Since Phil Hodgson and Executive Development Group partner Randy White published Relax, It’s Only Uncertainty in 2001, we have seen not only validation among the executives we work with, but also greater interest in the challenges of ambiguity in business.

At this week’s SIOP Annual Conference in Atlanta, Sandy Shullman and Randy were encouraged and delighted by the collaborative responses to the two half-day presentations. There appear to be some emerging perspectives on the subject as it relates to the practical applications of learning professionals. People in the field see a need to measure tolerance for ambiguity and the uncertainty that it brings in their quests for  potential leaders in their organizations.

It became apparent to us that this “aptitude for ambiguity” is indeed a trait sought by learning organizations like yours and a trait that can be developed.

As with most of our work, our study of ambiguity is a process that is informed and advanced by the questions learning executives bring. Presently, we are further developing our 360 assessment Ambiguity Architect®, so these kinds of mini-focus groups are invaluable. If your firm is interested in learning more about our work on ambiguity, please contact us via e-mail.

In this month’s CLO magazine:

It’s nice to be needed. There’s been an uptick recently in coaching and executive education engagements in South Africa, India, France, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and, ever so gradually, the United States. Organizations are rethinking their business strategies after the financial collapse.

However, ambiguity abounds. There is an obvious tension — as if “nervous” is the new “strategic.” Management wants results quickly, with a heightened financial vigilance and intensified ROI expectations. We’ve watched participants text reviews of our performance during the sessions. One bad day in class and summary dismissal looms. Read full article here.

We’re seeing greater demands on executive education, but the good news is, businesses that are rebounding seem to acknowledge the role of learning.

Our coaching and classroom engagements during this quarter are taking us to England, Spain, France, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, India and South Africa. Given the United States’ role in the 2008 financial crisis, our role as AMERICAN executive development professionals gives us a little more baggage. Especially when our learners are bankers, as many of our clients are.

Dubai from space. Thanks, NASA!

It’s encouraging to note that many of the smaller banks outside of Europe and the US are finding themselves in fairly stable situations with promising opportunity, following the well-deserved dressing down (followed by an arguably undeserved bailing-out) of Western financiers. As executive coaches we’re also thrilled that financial clients around the world are investing in learning initiatives and leadership development.

Should I be surprised when the first eager question I get from an Indian executive is, “will we be covering ethics”?

We have been studying the affects that ambiguity has on leaders for two decades. The uncertainty that we all feel in ambiguous situations appears to be both a challenge and an opportunity. The ability to fearlessly grapple with ambiguity might be a trait that competitive businesses should seek.

The first of the eight “enablers” sought through our 360 assessment “Ambiguity Architect®” is described as “motivated by mysteries.” While the purpose of Ambiguity Architect is to determine a person’s ability to navigate uncertain situations, we find that many of the contributing traits of high rated participants to be those that are desired by scientists, research and development, inventors and entrepreneurs. If the business environment continues to grow in complexity and scale, and we have many reasons to believe that it will, are these roles that grapple with the unknown not increasingly important to leaders across many industries?

Our data suggests high performers can thrive in uncertain situations in which the ambiguity is not a choice nor desirable. We can only speculate much beyond this, but it is compelling to ask: can leaders learn to seek out uncertainty and ambiguity as a business strategy? Does skill at “being uncertain” become a positive motivator for creative solutions by lessening the severity of judgment for “dumb questions.” If we are operating in uncharted waters who is to say we’re on the wrong course? Perhaps there is a new mode or style of leadership that pursues uncertain situations because of these factors.

If there’s a fork in the road, take it: Leaders who used uncertainty to their advantage
by Dr. Randall P. White

Uncertainty is an increasing reality for today’s executives. Those who can thrive as they charge toward the unknown share a predictable mix of savvy, attitude, and behavior.

In this era of uncertainty, we’re watching our greatest leaders emerge. These are folks who ignore the pessimistic attitudes around them, the too many cashed reality checks on the state of the global economy, and the risk and do something completely new. They move toward the unknown as a deliberate leadership strategy. They have to: it’s the only way they know how to behave.

Although we don’t always know what these leaders will do, new research shows that leaders like these share a set of measurable behaviors, including a penchant for risk, a dauntless attitude, relentless curiosity, and great skills—and while some are teachable, many are not.

We recently studied executives around the world using an assessment instrument called Ambiguity Architect. The instrument measures an executive’s tolerance for ambiguity and rapidly changing situations. As we move toward increasingly uncertain times, it’s essential to know an executive’s ability to manage uncertainty.

We find that those who are most adept at leading through uncertainty perform better than their peers, have a greater likelihood of being promoted, and are comfortable leading an organization through the uncharted waters of change.

Surrounded by support
As president, Joe Leonard helped AirTran recover from one of the worst airplane crashes in history and shape the company into one of largest low-cost carriers in the nation.

AirTran’s predecessor, ValuJet, lost a DC-9 when it crashed and burned in the Everglades, killing more than 100  people. Years after the crash, skepticism was still high regarding low-cost carriers, and AirTran was strapped for cash. Things were so dire that most executives would have said “liquidate.”

But Leonard isn’t known for going by the books. He’d risen through the corporate ranks on the engines-and-rivets side of the business, and according to a story on Leonard in USA Today, he thrived on challenges. He was literally raised near the airport and took flying lessons at 13. To pay for them, Leonard would gas and park the planes.

Leonard illustrates a key behavior we discovered in our research on executives that can handle uncertainty: once he started at AirTran, he surrounded himself with support. Leonard quickly reached out to acquaintances from the industry, all veterans of commercial air carriers. He learned about AirTran’s assets and defects, and years of experience helped him realize that the airline still had good routes and a loyal team.

“We were all extreme risk takers,” Leonard told USA Today about AirTran’s reinvention. And, of course, they were tenacious—“never give up” was their key mantra.

Doing the unthinkable
In 2007, when many newspaper organizations either braced for or announced lay-offs, the Norway-based media company Schibsted had good news. Its earnings rose 28% in the fourth quarter. Online operations will generate about 20% of the company’s revenue this year. Meanwhile, many traditional news industries are folding, according to the New York Times (“While Others Struggle, Norwegian Newspaper Publisher Thrives on the Web,” February 19, 2007).

Schibsted’s success started in 1995 when the newspaper industry faced a career-breaking decision: go with the wave of new media or wait and see how it would all shake out.

Schibsted didn’t hesitate. As other organizations quibbled over how to charge readers for what they read online, Schibsted invested heavily in new media. Then the company did the unthinkable: gave its print edition away for free.

Schibsted continued investing in building the credibility and content of its online newspapers. It started charging companies to pay for ad space and let the readers read for free.

In 2000 and 2001, Schibsted didn’t bail out of its new media investments, even as many other organizations did, according to the Times article. Leaders in the company said they recognized early that the Internet would forever change the traditional print industry. They stayed true to that vision.

The trouble with technology is it seemingly changes just as people get the hang of it. Not so with Schibsted. In our research, we call leaders like these future scanners. They possess an almost intuitive sense about technology—the way many other executives have an intuitive sense about strategy. You can’t always train a future scanner, but you can find them. They are the ones who can take advantage of even the faintest signals of what the future can be.

Tackling tough issues
Google faces a different kind of uncertainty. Company buy-outs and mergers have brought growing pains and created a slew of sewn-together, fast-fix solutions for sales processes, according to a recent story in The Wall Street Journal, (“Google Push to Sell Ads On YouTube Hits Snags,” July 9, 2008).

So when Google’s ad revenues fell slightly short of stellar expectations, coupled with complaints from salespeople about a slow, paper-heavy process of purchasing ads, Google listened and then got busy.

In March, Tim Armstrong, Google’s head of advertising and commerce in North America, moved himself from his executive office to smack dab in the middle of the ad team’s cubicle spaces. He was determined to figure out Google’s YouTube sales process, according to the Journal. He emerged a month later with a list of 105 fix-its.

It would have been easy to pass off the work of tackling a tough problem to someone else. Instead, Armstrong launched Project Spaghetti to figure it out himself. It’s one of many oddly named projects Google launches (including Weed Days and Project Drano) to get to the source, not the symptom, of the problem.

Leaders like Armstrong do the dirty work. No one wants to get ensnared in a process like that, but everyone breathes a big sigh of relief when it’s done. You can teach an executive the strategy, but you can’t always teach them the “wanna.” Armstrong and other leaders like him have the wanna. It’s a behavior.

Armstrong, Leonard, and Schibsted probably all learned and developed the behaviors that made them successful long before they wore an executive suit. In fact, our research finds that most of these tell-tale behaviors started in childhood.

And there’s no doubt that with the uncertain times ahead, you’ll find some of your greatest leaders—especially if you know what to look for.

Dr. Randall P. White is co-author of the book Relax, It’s Only Uncertainty and is a co-developer of an assessment instrument called Ambiguity Architect. This instrument measures an executive’s tolerance and comfort for ambiguity and rapidly changing situations. For more information, visit www.edgp.com.

Published Monday, 01 December 2008 in American Executive.

This article appeared in the Triad Business Journal. The above image is a movie still from the 1967 film Play Time.

by Dr. Randall P. White

Right here on Elm Street the economy is forcing some tough questions: “Will I lose my job?” “If she goes, will I have to do her job, too?” And some of you have to answer the awful question, “Who stays and who goes?”

With so many companies already working with a slim staff and shrinking budgets, self-questioning and uncertainty gets louder every day. No matter where you sit in the company—in the hot seat or in the seat of making some cold, hard decisions—there are five questions you can start asking about your staff or yourself that will support your ability to lead through uncertainty.

It’s a similar set of questions we use to gauge a person’s ability to tolerate ambiguity, as well as to identify global leaders. Leaders with high emotional IQ, tacit knowledge, empathy, optimism, and quick learners transcend the multi-cultural idiosyncrasies of the times to lead a disparate group of people.

Essentially, we need people with transcendental qualities here and now. So instead of asking questions that lead to more uncertainty, like “Am I getting fired?,” why not ask yourself something that helps you tolerate, and prepare for, the unknown?

What’s my emotional IQ? People with a high emotional IQ don’t take themselves too seriously. They’re light-hearted. A little self-deprecation says a lot about a person’s humility. And most importantly, they have self-awareness of their strengths and weaknesses.

For example, President-elect Barack Obama caught a lot of flak for appointing Rahm Emanuel to Chief of Staff. Maybe this shows that Obama knows he’s a nice, easy guy who needs a tough guy to help him get things done.

If you don’t know your strengths and weaknesses, you can surround yourself with people just like you. Surrounding yourself with clones won’t help you move in innovative directions.

Are you empathetic? In business, empathetic people can take on another person’s role or point of view in a tough position. That doesn’t mean you immerse yourself in someone’s problems or take on their opinion. You simply understand it. Think about a time you tried to help someone learn or change. Ideally, you can acknowledge the challenges of learning something new as legitimate and not take them on as your own personal challenges or think, “If it were me, I would have felt about this differently.”

What are your street smarts? People with street smarts are politically astute and sensitive to how others act around them. They know that the best answers aren’t always found in books. They know how to get things done even when resources such as money and time are slim, and they can quickly traverse the sometimes complicated networks of policy and process to get something done in a timely way.

What’s your learning curve? The political biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin stated that the best candidate for president of the United States would be the one who could learn, grow and change (“Meet the Press,” October 21, 2007).

Think about a time you learned something  not from a book but from experience. Think about a time you learned about true leadership. People with strong learning curves can learn on the fly, learn from their mistakes, and learn from a variety of sources.

Are you optimistic? My good friend and colleague David Campbell has said, “The higher you go, the more optimistic you are.” Optimism in business is the ability to take a negative situation and see it as opportunity. You can move forward without fear. If you’re going to fail, you fail fast and fail forward.

Think about a time you thought you were dealt a bad hand. How did you handle it? Or a time you had a bad boss. Can you reframe the situation? Can you say, “She was a bad boss, but I learned a lot from her”? The hope is that we can look back on times like this, acknowledge the challenges, and learn the lessons.

By Dr. Randall P. White

Is God left-handed?

It’s a question I heard a few days ago during an NPR interview with the guy running the Mars Lander project. The interviewer asked a tough question, and the subject said, “That’s like asking if God is left-handed.”

That’s a phrase people use when they’re dealing with difficult questions. The current difficult question is probably, “What’s happening to my 401-K?” or, “When can I retire?”

Smart companies let people ask the tough questions. Even smarter companies address these fears and concerns with financial planning, counseling, even career training. Yet these programs are the first to go on the financial chopping block when money gets tight.

Most companies won’t ask the tough questions because it’s hard to say, “I don’t know.” Try this instead—say “I don’t know.” Then it’s not so worrisome when people ask the tough questions. You’ve already admitted you don’t have the answer. That’s human.

Even if you don’t have the answer, let people ask. Asking tough questions gives legitimacy to their concerns, fears, and frustrations. And for the first time, we need to get used to saying there might not be an answer; and what might be the best answer today, might not be the best answer tomorrow.

In the meantime:

• Accept the idea of not knowing
• Commit to trial and error
• Commit to learning from every possible source
• Trust your gut.

Do that, and you don’t have to worry about the answer, because you’re actually working toward a solution.