Are You Ready to Lead the “Next Evolution”?

If you are a leader, “What’s next?” is what people want to know from you. People are looking to you – not necessarily for the specific answer, but to set a direction and agenda.

Whether and how you prepare yourself to lead “what’s next” makes a huge difference in your effectiveness as a leader. You need to be early and out front, ready to go.

I first noticed this powerful concept at age nineteen while I was at boot camp in the United States Navy in San Diego.

Navy boot camp was a well-oiled machine. We got off the bus as raw recruits on Day 1 and eight weeks later we graduated as fleet-ready sailors. Every moment in between for us was scheduled down to the minute to accomplish this transformation.

Each day, after our early morning inspections and breakfast, we would march around to the location of the first training “evolution” for the day, and then progress through a series of “evolutions” until the day was done.

In the military, “evolution” is the term used to define a particular activity. The instructor would address us by saying “In this next evolution, you are going to learn how to properly make your bunk.” (Or fire a weapon – or don your gas mask – or whatever the objective happened to be.) The leader of that particular evolution had an objective they would accomplish with us in a specific period of time. They’d show up, they were ready to go, and they taught us.

We had two drill instructors who led our company of eighty men during the entire course of boot camp. These two chief petty officers were with us from the moment we got off the bus in San Diego to the moment we graduated. They led us through most of the evolutions that occurred in the barracks and taught us how to march in formation, salute appropriately, and to master the basics of military discipline and attention to detail.

What I found remarkable was how these two men, our leaders, were always early and always ready. I never saw one of them show up late or come rushing up at the last minute. I never saw them out of full uniform at any time. I never saw these officers out of character in terms of who they were supposed to be – models for us. They did have their own private room and office in the back of the barracks, but it was off limits. Whenever they were in front of us, they were on their game – always ready to model behavior and lead the next evolution. If we had something that was going to start at a particular time, they were ready 10 minutes early without fail, every single time.

So as a leader, are you ready to lead the “next evolution” in your organization? Have you thought clearly about the objective of the next interaction with your people? Is your objective to make a decision, to reengineer a process, to brainstorm and innovate? Have you thought through how this objective will be achieved?

If you are the leader, you must be ready and prepared to lead the next evolution. You must take the time to prepare, to be thoughtful about the next step or the next moment with a clear purpose of what is going to happen next – and then be early – not running things at the last minute. Are you relaxed and ready to go? Do you have enough time and space in your schedule dedicated to figuring out “what’s next”?

Too many “leaders” are not intentional about being ready to lead the next evolution. Over the years of working in a variety of organizations, I always find it troubling when I see a business leader show up late to meetings. Sometimes they are actually late – other times they are frenzied or harried. But they’re the leader! Their people are sitting around the conference table, wondering when their leader is going to show up and what they are supposed to do.

I learned in boot camp the power of leaders who show up early and relaxed yet alert – as compared to late and frenzied. It’s completely different in terms of what they convey to their people. How can anyone lead somebody if they’re not even clear about being ready to go?

If you’re going to lead a group of people through something, you need to be ready and early – before anyone else even shows up.

As you progress into more and more senior leadership roles, you must devote creative time, space, and energy to defining the next evolution. Your people are counting on you.

So what’s your next evolution? Are you ready to lead it?