Dansk
Life as a leader is challenging. As a leader, you are not only responsible for your own life, but also for the lives of your company, your employees and their families.
The responsibility places great demands on you as a leader and as a human being and can be "tough", as we say in Jutland. One of the biggest demands is that you must constantly consider the future and assess what it will mean for your stakeholders, including yourself.
It requires attention and energy on your part: "What happens if country X invades country Y?", "What will it mean if there are higher import duties on product or raw material Z?", "What if interest rates or inflation rise even more?", "What could AI mean for us?" and other questions that shape the future of your business.
ALSO READ: Customer centricity blah, blah, blah
It's tempting to close our eyes and stop reading the news to eliminate the abundance of knowledge and new 'problems' that flood in every day. The solution, however, is not fewer problems, but how we deal with them. The handling that determines whether we are one of those who create the future for ourselves and others or whether we are one of those who become an insignificant pawn in the game of the future with all that it entails in terms of not being able to control our own and our company's destiny.
You can't influence the "problems", but you can influence your and your company's ability to anticipate and manage them. And it's that ability to cope that is crucial to the future of you and your business.
Training new skills and dealing with new things is always tough. As humans, we are "programmed" to be wary of new and "dangerous" things. Instead of changing, we do what we usually do based on our experiences and unconscious reaction patterns. In other words, we become reactive in our approach instead of being open and proactive, which is a prerequisite for influencing the future.
ALSO READ: Rock, paper, scissors - are you ready for 2024?
But before you give up completely, I have two concrete pieces of advice. We were all once able to be open to new input and had the ability to be imaginative and see possibilities instead of limitations. Namely when we were kids, when we knew nothing and everything was new - and exciting. So the one thing you need to do is find your way back to the abilities you once had and still have hidden within you.
The second thing is that you need to use that adult skill called "discipline". You have to work on the "problems" and not skip the things that seem difficult. You'll only regret it.
A great tool to guide your disciplined work is a written, solid and dynamic strategy that helps organize your thoughts and tells you how to tackle the "problems" that are most relevant to you and your business. Of course, nothing will go as planned, but it puts you in a much better position to be in the best possible position when the future hits.
Do you want to influence your future or be an extra in the game of life? The choice is yours!
This column is published in Jyllands-Posten Business and FINANCE on April 18, 2024.
"I'm high as a kite. A nice concrete tool that gets to the core without the mess."
Lone Sejersen
Professional chairman of the board
in several companies