Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and goal achieving.
Speaker 1: This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul Fellovledo. Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute
Speaker 1: Leadership Podcast. It's episode six seventy four. High change environments
Speaker 1: are where leaders get exposed. Not in the calm, not
Speaker 1: in the routine, not even when everything is predictable. It's
Speaker 1: when things are moving fast, when information is incomplete, when
Speaker 1: pressure is high, in the margin for error shrinks. That
Speaker 1: is where leadership either shows up or falls apart. And
Speaker 1: here's the reality most leaders missed. Risk does not increase
Speaker 1: because of change alone. Risk increase because leaders lose control
Speaker 1: of clarity during change. Let me say that again. Risk
Speaker 1: goes up when clarity goes down. If you want to
Speaker 1: reduce risk in high change environments, your job is not
Speaker 1: to slow everything down. Your job is to create clarity
Speaker 1: faster than the environment is creating chaos. That is the game. Now,
Speaker 1: how do you actually do that in the real world,
Speaker 1: Not in a textbook, not in a leadership seminar, but
Speaker 1: on the floor where decisions matter. First, you anchor to
Speaker 1: what does not change in every environment. No matter how chaotic,
Speaker 1: there are constants, your mission, your standards, your expectations for behavior.
Speaker 1: If those start shifting every time things get busy or stressful,
Speaker 1: you've already lost control. When people feel instability, they look
Speaker 1: to leadership for something solid. If all they see is reaction,
Speaker 1: they will start making their own rules. That is where
Speaker 1: risk explodes. So your first move as a leader is simple.
Speaker 1: Reinforce the non negotiables over and over again. What matters
Speaker 1: today still matters tomorrow, even if everything else is changing,
Speaker 1: and second, shorten your decision cycles. In high change environments,
Speaker 1: slow decision making is dangerous, not because you need to rush,
Speaker 1: but because delayed decisions create a vacuum. And when there's
Speaker 1: a vacuum, people fill it with assumptions, rumors, and guesswork.
Speaker 1: That is where mistakes happen. You're not trying to make
Speaker 1: perfect decisions. You're trying to make timely decisions with the
Speaker 1: best information available right now. Then you adjust. This is
Speaker 1: where red key leadership comes into play. You need to
Speaker 1: recognize the moments where the decisions actually matter. Not everything
Speaker 1: is a red key moment, but when it is, you
Speaker 1: step in, you own it, and you move Leaders who
Speaker 1: hesitate in those moments create risk for everyone around them. Third,
Speaker 1: communicate in layers, not blasts. Most leaders think communication means
Speaker 1: sending one big message in moving on. That does not
Speaker 1: work in high change environments. People do not absorb information
Speaker 1: the first time. They need repetition, they need reinforcement, They
Speaker 1: need context. So you communicate the same message in different
Speaker 1: ways at different times to different groups, and you keep
Speaker 1: it simple. If your message is complicated, it will get
Speaker 1: distorted before it reaches the second person. Simplicity reduces risk
Speaker 1: because it reduces misunderstanding. Fourth, watch for drift. This is
Speaker 1: one of the most dangerous things in leadership, and it
Speaker 1: happens quite Standards start to slip, small shortcuts get accepted,
Speaker 1: people begin to interpret policies differently, not because they're trying
Speaker 1: to do the wrong thing, but because the environment feels unstable.
Speaker 1: That drift is where risk builds. Your job is to
Speaker 1: spot it early. You walk the floor, you listen, you observe,
Speaker 1: You correct in real time, not in a meeting next week,
Speaker 1: not in a report right now, Because once drift becomes
Speaker 1: the new normal, pulling it back is ten times harder. Fifth,
Speaker 1: control your own emotional signal. In high change environments, your
Speaker 1: team is watching you more than they are listening to you.
Speaker 1: If you look overwhelmed, they feel overwhelmed. If you look uncertain,
Speaker 1: they feel uncertain. That does not mean you pretend everything
Speaker 1: is perfect. It means you show controlled confidence. You can
Speaker 1: say we're dealing with a lot right now, here's what
Speaker 1: we know, here's what we're doing, and here's what I
Speaker 1: need from you. That tone matters because people do not
Speaker 1: need a perfect leader, they need a steady one. Sixth,
Speaker 1: create microstructure inside macro chaos. When everything feels out of control,
Speaker 1: you give people small, clear, manageable tasks. You define roles,
Speaker 1: you define responsibilities. You define immediate priorities, not ten steps
Speaker 1: ahead right in front of them. This reduces cognitive overload
Speaker 1: and keeps people focused on execution instead of speculation. And
Speaker 1: that is how you stabilize performance when everything else feels unstable. Seventh,
Speaker 1: learn in real time. Most leaders wait until everything is
Speaker 1: over to review what happened. That's too late. In a
Speaker 1: high change environment, you need to be adjust as you go.
Speaker 1: What is working, what is not, What needs to change
Speaker 1: right now. This is not a formal after action review.
Speaker 1: This is live leadership, and it requires humility, because sometimes
Speaker 1: the plan you walked in with is not the plan
Speaker 1: that will get you through. The best leaders are not
Speaker 1: the ones who stick to the original plan no matter what.
Speaker 1: They're the ones who recognize when it's time to pivot
Speaker 1: and do it without hesitation. So now let me tie
Speaker 1: this all together. Reducing risk is not about eliminating uncertainty.
Speaker 1: That's impossible. It's about managing how your team moves through uncertainty,
Speaker 1: Clarity over chaos, speed without hesitation, consistency overdrift, presence over panicked.
Speaker 1: If you can do those things, you do not remove
Speaker 1: risk completely, but you control it. And that is what
Speaker 1: leadership is really about. Control what you can influence, what
Speaker 1: you cannot control, and never allow the environment to dictate
Speaker 1: your standards, because in the end, high change environments do
Speaker 1: not break organizations. Unprepared leadership does. So as you head
Speaker 1: into your next shift, your next meeting, or even your
Speaker 1: next decision, ask yourself one simple question, am I creating
Speaker 1: clarity right now? Or am I adding to the noise?
Speaker 1: That one question will change how you lead in high
Speaker 1: change environments. Even if you can win that moment, you
Speaker 1: can win the next one and the next one. And
Speaker 1: that is how you lead when it matters most. This
Speaker 1: has been the seven Minute Leadership Podcast, and I thank
Speaker 1: you for listening. For more Paul fell of Alito Podcasts,
Speaker 1: visit paulfellowalito dot com