on this for years.
That's what experts do. That's what high performers do.
They work for years, often in relative obscurity, developing and honing their skills. And when you finally get to see them perform: Wow!
Don't imagine you can short-cut those skills. Work to become a high-performing leader.
Please feel free to share this newsletter with others.
Lead With Clarity & Results! Inspirational Leadership Keynote Speaker, Motivational Speaker, Strategy Speaker, Management Consultant, Executive Coach, Executive Leader
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