Three Ways to Make the Business More Nimble Without Making a Mess

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If you look to be more nimble as a business leader, goodness knows you’ve picked the right time. Pandemic hell in the U.S. turns out to be a marathon. When the world is upheaving, no one wants to be stuck with feet in concrete. And generally, agility is in. Everywhere there are experts convincing you that your business must be nimble in order to survive. Certainly in order to thrive.

But just like most things in business, nimbleness is best when it’s tempered. It’s great for competitive advantage and stellar results. A lesser known fact is that if you are nimble with wild abandon, it can make a real mess.

I had a client CEO who was a big thinker. He was a visionary, had his finger on the pulse of his market, and steered his company passionately toward what he saw. And what he saw changed often. As a result, his staff looked like the passengers in an airplane that’s hit a huge pocket of turbulence in one of those scary YouTube videos, drink carts and ice cubes flying about.

Don’t be that guy. You can lead a business nimbly! Here is how to do it with minimal turbulence.

Choose your opportunities carefully. Being nimble does not mean that the business must open every single door it encounters. What is the business trying to achieve for its customer? What does your strategic map call for? How are you measuring success against your primary goals this fiscal year? What does the data suggest? These are the kinds of questions that lead you to prudent decisions.

So set yourself up to ensure the right questions are asked during new-opportunity consideration. Recruit or appoint a small group to review new opportunities. Include people from across departments and a balance of big thinkers and can-do implementers. Set up a simple process and list of criteria for examining opportunities quickly and scoring them.

Get in the habit of meeting routinely to serve the aim of being nimble. Make decisions and follow up accordingly. It’s one thing to talk about new opportunities. Truly nimble leaders pick the right ones, decide, and plow forward.

When you make a nimble maneuver, stay present as the business exits the cut. When your business makes a fancy-footwork cut like a star NFL running back, be present not only for the cut but the acceleration down the field. Avail yourself to strategy conversations and then stay apprised of implementation. Show interest in the learnings that arise and progress made.

Here is what happens if you visibly drift. When you as a leader move your attention on to the next thing, you can inadvertently leave an energy and commitment vacuum. That’s not great for the staff who you want to implement with excellence. Show your team that you are not only responsive and decisive but committed to the execution that must follow.

And there is something else to consider about how you react when new opportunities present themselves. Check what happens to your adrenaline levels. Is your internal response a calm, “That could be a strategic angle for us…”? Or is it, “Oh, wow! Fun!!!” Be sure that the business is pursuing its bold new opportunity for great reasons. Not because you’re bored.

Be deeply communicative when inevitable plot twists arise. The market will throw curveballs, and plot twists will arise that no one imagined. Sometimes what you committed to last quarter simply no longer makes sense.

In times when nimbleness means you need to pull the plug on a project that your people are vested in, stop for a moment. Don’t assume they somehow picked up all the nuanced reasons by telepathy. Take the time to explain why the new path makes more sense. Solicit their questions and help them get to the same conclusion. Even better, engage the team before the decision is made to see if they come to the conclusion with you.

This kind of communication is time-consuming and requires precious energy. But in pivot moments, you don’t want your team drawing conclusions based on incomplete information. If they privately come to believe that you struggle with decision fidelity, or that you’re easily distracted (“Squirrel!!!”), they’ll be less enthusiastic to go in the direction you point next time.

When it comes to being nimble and responsive, take the time to share the thoughtfulness that goes into the decisions you make. Even better, invite your team to be part of decision making. It’s simply impossible to overcommunicate internally when nimbleness is what he marketplace requires of your business.

This article was originally published in The Innovation on Medium.