By: Joe Jordan, Consultant, Executive Development Associates, Inc.
If you are looking for a unique sobriquet for 2020, the events of this year give you plenty of material.
- How about calling 2020 The Year of Non Sequiturs? How many times have we found rapidly changing circumstances make an explanation we are giving no longer flow logically from what we said before? Most of us have felt like Alan Greenspan when he said, “I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”
- 2020 could be The Year of Paradoxical Performance. You don’t set record trading levels on the NYSE and NASDAQ while record numbers of people file for unemployment. Financial and retirement portfolios don’t give double-digit returns while major corporations and small businesses become the backstories for bankruptcy case studies.
- On a positive note, we can’t deny 2020 was The Year of Unanticipated Productivity as businesses learn to operate behind a mask, employees shift to home offices and virtual workplaces, and education systems—and the kids that use them—demonstrate incredible levels of innovation and resilience.
From non sequiturs to paradoxical performances, any effort to make sense of mixed signals can easily result in a demonstration of Newton’s First Law– every object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to change its state by the action of an external force. Uncertainty easily precipitates career inertia as a talented executive implements a business plan while, at a personal level, unconsciously or purposefully resisting any change in direction. What feels like steady state is more accurately stuck.
Doing nothing or staying fixed until an unexpected force changes the scenario is a sketchy career strategy anytime, and especially when unanticipated changes, unexpected events, and hard-to-understand messages permeate life. As vaccines are administered across the globe, we will either see a clear path to “normalcy” or a face disappointment that carries overwhelming ramifications. As winter settles over us, we can’t afford to sequester ourselves with a cup of Newton’s Law with the hope that as spring blooms, life will revert to a pre-pandemic state.
Most people embrace change only when discomfort with a current situation exceeds their discomfort with or fear of change. A wise executive can’t afford to be like “most people.”
Copyright © 2021 Leapfrog Executive Services. Republished with permission.
About the Author:
Joe Jordan is a Consultant with Executive Development Associates. Throughout a career that has included a diverse group of companies and industries, Joe has integrated business development and sales roles with corporate training and operations positions, giving him a unique blend of strengths in designing and implementing initiatives that develop talent in leaders, grow revenue, enhance customer relationships and improve business processes.
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