Which type of enterprise performs better in turbulent conditions like the ones we’ve seen in this year of COVID-19?

Does the advantage go to a disciplined chain of command, where directions get followed, orders get executed, and where lieutenants wait for decisions from top management or permission from their board before going further than what they were directed to do, so no one gets out over their skis or played out of position?

Or does an agile organization perform better in turbulent times – with an ever-changing array of ad-hoc project teams, account teams, engineering, supply chain and launch teams empowered to take initiative, manage interdependencies, find solutions and press forward when they see opportunities and upgrades worth pursuing?

Recent research by McKinsey reported that empowered agile matrix team enterprises outperform stable secure hierarchies, in turbulent times like the ones we’ve faced in 2020. Agile empowered team structures are better equipped to spot opportunities, pivot, innovate and seize opportunities, with a network of global shared services and local close-to-the-customer business units. In agile flexible corporate structures, teams are formed when a special effort is needed, fulfill their functions and disband when the job is done, moving on to their next assignment. In entrepreneurial ventures, lieutenants spend time and energy making things happen, rather than checking in with hypervigilent founders.

But there’s one thing we know from experience – about owning the empowerment you’ve been granted, taking initiative to do the right thing rather than the easy or politically expedient thing, and contributing 110% to your project team without worrying about what your next assignment will be after your current project is done.

It takes courage.

When owning your power gets uncomfortable with people who rub you the wrong way, it’s easy to wish you had a hierarchy to handle delicate conversations for you and smooth over ruffled feathers. When flexing to embrace a more expansive role puts you in the middle of conflicts, it’s easy to wish someone higher-up would adjudicate and advocate for you. When you’re impatient to get issues resolved and get on with what needs to be done, it’s tempting to wish someone would put you at the top of a hierarchy and give you the authority to give orders and get others to comply, rather than bring diverse teams together to voice their ideas and bring you their judgment and recommendations.

So – if you’re taking McKinsey’s research to heart, and forming flat matix cross-functional teams that are empowered to find golden opportunities, scout and develop promising innovations and deploy them, ethically and responsibly, before opportunities get away – be prepared to Make Courage Contagious. To deliver the value you expect from agile teams, you’ll need equip difference-makers, lynchpins, go-to players to…

  • Understand what’s mission one to deliver the goods – without having to stop and ask about priorities, goals, value-creation, profits, enterprise-success, accountabilities
  • Share resources, information, work hours, honors, visibility, authority and hegemony with the trust that taking care of “we” will work out better than taking care of “me”
  • Solicit and integrate diverse perspectives – when colleagues from other cultures, races, genders, nationalities, professions or places in the value chain see things very differently
  • Hold each other on belay – co-ordinating activities, keeping commitments, upgrading best practices, ensuring safety and quality, respecting ethics and the laws of physics
  • Hop to it, get on with it, take initiative and voice ideas – without having to be prodded, motivated, encouraged or ordered to step up with urgency and passion

If any of these 5 strengths needs to be developed – to own your power and put it to work, even when it’s tempting to wish it away – check out one of our publications on Courage, assess your readiness with our online self-assessment or give us a call.

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Merom Klein PhD + Louise Yochee Klein PsyD are the business psychologists who wrote the book, Make Courage Contagious, and who show leaders how to own, use and leverage the empowerment they have as innovators, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and difference-makers in turbulent times. To see if you’re ready to own your power and learn how to improve your agility, check out this readiness assessment.