Toolkit for Turbulence

Don’t just survive adversity: turn it to your advantage To succeed as a high-performing leader today, you need to know how to navigate extreme change and uncertainty. Toolkit for Turbulence unpacks the mindset and methods used by top leaders and teams to assess, adapt, and respond to unforeseen challenges and ambiguity. With this book, you’ll learn how to seize the unexpected as an opportunity to develop your leadership capabilities and build a more adaptive team. From visual models to guided frameworks, Toolkit for Turbulence shares easy-to-implement core tools that you can use to construct your own leadership solutions — solutions that suit the unique needs of your team, your enterprise, and your community. Authors Graham Winter and Martin Bean CBE share timely advice and practical strategies, together with compelling, real-world stories from prominent executive leaders across a variety of industries. In Toolkit for Turbulence, you’ll discover how top leaders succeed even in times of crisis. Backed by performance psychology, the tools in this book will show you how to build the flexibility and resilience your team needs to thrive in a volatile, unpredictable world. In Toolkit for Turbulence, you’ll learn how to: Be an advantage leader: a leader who welcomes disruption, grasps opportunities to adapt, and builds teams and cultures capable of turning adversity into advantage Use learning loops and training canvases to guide your team in responding effectively and continuously to challenges Recognise and embrace nonlinear challenges, which require leaders and teams to adopt new ways of thinking and working Be responsive and proactive (rather than reactive and defensive) and recalibrate when things don’t go as expected Develop a resilient, adaptive leadership mindset, training your mind and transforming the way you think and behave With Toolkit for Turbulence, executives and leaders at all levels can build their strategies for weathering today’s only certainty: uncertainty. Its crucial insights into how to pivot dynamically and successfully will prepare you to navigate the unexpected with your organisation and your team — every day, in real life and real time.

Introduction xiii Part 1: Pathway 1 1. The moment 3 2. Advantage leader 15 Part 2: Mindset 29 3. Linear versus nonlinear 31 4. Defeat the defensive mindset 45 Part 3: Recalibrate 69 5. Paradigm shifts 71 6. It starts with you. Anchor on personal values 83 7. Let go. Accept the externality of change 95 8. Dial up the learning 113 9. Prioritise self-care 133 Part 4: Team Up 153 10. A blueprint for teamwork 155 11. Align for total commitment 169 12. Collaborate as one 201 13. Make team learning a habit 245 Part 5: Coach 277 14. Be the coach your people need 279 Part 6: Scale 307 15. Turn adversity to your advantage 309 Acknowledgements 329 References 331