With Zeluleko Zet Moyo
COVID-19 is a new reality that took many of us by surprise and redefined our entire world. Some companies, churches, and leaders have managed to outperform this crisis. On the other hand, some have given in to the crisis and thereby birthing a great fall for themselves and their organizations. The most important skill now is agility. Those who manage to master and action it, will come out winners both in profitability and production.
This is an essential skill in this era we live in, which is so unpredictable and fast changing. The goal of every business and leader is to develop their ability to maximum potential, performance and profits. In this article I discuss how you can develop your agility and be able to outperform crisis times:
Have Foresight
Agility talks of the ability to recognize trends and react at the right time. It means the flexibility or nimbleness in face of change. Also it the quickness in adopting new techniques, tools to save problems. To be able to make it through this crisis and through this current generation we living in as a business man and as a leader, you need to be able to recognize trends as they prepare to unfold.
The major reason that is making many companies, churches and governments’ feel the heat of the crisis time negatively, is the fact that they failed to predict the future that the crisis time was pregnant with in its founding stages. Many thought it was going to be a one month disturbance and there after everything will go back to normal and some still think things will be back to normal a couple of weeks coming. The hidden future reality was and still is the COVID-19 might be here for a while and some of its impact has redefined our world and will continue to do so. Its impact has redefined how we do business, church and governance and it might be the order of the day for some time ahead. As a business man and a leader it is then important to seat down and vigilantly prevision, consider all the future realities that might be brought by this pandemic and also the future realities that our fast changing world might present and combat yourself against them informatively.
Strategically and Relevantly Revision
“Change is the only constant thing in the times we are living in”, as my fellow work mates would say. There is need for every company, church and government to go back to the drawing board or as Jonah Nyoni puts it, “think like a startup”. The way you might had planned and set your action plan as a company, church or government a year back, the strategies that were to be employed and the activities that were to be carried out might not be relevant and possible to achieve in this crisis time and in the fast changing world we live in. There is therefore need to progressively and consistently go back to the drawing board and revision how best you can still achieve your goals and dreams within the current context and the future ahead. Everyone has to consistently review their plans in consideration of the current normal and the future projected trends. Think like a startup always. Every time you seat and plan as a board ask yourselves if we were a company or an organization that was new in the block what would we do and how would we do it and what would we do that would make us different from everyone else. That way you will always stay relevant and marketable.
Be a student
The world we live in today is completely different from the world our fathers and mothers lived in yesterday and its definitely going to be different from the world our children will live in. the world we live in is changing every second meaning what was true yesterday might not be true today. In actual fact what was true by the time you started reading this very article might not be true by the time you finish reading it, thus how fast things change around us. As a business man the marketing strategies that worked for you before the pandemic might not work for you during the pandemic and even after, as a church the ministry strategies that worked for you before the pandemic might not be working for you now and even after the pandemic and as a government the strategies that worked for you before the pandemic might not work for you now. There is need to research and learn what new strategies you can adopt and action to be able to achieve what you want to achieve. Let your goal as a leader be to know something new every day about your focal field. Grow in knowledge daily, because the difference between trend setters and victims of trends is in the density of knowledge pertaining to a field. Be a student. Agility is a product of distinct rare knowledge actioned.
Create think tank culture
Within your company or organization create a safe environment where everyone can intelligently contribute their researched ideas. As the boss, create an open office policy.one in which everyone within you team is free to pitch their development ideas to you without fear. Understand you cannot know it all hence why you need other brains to help you. We live in a complex world with complex challenges that equally require complex mindsets. Encourage your team to be critical and analytic thinkers. Groom them to think beyond a set norm. Every time you see your team ask them what can we improve and what can we do that we have never done. Make them own the vision by making them developmental think tanks.
Resilience
Resilience is the capacity of a system, organization or individual to maintain core values, purpose, and integrity in the face of dramatically changing circumstances. The most important thing to do is to sync your ideas with your beliefs, principle, values, mission, and vision of the organization. Never lose your definition as a company or church in the rush hour of catching up with trends. Agility requires resilience. Don’t end only on incubation meetings but action your well researched ideas. Never be afraid to fail. Agility talks of comfortability in uncomfortable circumstances and atmospheres. Don’t fear to fail every one strives through fear. What you know has totally no effect until it’s done.
Zeluleko Zet Moyo is a transformational speaker, leadership developer, and author. Contact him on: +263776089376, Azmoyo@gmail.com
