Play to win and lead from abundance: today more than ever

Layoffs, RTERs, loss of income, business closures, deaths, pain, illness, loneliness. Gloomy feelings, hard news, fear of the future.

Deep and negative changes derived from the coronavirus pandemic that require us to make decisions to look to the future with more enthusiasm and guarantees.

The leaders, all of us, have two possible responses to this complex scenario: play not to lose or play to win.

Two ways that reflect very human attitudes in front of uncertainty:

• Play not to lose, fall into pessimism, think only about cuts and in this short term so hard that we are living. Position ourselves as “victims”, shutting ourselves up, succumbing to our fears and obsessions with the feeling that the situation is over us and that there is not much we can do with so many negative external factors.

• Playing to win, despite everything, through thick and thin, diving into our strengths and reputation to improve (or rebuild) our future. Thinking about reinventing ourselves, connecting with others, imagining new business opportunities and not just focusing on today’s necessary cuts. Position ourselves as “protagonists”, with the feeling that the situation is very complicated (and can get even worse) knowing that we are not the first generation of humanity to successfully overcome a powerful crisis.

Leading from abundance is helping people find their purpose, the ultimate meaning of their daily work, beyond hierarchies. Especially in good times and especially in a crisis as brutal and unexpected as this one. This article by David Ulrich (the world’s leading Human Resources expert) explains it in more detail.

Leading like this increases commitment, boosts productivity and innovation, facilitates overstrain when required. Ultimately, this is how abundance is created by starting in a virtuous circle. For all this, today this style is more necessary than ever.

Today many people need help of all kinds: financial, psychological, expert advice…. And also re-illusion with “optimistic realism”, without false expectations, knowing that there will probably be more difficult moments and that we will have to face them with common sense, courage and learning from the past.

Today we must put even more focus on self-responsibility: what am I going to do today to improve the situation we are experiencing, with generosity and putting my talents at stake? Your family, your neighborhood community, your organization (if you are lucky enough to be working …), society in general will thank you.

Playing to win, leading from abundance, successfully transforming ourselves depends on ourselves. In these months we have already seen numerous examples of people and companies that have reinvented themselves and evolve positively. In most cases making drastic decisions, hard to believe just a few months ago.

An inspiring example in these troubled times was Viktor Frankl, able to successfully survive the Nazi concentration camps, another dramatic circumstance. He explained from his raw life experience: “If we cannot change reality, we have to change ourselves. We have the freedom to choose the attitude with which we face each day ”.

If we start with a positive and courageous attitude, we can transform our lives, despite difficulties

Will we collectively have the wisdom, resilience, and generosity to others to successfully manage the current situation?

We will see it in the coming years, being aware that our “anti-crisis effectiveness” will have a massive positive or negative impact on us, with special emphasis on young and old.

Leading from abundance is not “nice”, nor is it “a theoretical or unattainable concept for advanced minds or top managers.” It is practical, useful and ancient wisdom that each of us should apply from our own responsibility.

In this way we would get out of this crisis better and faster, which has already left so many people and illusions by the wayside.

This article has also been published in  Fundación Factor Humano

David Reyero Trapiello – Senior HR Business Partner – Sanofi Iberia
e-mail: David.reyero@sanofi.com / Twitter: @davidreyero73 / Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/davidreyerotrapiello/