The most challenging thing about finding one’s self in crisis, is being willing to call it what it is. While it may be a word that is almost guaranteed to produce a strong psycho-emotional response, it comes from the Greek krisis, meaning the "turning point in a disease, that change which indicates recovery or death”.

A crisis is a turning point. Nothing more.

But failing to recognise it for what it is means that one is fundamentally incapable of responding appropriately.

I’ve been working with impact entrepreneurs for almost thirty years, and in that time have launched over a dozen of my own ventures.

Some did spectacularly well.

Others failed.

Some, not all, went through periods of crisis.

One essential thing I’ve learned, navigating not only my own crises, but being in effect a 'crisis co-pilot' for dozens of other entrepreneurs, is that calling a crisis a crisis brings clarity at a point when it’s desperately needed.

“When you fight reality you lose. But only always.”

~ Byron Katie

I do my best to remember this quote daily.

Too much #toxicpositivity has crept into the world of ethical business, and our unwillingness to simply call things what they are, without the now seemingly inevitable positive reframe, or a retreat into abstractions, is getting in the way of our ability to think clearly, and act decisively.

The simple reality is that humanity is experiencing the greatest period of existential risk in the entirety of our history. And yet, this metacrisis or polycrisis is simply not being met with appropriate clarity, forcefulness and decisiveness.

I appreciate that many are sounding the alarm - some have been doing so for longer than I’ve lived. But whilst the cries for Massive. Change. Now. are growing louder, I’m not convinced that we can achieve systemic change without being willing to recognise crisis wherever it occurs - especially in those areas that are most clearly within our locus of control.

Which means for those of us working for the common good, recognising that the business-as-usual of the business-of-change isn’t working.

It’s broken.

For us as individuals, for our ventures, and for the collective billions across current and future generations we say we’re here to serve.

Frankly, I’ve rarely met impact entrepreneurs who aren’t experiencing, or haven’t experienced crisis. Sometimes the crises are financial - navigating the valley of death, going uncompensated for extended periods in order to keep moving forward, struggling to find funding from customers, partners or investors; sometimes they’re cultural - recognising that the 'founder-centricity' of the organisation they started is squeezing the life from it, or accepting there are currents of sexism, ageism and racism corrupting their intention; often they’re personal - burn out, collapsed relationships, imposter-syndrome, exhaustion from the Sisyphean task of seeking to change the status quo.

Wherever a crisis presents there is also opportunity – it just may not be the opportunity we imagined.

The first thing that is necessary is to recognise it for what it is, and be willing to be truthful. With one’s self first, and then with others. Then be willing to do what is necessary in order to navigate the crisis with minimum harm.

Resigning, retrenching, redefining, shutting down. And perhaps, more importantly than anything else, not going down with the ship.

If you’re committed to what I like to think of as ‘the great work’, there will always be a need for those of great heart and mind.

But ...

if you martyr yourself to your cause, we all lose

- those closest to us the most.

Before you go:

End of year is a particularly challenging time for impact entrepreneurs, what with conferences in full swing, sales slowing, and funders often punting on decisions until the new year. And with the recent news about a pending change of government in the USA our collective capacity to navigate crisis is more important than ever. That's why I've put together a free 90 minute webinar for impact entrepreneurs and non-profit leaders that I'll be hosting in a few weeks. To find out more about that, please visit my website here.