When accelerating change is the norm, deliberate calm could be a game changer.
The pressure on leaders to perform well in an increasingly complex and ever-changing world tends to push them back toward what they already know and away from exploring what they don’t. Adaptability, creativity, and innovation are most critical in high-stakes situations that are unfamiliar and uncertain, but that’s exactly when leaders are least able to tap into those attributes. This is the “adaptability paradox,” a term coined in Deliberate Calm: How to Learn and Lead in a Volatile World, a new book by senior knowledge expert Jacqueline Brassey, senior partner Aaron De Smet, and Michiel Kruyt, an alumnus of the firm.
During a McKinsey Live webinar, Brassey and De Smet shared their research and methods for learning and leading dynamically in the most uncertain and high-pressure circumstances. While 90 percent of employers agree that adaptability is a top workplace skill and predictor of leadership success, fewer than 10 percent of companies have tools, programs, or training for building adaptability skills.
The good news, said the authors, is that there is a set of skills that helps leaders make the best decisions in the moment, and those skills can be learned. By working toward a high level of dual awareness—awareness of the external context as well as one’s internal state—in addition to practicing reframing and other techniques, a leader can achieve deliberate calm: “deliberate” because leaders can choose how they experience and respond to a situation; “calm” because staying focused and present under pressure is the key to avoid being swept away by fear, self-protective behavior, and other automatic, instinctive reactions.
* * *
For more on this topic, read Deliberate Calm and see an interview with the authors, “How to learn and lead calmly through volatile times,” the blog post “Why your team should practice deliberate calm,” the podcast “When things get rocky, practice deliberate calm,” the McKinsey Quarterly article “Developing dual awareness,” and our Deliberate Calm web page.