The business environment is being challenged once again. A widespread selloff hit the market and other economic reports from around the globe suggest that investors are once again becoming very jittery. In fact, the word recession is on the lips of many a business owner. 

Caution is in the wind.

This type of economy also calls for special leadership skills, particularly in the area of strategic realignment. When searching for leadership talent in today’s market, organizations need to pay special attention to a leader who can continually change and realign their company’s strategy to meet the changing needs and changing marketplace conditions. However, just what do these realignment skills look like?

The three key elements that make up the skill of realignment include framing, focusing and flexing. I discuss each of these skills below:

Framing: This means to develop an overall perspective and sense about the issues confronting the leader. Leaders must posses the skill to examine their overall purpose in a specific situation and their purpose relating to specific decisions; they must ensure that any decision helps to drive their corporate mission and vision. The leader needs to understand the organizational priorities and apply the decision principles and guidelines that are appropriate to the situation. In addition, they need to explore how their organizational strengths and challenges impact the potential solutions to the problem.

Focusing: This skill enables a leader to keep their eye on the goal and the specific task while, at the same time, being agile enough to deal with the various issues that come into play. A leader who is good at focusing also ensures that all of the employees are focused on learning the right things at the right time. He/she ensures that the organization becomes a learning organization focused on what is most important strategically. Individually, a successful leader must be a continuous learner who reads, listens, watches and learns all of the time.

Flexing: This skill requires a leader to adapt to change and to quickly adjust to the results of mistakes. A leader must have the ability to be flexible and creative, to look at problems in a new way and not be afraid to try an unusual or unique solution. In addition, a skilled leader will be able to handle ambiguities while continuing to focus on the ideal.

The challenge then for organizations seeking a new leader is to effectively assess a candidate’s ability to continually realign their organization. The following tips will help you through this process:

  • - Review your candidate’s work history: what experience do they have at the strategic leadership level?
  • - Review the industry sector from the point of view of stability and challenge: what type of challenges would your candidate have experienced over the past number of years?
  • - Inquire of the candidate what roles they have undertaken in solving problems requiring change, agility, flexibility and creativity.
  • - Ask for specific examples of problems they have addressed in relation to driving change in a difficult economy.
  • - Provide the candidate with a case study and have them prepare a response so that you can see firsthand how they frame the problem and their level of their creativity.
  • - Examine the candidate’s potential solutions and their impact and determine if there was any consideration for your mission and vision.
  • - Have your client complete an assessment tool such as the MERIT profile which will help you to discover and confirm their strengths and areas of challenge.

Today’s economy is putting immense pressure on organizations. This requires leaders to make the tough decisions that will ensure their organization continually realigns and thrives. This requires leaders who excel at effectively framing and reframing their challenges, and who stay focused on their mission and vision yet at the same time be flexible and creative in overcoming their challenges.