Become a Proactive Leader with Situational Awareness

Episode 134: Unlock the secret to mastering situational awareness—a skill that sets exceptional leaders apart. Ever wondered how some leaders effortlessly anticipate market shifts and team dynamics? In this episode discover how being attuned to your surroundings can prevent awkward moments and enhance your strategic decision-making.

Join me as I break down real-world examples that illustrate the power of reading the room and anticipating industry trends. From subtle team cues to pivotal market signals, situational awareness is a critical tool in your leadership arsenal. Plus, revisit popular episodes from the year for additional insights and strategies to bolster your professional journey. Tune in and learn how to harness this essential skill to make informed decisions and foster meaningful connections within your organization.

Episode outline:

1. Do you ever find yourself not knowing what is happening around you,
2. More situational awareness leads to improved business decisions, and 
3. How to improve your situational awareness.

Please connect with me on:

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2. Twitter: smclainiii
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4. LinkedIn: stephenjmclainiii

For more resources, please visit Finance Leader Academy:  financeleaderacademy.com.

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Transcript

Stephen McLain: 0:05

Are you able to anticipate needed actions before something happens and are you able to read the room to avoid awkwardness? I want to talk about situational awareness this week, which can cover many different scenarios, from avoiding awkwardness in a meeting to knowing the difference between a good decision and a bad one, and from displaying appropriate behavior to better understanding the market that you are in. When we lead others, our awareness needs to be amplified so we understand even the most subtle of comments and we are able to analyze future opportunities for the organization. This helps us be a more effective leader overall. Please enjoy the episode. Welcome to the Finance Leader Podcast, where leadership is bigger than the numbers. I'm your host, Stephen McLain. This is the podcast for developing leaders in finance and accounting. Please consider following me on Twitter, facebook, instagram and LinkedIn. My usernames and the links are in this episode's show notes. You can also follow Finance Leader Academy on LinkedIn, thank you.

Stephen McLain: 1:14

This is episode number 134, and I'll be talking about developing the critical skill of situational awareness, and I'll be highlighting the following topics Number one do you ever find yourself not knowing what is happening around you? Number two more situational awareness leads to improved business decisions. And three how to improve your situational awareness. Author Stephen Covey said every human has four endowments self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom the power to choose, to respond to change. All around us, conversations are taking place and decisions are being made. Our team shares subtle and sometimes obvious hints in how they are doing with their tasks and in their personal lives. Are you able to pick up on these hints and actions taking place around you? Do you know what to do?

Stephen McLain: 2:14

There are other examples of situational awareness. You are in a meeting and those in the room are being aloof to a decision they want you to make, are being aloof to a decision they want you to make. Are you aware of how everyone is working together to get you to commit to something that may need some additional analysis? Here's another example your company should go in another direction in the market. Can you see the industry signals that it would be wise to make such a shift? These are just three examples of situational awareness Paying attention to your team, paying attention to how people want us to act and how we should be watching our market or industry so we make the best strategic decisions. You may be thinking that this sounds like the skill of reading the room, which it does a lot, but reading the room is mostly for what is happening in the very present situation in front of you what is happening right now, so you make wise choices to not make a critical professional error. Reading the room is a fundamental skill which we all need to learn and apply. It may very well keep you from saying or doing something awkward.

Stephen McLain: 3:22

Before we keep going, I want to highlight a few episodes so far from this year in case you missed them. The first one is episode 128, which is personal accountability strategy for success in 2025. That was very popular, so I definitely recommend you going back and listening to that one If you need a little help on some personal accountability with your goals this year. The next is episode 130, embracing change and driving success for finance leaders embracing change and driving success for finance leaders. And finally, the third is episode 132, mastering genuine positivity without the pitfalls. This was also one that people found very interesting, so I do recommend you going back and listening to those three episodes. I believe these three episodes can really help you in your professional journey. Thank you again for listening to the podcast. I appreciate your support. You can subscribe to the podcast on the platform you are listening to right now, and you can also subscribe to my weekly email by going into the show notes or onto financeleaderacademycom. I will never share your information, thank you. Leaders are required to look beyond their own task list to anticipate, to estimate, to project, to predict and maybe even to guesstimate what is happening and what could happen in the future. This relates to the market, to technology, to the economy, to our competition and even with our own peers and our team members. Perceiving accurately what is happening around you can deliver big results to how you make better decisions and how you relate to others.

Stephen McLain: 4:56

In my Army career back in the year 2001,. Before I transferred to finance, I was assigned as the unit intelligence officer. I had never worked in military intelligence previously, so I had to quickly learn my role and responsibilities. Now, my wartime duties differed vastly from my peacetime duties. Back on the base, I was primarily responsible for security, like the physical security of weapons and other sensitive items. I was also responsible for submitting and tracking security clearances and who could access classified equipment and classified documents. My wartime duties required me to know and make my best guess on what the enemy would do, how they were organized and what equipment they were using. I had to get good at anticipating enemy movements based on known doctrine and other specific variables. In turn, I had to prepare my unit on likely contingencies so we were prepared to make better decisions on how to deploy our forces.

Stephen McLain: 5:57

Sound strategic decision-making involves analyzing factors beyond what is happening today. You must be forward-thinking and looking for indicators and variables specific to your industry, be aware of market and industry trends that affect your organization and how it serves to analyze your own deployment of resources to serve your customer better. One other topic to consider is groupthink. We don't talk about groupthink enough. Groupthink is a leadership failure because we don't encourage our team to challenge paradigms, assumptions and even decisions before they are made. Groupthink is a culture where the extreme need for alignment gets everyone to agree without challenging the process. Or, even further, we have leaders who don't want to be challenged. Leaders need to create the atmosphere for pushback on processes so the organization does not fail. How can you tell if groupthink is happening? It's when your team agrees way too quickly and fails to identify obvious problems in decision-making ideology. It may be prudent for senior leaders to perform a groupthink exercise to verify if that is happening by introducing flawed logic on purpose to see if your team says anything. Further insecure leaders will surely be a guarantee to groupthink as the predominant method for making decisions.

Stephen McLain: 7:21

Now how is everyone going on goals and CPE completion for this year? Please listen to episode 131,. Stay on Track for Long-Term Success. Our first check-in for 2025, if you need a prompt for reviewing your goal setting for 2025. Do you have a professional certification? I always recommend earning one certification because it signals your commitment to being a professional and in being current on practices in the profession. Now, once you earn that certification, you must have a plan to maintain it by earning continuing professional education credits. This will creep up on you if you don't have a plan to earn CPEs each month. So don't wait until month 12 and you need to scramble to earn credits. Let's look for ways to maintain your certification right now.

Stephen McLain: 8:08

Now back to my Army career. Now in the military, we teach and encourage improved situational awareness for our leaders and our troops. You have to be prepared to counter the enemy's current move and future moves, so you best deploy your unit to gain the momentum to win. This ability translates to business so easily, but you have to learn it and learn how to recognize it, plus how to apply it to your industry and market. It can mean different offers and a different product service mix. Now let's talk about developing the critical skill of situational awareness Number one do you ever find yourself not knowing what is happening around you?

Stephen McLain: 8:48

Do you operate in your own bubble sometimes, or stay isolated, paying attention around you and what is happening around you? Do you operate in your own bubble sometimes, or stay isolated, paying attention around you and what is being said is important. This can give you key indicators on how people are doing, how they're feeling and what your peers in the executive team are thinking. How connected are you with your peers? Staying connected around the organization gives you an edge on information for better decision making and just knowing what is happening, what concerns that may be bubbling and what assumptions are being used in planning. Watch for peer and senior leader alignments. Are you an insider or an outsider? I want you to be an insider, so you have that inside track on plans and thoughts that are happening with your senior leaders. Knowing what is happening beyond your own senses again gives you an edge. How are people and teams aligning on strategy, resource use, new products and services, new markets and maybe even new investments or divestments for the future.

Stephen McLain: 9:48

Number two more situational awareness leads to improved business decisions. Being able to reach signals will give you an advantage when it comes to your competition, and this includes your in-house competition too, the industry overall, your customers and your team. More accurate information leads to better decisions and if you can figure out not so obvious information, that can help you even more. Now, regarding your competition, can you tell what new offers or product-service mix that they have or will have? There are also analytical tools available on the market to compare companies in your industry. We don't talk about these very often. In whatever industry your organization is in, there's probably a service on the market or an analytical tool that you can subscribe to so you can analyze market data to help do comparisons on product and service delivery. I have done these several times as a consultant with a few companies.

Stephen McLain: 10:45

From a strategic standpoint, you have to ask what do your customers need? Do they know what they need? What is their behavior? What are future behaviors that will drive need? What products will your competitors introduce which could change the entire marketplace? Now research and take a look at BlackBerry on this phenomenon specifically, for when Apple introduced the iPhone back in 2007 that had a virtual keyboard. Now, blackberry refused to concede the thought of the customer switching over from the physical keyboard, a big mistake that eventually saw their market lead erode. I want you to combine experience, intuition and wisdom to make critical decisions in a more informed manner.

Stephen McLain: 11:30

The more non-standard information you can collect, or at least be aware of, of, helps to refine your own work. Being able to piece together things happening around you can give you that edge. On analyzing your data, you may be able to consider factors not thought of previously. Another key area that can help with more situational awareness is conducting negotiations. When negotiating contract terms or payment terms, it can be beneficial to understand and know word cues, facial expressions, body language, tactics and other issues when working through a business negotiation.

Stephen McLain: 12:07

Number three how to improve your situational awareness. Practice being mindful. Pay attention more to your surroundings and to what people are saying. Look for cues, look for. Are saying Look for cues, look for particular words, look for unique behaviors. Sometimes have no other thoughts than just to pay attention more. Listen and be observant. Connect better with your peers, your team and the senior leaders. When you become better connected, you will learn more and then you can become part of the informal leadership or information channel.

Stephen McLain: 12:44

Be intentional when looking for variables and factors that affect your work portfolio or the metrics you are responsible for. Look beyond your daily list of tasks. Watch for and listen more intently to how people speak, what metrics they are interested in and what they are focused on. What is driving their work? Knowing the business environment drives better decisions. In the Army, we teach, coach and mentor junior officers to improve their situational awareness, to make better decisions in the deployment of their troops. Sometimes you have to act quickly once you become more aware, and this is especially true in military situations. An enemy that is more adept at maneuvering can get the upper hand in a combat operation. Very similarly, like in business, when you combine more awareness with better judgment and risk-taking, you can become much more improved at achieving decisive victories.

Stephen McLain: 13:36

Now for action today. How well do you read signals around you? You need to self-analyze your ability to be more aware of your surroundings and the business environment. Again, here are a few tips to follow. The first is practice more active listening. Second is to look for meaningful words, actions and expressions. Next is to be watchful of trends in your industry and, finally, connect with your peers and senior leaders of the organization. Situational awareness is a great skill to possess. Continue improving, picking up on cues and key words that can help your own professional demeanor and in your duties. Now please check out financeleaderacademycom for more information that can help you in your career progression. I offer courses and also offer several free downloadable guides. My most popular guide, become a Finance Leader, covers several key topics that you can apply right away as a finance professional. Again, you can find the guide at financeleaderacademycom. The link is in this episode's show notes.

Stephen McLain: 14:41

Today I talked about the importance of situational awareness and I highlighted the following points. Number one do you ever find yourself not knowing what is happening around you? Number two more situational awareness leads to improved business decisions. And three, how to improve your situational awareness. The business environment can be difficult to navigate, so it's vital to know what is happening around you. Improving your business acumen is a critical skill. Also, when you combine that with understanding the current state, plus add leadership and risk taking, then you can better and more quickly analyze threats and opportunities, which can lead to improved organizational and even personal performance. I hope you enjoyed the Finance Leader Podcast. You can find this episode wherever you listen to podcasts. If this episode helped you today, please share it with a colleague. Until next time, you can check out more resources at financeleadercademycom and sign up for my weekly updates so you don't miss an episode of the podcast. And now go lead your team and I'll see you next time. Thank you.