What Will Be the Same?

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos gets asked a lot of questions — most commonly "What's going to happen in the future?"It makes sense because he saw a future no one else could when he left his job as a senior vice president at D.E. Shaw and Co., a Wall Street-based investment management firm. When he told David Shaw, the head of the firm, he was quitting his job and moving to Seattle to start an online bookselling business, Shaw was stunned. He suggested a walk and chat, and as they strolled around Central Park in New York City, told Bezos, "Sounds like a good idea but probably a better idea for someone who doesn't have a good job."

We are now all asking ourselves and those we trust what the future will look like as we get to the other side of this pandemic. What traits will leaders need to handle the new normal? What will we be facing in five weeks, five months, five years?

The only honest answer is no one knows, not even Jeff Bezos.

"I never ask myself what will be new, what will be different. Rather, I am always looking for what will be the same," Bezos said.     

We all need to shift our minds out of worrying about what we cannot control and focus on Bezos’ approach — what we can control. Trying to predict an unpredictable future is wasting our time and skills as leaders. Plato once said, "What is honored in a country will be cultivated there." Any leader who is spending most of his or her day in predictive mode, instead of leading mode, will soon have a culture of everyone wondering about the new way of the world. What worries you will come across to those you lead, as they can sense a shift in your focus. For example, if you're coaching a basketball game spending most of your time yelling at the official about calls, your team will do the same. Your problems become their problems. 

As leaders, we need to stop worrying about what the future will look like and instead focus on the core principles that have withstood the test of time. Coaches/teachers in any discipline on any level know that fundamentals always rule regardless of the change in systems. There are basic tenants which, irrespective of the advancement in technology, remain central to the outcome. 

Therefore, instead of worrying about "what's going to be new," focus on what won't change. That will be time spent wisely. 

 P.S. If you are in search of a book recommendation, our team at The Daily Coach highly recommends Radical Inclusion: What the Post-9/11 World Should Have Taught Us About Leadership by Martin Dempsey and Ori Brafman. This book examines today’s leadership landscape and describes the change it demands of leaders. Dempsey and Brafman persuasively explain that today’s leaders are in competition for the trust and confidence of those they lead more than ever before. They assert that the nature of power is changing and should not be measured by degree of control alone. They offer principles for adaptation and bring them to life with examples from business, academia, government, and the military.

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