Sir Steve Lancashire is Chair of Forum Strategy’s National #TrustLeaders CEO network. He also provides mentoring to a number of CEOs across our network and through the Being The CEO programme. Applications are currently being welcomed for our twelfth cohort, beginning in July 2025.
In this month’s blog, Steve reflects, ahead of our national #TrustLeaders symposium in June, on how trust leaders can effectively navigate the complexities of a constantly changing landscape where the ‘clear right answers’ are not immediately available. He explores how asking the right questions is more important than having all of the answers; by asking these questions as leaders, we invite discussion, innovation and collaboration, working together to find clarity and focus where we can and acknowledging the areas where we will need to work with ambiguity.
The Leadership Six-Pack: Strong Questions for Lean Times
We have all been in the situation, I suspect, where someone uses a word, phrase, or worse, an acronym that you don’t know the meaning of. You’re then faced with the dilemma of bluffing it out and thus pretending you’re in the know and equally as clever and well informed as the person you’re talking to, or ‘fessing up that you don’t know or understand what they are referring to and therefore take the risk of getting the dreaded raised eyebrow or smirk, the subtext of which is ‘I thought you would have known that, one nil to me’. (Don’t fool yourself that some people don’t think like this; in the competing world of leadership egos this kind of one-upmanship does sadly still exist). For those of us who are long in the tooth and have no problem acknowledging our deficit or our outdatedness in this area, I find a good response is ‘WTFAYTA?’. Work it out.
I find myself quite often in this position when Whatsapping (is that even a verb?) the wonderful Liv, who, for the last 15 years, has kept me organised, on time, in the right place etc. Our most recent example of this was ‘FOMO’ in a message. When I typed back the ‘?’ to her, she did that millennial thing of replying with an indulgent emoji, an explanation followed by a ‘LMFAO’, which further compounded the problem.
It’s not a real problem of course, it’s just that as a linguist I’m not sure this represents the evolution of the language I’d hoped for. As Liv says, however, these phrases, acronyms, whatever they are, are speedy, convey meaning clearly and are culturally relevant and context appropriate, ‘Isn’t that what effective communication is about?‘ she asks. I suppose so. Smart ****.
Members’ Voice
At Forum Strategy, the thoughts and voices of our members are important to us. Please let us know your thoughts and reflections on this blog through a route you prefer (email, social media, conversations at our events). We look forward to exploring this (and more) further with you at our National #TrustLeaders Symposium in June, don’t forget to book your place if you have not already done so.
Further resources on this theme from Forum Strategy:
National Symposium Pre-reading and reflective questions
Change management – as CEOs and executives, what do we need to consider?
Collaboration In A Changed World: Five Mindset Shifts Needed For Sustainability and Success
