Trail Narrows Ahead. Please Use Extreme Caution

How to lead and manage during times of rapid change

I was hiking up a local trail the other day, and as the trail began to get steeper, I almost ran into a sign pinned to a tree on a sharp turn: “Trail Narrows Ahead. Please Use Extreme Caution”. Wish we had warning signs of impending change like this in our daily lives and work!

Wish we had signs like this in our work and lives to alert us when change is about to happen!

“May you live in interesting times.”, is not a Chinese curse, but wherever it originated, we are living it a most interesting time now! Everything seems to be changing. Daily. How to lead your team during these rapidly changing times is going to determine if you/your organization is going to thrive or fail. And the stress of dealing with the constant changes can hurt your mental, physical and emotional, and your health and relationships too!

Many years ago, Nancy, my VP of Marketing at Reebok, came back from her pregnancy leave with a big idea — create a new division of active wear for kids! Children’s clothes and shoes then consisted of everyday basics from mass market retailers and fancy dress up from boutique/expensive stores — mostly frilly get ups for girls and “young gentlemen” looks for the boys. She asked for my support as her leader, and we, together with her team, launched Weekbok, Reebok for kids.