There will be times when you will face results that you very much dislike. A seemingly victory-free scenario is also an opportunity to discern yourself, gain people’s trust and innovate. Here are seven ways to lead these difficult circumstances, build your credibility and sleep well at night:
A win-free scenario?
Recently, we asked one of our global leadership development participants how we would lead in a win-win scenario. He faced a challenging product request, which he thought would back up his team or disappoint the customer. He ended his question with the question: “What is yours Kobayashi Marrow? “
For the non-trekkers, this is a classic reference to a star-studded journey to a win-win scenario that anyone in the Starfleet Academy will face. You get a distress call from a damaged ship (the Kobayashi Maru) stuck in enemy space. If you choose to ignore it, they are dead. If you choose to attempt the rescue, you endanger your ship and crew (and in the actual test, a rescue attempt encounters a crushing enemy force).
Captain Kirk is the only one who “defeated” the scenario in that on his third attempt, he reprogrammed the simulation.
Victory business scenarios
You may not have to rescue a damaged ship, but lead long enough and will certainly face situations where you will not like the alternatives. These circumstances can feel like win-win scenarios. Here are just a few examples we’ve faced in our careers:
- Reduction of insurance benefits or cancellation of positions.
- Taking promotion with an explicit task of closing job sites and firing people.
- Working overtime to keep someone else’s wrong promise.
- He was told to fire someone who was loyal to the company and worked hard to qualify for his next job.
- Relying on a “brilliant jerk” who gets results, he has defensive ties with senior leaders, but makes life a hell of a lot for their team.
These are just a few examples, and you can definitely add to the list. The critical factor is that you are dealing with results that feel equally unhappy, unfair or wrong. Sometimes it’s not just emotions – they may objectively be unfair or wrong.
Leads through a win-free scenario
The key to successful leadership in win-win scenarios is to understand that these moments put us in a victim state. To lead well, you need to empower yourself and your team anew. Captain Kirk dismissed the scenario without a win and reprogrammed the scenario. Here are seven ways you can find victory for yourself, your team and your customers as well.
Rewrite the problem
Re-framing Is a powerful mental technique that allows you to see a different situation. People have a natural tendency to go into either-or thinking – and often it is “either this terrible result or that unfortunate one”. Re-framing helps to broaden your thinking to avoid getting stuck.
One of the easiest ways to reimagine a frame is to look at an image in one frame (say a pure white frame) and then place it in another frame – maybe deep blue. Your perception of the image changes. The blue frame brings out the blues in the picture and may give it a more relaxed feel. The white frame may give more contrast and an energetic feel.
To re-frame a problem, you choose to look at it differently. There are several ways you can do this. In my last interview (of Karin) with the re-framing expert Thomas Woodel-Woodlesburg, he shares some options including:
- Is there a better problem to solve than the one you first perceive?
- Are you looking at the real problem or is there a root?
- What does success really look like? Clarify the results that will feel good – they are not always the results we assume for the first time.
- Is there an alternative way to achieve success?
Often, just looking at a challenging situation through another framework will re-energize you and discover solutions.
The owner of the ugly
Another technique that helps re-examine win-win scenarios for alternative paths is our Own the UGLY technique. UGLY is an acronym that represents four questions you can answer yourself – but it’s even more powerful to discuss with your team:
- U – What are we underestimating? What resources have we not considered? Which counter-spirits are not taken into account? What has changed in our environment?
- G – What should go? What are we doing that no longer makes sense? What is more habit than value? What wastes time? Can we remove an unnecessary outcome, process, or criteria that will help us be exceptional?
- To – Where do we lose? Are we really functioning less? If so, where? If not, what causes the perception? Are we losing ground somewhere? If so, how?
- Y – Where do we lack the yes? What are the opportunities that are hidden from view? Are there different ways to succeed that we have not tried or considered? What new opportunities are there that we have not had before?
Team discussion on these four questions can help you and your team quickly find a new way forward.
To cooperate
Problems for one group are often opportunities for someone else. One of the most overlooked ways to lead through win-win scenarios is collaboration. Is there anyone with a complementary problem to yours? Do you have a solution they can use? For example, if you have a short-term loss of demand, rather than firing people, is there a need for short-term work elsewhere in your organization – or even in another business?
Eternity with values
There are cases where the choice before you is really not right and there is no easy answer. In these situations, what are your values? What is most important and how can you live these values? Sometimes, it’s the victory in the winless scenario.
One of my (David) favorite examples of choosing to win entries, is from the movie Glory.
Occurs during the U.S. Civil War, Colonel Shaw, played by Matthew Broderick, is asked to lead one of the first battalions of African-American soldiers. He leads his men with dignity and truly cares about his forces. In the city, he refuses an order as illegal.
Shaw’s commander, who abuses, belittles and even shoots his own men, tells Shaw that he can obey the order or protest it in regular channels. In the meantime, Shaw is relieved of his duties and his men will be transferred to the disrespectful leader, where they will certainly face unnecessary abuse and cruelty.
Now this is a win-win scenario.
Shaw finally chooses to take care of his people and orders them to burn down the town.
This is an example of finding victory with your values. When you are faced with a decision where there are really limited results and everyone stinks, what are your most important values? For Shaw, it was the respect and caring of his people. It was a difficult choice and caused real damage to the city and the people who lost their homes. But it was the choice he could live with.
Choose a different time frame
One way to find the win in a win-free scenario is to focus on the bigger picture. In the short term, the options available may be pointless, but is there a way to help you and your team achieve their long-term goals?
Sometimes this is manifested in interpersonal relationships where the long-term relationship is more important than fighting for victory in the short term at the expense of the other person’s dignity. In other scenarios, looking at the bigger picture can give you a basis to renegotiate the terms by emphasizing what is most important to your supervisor, your client or your partners.
act
Once you have reflected, re-framed or centered yourself on your values, it is time to act. Your information will never be perfect. The scenarios will never play out perfectly. But intelligent action builds momentum.
Commitment to action also inspires and empowers you and your team. You are not sitting there as an unfortunate victim of circumstances.
“When I choose between two bad guys, I always like to try the one I’ve never tried.” May West
Leave if you must
Finally, there are cases where the non-victory scenarios you face are so immoral, illegal or unethical that it is better for you to find another place to work.
Your turn
Winning scenarios can diminish your motivation and hurt your morale, if you allow them to. Alternatively, you can be creative, leverage your values and empower your team for a strategic future.
we’ll be glad to hear from you: How do you or another leader you respect navigate scenarios that seemingly do not win?
