A Case for Pivot at Work (P.A.W.)

Today’s leaders must have the ability to lead with agility in order to be viewed as credible – it is the price of admission to be perceived by those they work with and through to respond to the constant disruption that occurs from the forces that impact how we lead.

The forces that impact the need to Pivot.

The inability to learn how to pivot as a leader will lead to irrelevancy, disengagement and ultimately failure. Flexing the pivoting muscle expands leadership capability and increases the ability to lead with impact – increasing self-awareness, other awareness and improved results.

I began investigating what leadership agility looked like a decade ago. What do individuals in leadership positions do that make them more resilient and as a result have greater organizational engagement and better business results? Clearly those individuals do something different than individuals who may be in leadership positions but have little leadership capability and are unable to pivot. Instead, they keep doing what got them to a certain level over and over again whether it is working or not (however, if you ask the ineffective individual they will, of course, say, “It is working splendidly thank you!”).

Ten years later, pivoting as a leader has become a requirement of leaders (ten years ago people looked at me as though I had just stepped off a U.F.O.). So why is it so essential that leaders are the ability to pivot?  In short, it is because of the speed of business. Globalization and technologies impact how we get things done and will continue to impact how things are done more rapidly in the years to come.

Leading from Habit vs.Leading with Intent

Leaders must continuously adapt, develop and lead differently depending upon what they need personally, what people need that are critical to their success and what the business environment demands. This is Pivot At Work (P.A.W.) and learning how to do this is harnessing leading with intent.

Six Characteristics of an Effective Leader

P.A.W. works with a framework to increase self-awareness by helping individuals identify their core leadership behaviors they utilize in autopilot, why they do this and realize why these behaviors may not be appropriate in all conditions. P.A.W. provides a bridge to develop the ability to identifying new behaviors in conditions that require pivoting behaviors to be successful. Then we begin to work towards leadership credibility and create new habits to enable individuals to truly become leaders that are worthy of that title.

Pivoting at Work is a transformational process for gaining greater insight on what makes leaders tic and how to truly create a positive legacy in every part of one’s life – but it is only for those who want to put in the work.

After all, P.A.W. like anything else takes effort.