Leading through challenge: Know where you are on the KARRIKINS Challenge Curve™ [Article]

The curve can be initiated based on different types of shocks to the system, including things like:

• An operations failure that results in missed commitments or flawed products
• A major customer deciding to go in a different direction
• A geopolitical upheaval that impacts manufacturing, supply, or distribution
• A public relations issue that goes viral
• A competitor rolling out a new offer that dramatically impacts market share
• A significant and/or sudden senior leadership change
• An acquisition or other financial restructuring that shakes up the firm

These types of challenges typically impact the entire company in ways that can be difficult to manage. The Challenge Curve also comes into play in smaller scale issues across teams or projects. Regardless of the situation, the curve highlights how groups often respond to crisis.

The energy leaders bring into showing up together during challenging situations determines how quickly they accelerate out of them.

Next, we share our perspective on how leadership dispositions can impact the way a team moves along the curve.

Energizing leadership through times of challenge

Often during the SHOCK and REACT stages it is easy to slip into feeling discouraged or deeply pessimistic about the organization’s ability to survive the situation. That can drive knee-jerk reactions that end up making things worse or protracting the impact. Typically the voice of the Skeptic comes into play fairly quickly, pushing into the REGROUP stage. At this point, the pragmatic and risk-averse mindset of the Skeptic helps the organization to dial down any chaos and to start focusing on stabilizing and protecting the organization. 

Staying too long in the REGROUP phase can be risky. It may feel comfortable and safe to sit tight for a while because the organization needs to stabilize. However, regrouping for too long can result in missed opportunities. If the operational lockdown becomes business as usual, the organization will have a very difficult time leading through challenge and taking appropriate risks in the future.

As the challenge becomes more manageable, it is important to start to bring more Optimistic energy into leadership, modeling a pragmatic and forward-focused view of what should happen next. Moving beyond the challenge or crisis takes you into the REBOUND stage, and eventually into ACCELERATION and REINVENTION. Intentional Optimism from leaders helps the organization start to explore new ways of doing business that leverage the lessons learned and take the business forward in productive and innovative ways.

Intentionally bringing more optimistic energy into solving for the challenge requires leaders to model a pragmatic and forward-focused view of what should happen next. 

Knowing where you are on the Challenge Curve and how you are responding as a leader will help you to infuse the right energy into a situation. You can use the curve to talk with your colleagues about what’s happening when a challenge comes up and to make sure that you shallow out the dip and move into ACCELERATION as quickly as possible.

At Karrikins Group we know how easy it is to get stuck along the Challenge Curve. We are here to help you lead through a significant challenge by aligning your team to move forward quickly and productively.