Leading By Experiment: Carving Out Your Business’s Next Chapter During COVID-19hat it Means to Be an Experimental Leader

As a lot of leaders are trying to figure out their new normal for their company and workforce, there is a lot of experimentation going on – what is the best way to lead to keep my employees engaged, help them transition to remote working for the foreseeable future and, most importantly, keep them safe and healthy. Melanie Parish, an executive coach is releasing, “The Experimental Leader: Be a New Kind of Boss to Cultivate an Organization of Innovators,” on April 7.

Through her work with Fortune 500, global IT and startups, she has gathered insights around how leaders can quickly pivot to become the new kind of boss this unprecedented time requires or really anyone who wants to step up and help lead.

Some tips she shared include:

Figure out what’s the maple syrup in your business. This refers to a common farming practice for the winter. Most farms make the majority of their profits during prime harvesting months, spring through the fall. However, in order to not waste the winter, some make maple syrup during the colder months. This is an excellent analogy for the opportunity many teams working from home have in front of them right now. If a lot of work has been put on hold, use the time to focus on all the things you usually don’t have time for as a team. This includes training, collaboration and brainstorming about the future.

Let go of the need to only fight fires. We are groomed to really feel good about fighting so called fires in the workplace. We put out a fire and we have proof we did something useful. In this current climate, there is no shortage of reactive fires to handle. However, the disciplined leaders know how to keep an eye on the horizon. They get that planning for the future and experimenting with possibilities primes them and their teams to be able to spot and take advantage of the opportunities that will undoubtedly surface.

Embrace that we are all working in startup mode right now. “Everyone is already experimenting because it’s all we really can do,” says Parish. We’ve never been down this particular path before. We must develop the mindset of someone working on a startup.  This requires what, Jeremy Gutsche, CEO of Trend Hunter and best-selling author, calls Hunter Habits. In his latest book, “Create the Future: Tactics for Disruptive Thinking” he shares that the Hunter Habits are being insatiable, curious and destructive vs. complacent, repetitive and protective. He offers a free assessment that helps you determine your approach to innovation.

Develop your scientist mindset. You have to step back and evaluate our experiments. Experiments go in cycles and those cycles, if leveraged, can help keep people out of the trap of learned helplessness. First, identify the barrier you want to focus on. This should be something that you can work on and experiment with today. Next, collect data on what’s possible. Finally, invest in building prototypes and practice runs vs. making sweeping and risky decisions right now.

Prioritize managing human emotion. We must embrace that uncertainty is in all of our worlds.  None of us are left untouched by this pandemic. On top of that, there are no best practices for how to get through to the other side. It is time to double down on emotional intelligence and kindness. Leaders should help their team practice kindness with themselves, their team members and their clientele.

“Leadership can be lonely experience. This situation is that on steroids. Whatever best practices we have are designed for a world from the past, “ shares Parish. “To counterbalance the challenges this poses it’s critical that we all shift towards an embracing of the exciting and sometimes nerve wracking world of experimentation.”

You can also read this article from here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/hvmacarthur/2020/04/03/leading-by-experiment-carving-out-your-businesss-next-chapter-during-covid-19/?fbclid=IwAR2n6oVJt3lcae73jrYbotJJNYrXUvM0EZcrNOAlOyB4clRnZEnFxnL_Wic&sh=49eb3a5c4a42