We are in a moment of crisis, uncertainty, change, danger, …and opportunity.

For many years change management consultants and trainers used the Chinese character for crisis – Weiji – to illustrate the mix of danger and opportunity embedded in volatile, uncertain, changing, and ambiguous times – VUCA.

Weiji- is comprised of two characters. One is usually meant to convey danger and the other opportunity. I used it often in coaching engagement and leadership development programs to stir discussion and introspection about how the blending of these two concepts could stimulate different perspectives on many situations. When I finally researched what the word meant, it turns out to be far more subtle, though significant than I realized.

You see, it isn’t simply that in times of crisis you can find both danger and opportunity.

Weiji is meant to capture that crucial moment in time, the precise point when something is unfolding, that decisive leadership moment at which, what you do next, what you set in motion at that moment, will significantly influence, f not determine, that you are in a moment of danger…or a moment of opportunity.

There will be leadership moments. There are leadership moments now, where what you do as an organization, as a leader, as a team member, as an individual, will set things in motion that accelerate and elevate you, your team, your organization to a higher level or drive everyone and everything into a tailspin.

Maybe I should not refer to them as leadership moments. It would be more accurate to call them moments at which the quality and effectiveness of leadership unfolds.

Are you in one of those moments now? What difference will what you do in this moment make?

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