The Board’s Dilemmas – How Do You Face Into the Wind?
Within the space of a month, I had two very similar conversations with two very different companies. I feel the next one is coming. With you. About your business. What part of it must you sacrifice for future growth?
The Companies were so different. One, Nasdaq-listed, the other family-owned. Headquarters in India vs. Kenya. Services provider vs. manufacturing. Global reach vs. single market. Formal governance vs. familial. World-class leadership education vs. home-grown talent.
Yet both face the same storm. A paralysing dilemma caused by super-fast, external, multi-faceted ‘right now’ turbulence.
My experience tells me that no amount of rebranding, rescuing, repairing, restructuring, and re-optimising will fix what fundamentally needs to shift.
Your company, which once brought success, reputation, rewards, and shareholder value, no longer fits the world we’re in. You know in your gut …yes, you do… that the old model is done and dusted.
Hmm, facing the wind and saying it out loud though? That’s hard. Acting on it? Even harder. You face:
The emotional attachment to recent decisions you now question
Telling the Board, ‘I was wrong’. What will they think of me? goes that little voice in your head
A hidden loyalty to ‘your people’ and the teams you have proudly recruited and mentored - how can I let them go now? Where?
And the toughest one of all - having a path forward, aka making a new business bet and not relying on more regurgitation of past innovations…
It’s a tough wind to face, square on. Counter-intuitive. Yet it’s the moment before the next paradigm emerges. It’s where leadership gets real, pruning the legacy you’ve been tending for years right back to the strongest rootstock to seed new shoots.
I work with board leaders who are leaning and yielding into that wind. When pruning is needed. When clarity is scarce. Aiding them to move forward head-on towards a new vision. To see the ‘yes and’ instead of the ‘either or’.
To intentionally create a gap to be filled with an opportunity yet unknown takes unparalleled core stability in the widest sense of the word.
My alchemic stance supports exactly that, inviting leaders to brave the wind of current sacrifice for the higher paradigm to come.
Are you ready to face the wind? If this is where you are…