Managing Uncertainty: Strategies for Surviving and Thriving in Turbulent Times

Chapter 3

Navigational leadership

The capability to instil a collective sense of where the organisation is and the confidence and optimism to move forward into an uncertain future

Employees and management need to believe that there is strong leadership so that their products and services will survive at a time when the company may be struggling. It is a matter of instilling strong faith in the future.

Daniel Galvao, Marsh

I feel my job as a leader has always been to set the goal and then get out of the way.

Praful Pillay, SunGard India

THE MANAGING UNCERTAINTY SURVEY carried out for this book revealed some important findings about leadership and decision-making. In particular:

• people who thought they, or the management team, had made the right decisions instilled stronger leadership and governance, whereas people who thought they didn’t make the right decisions tended not to;
• people who thought they made the right decisions empowered, enabled and mobilised staff, whereas people who thought they didn’t make the right decisions tended not to;
• people who thought they made the right decisions focused on recruiting and developing talent.

Moreover, a significant proportion of those who did not place great emphasis on these things at the moment stated that they would do so in the future (see Table 3.1).

TABLE 3.1 Leadership priorities (%)

Source: © PA Knowledge 2011

Now	In the future
Building capability and recruiting/developing talent	46	77
Empowering, enabling and mobilising ...