There is an excellent film called The Blind Side starring Sandra Bullock which chronicles the development of Michael Oher an offensive lineman in American football who comes from the wrong side of the tracks in a Tennessee city to achieve sporting success in a good school and then in the sport. The job of an offensive lineman is to protect his quarter back on the “blind side” - A term for the side of the offensive line that the quarterback is facing away from while in the pocket. For right handed quarterbacks, the left tackle protects the blind side. 
 
The key task is to protect the quarterback who is the crucial playmaker from unexpected tackles.
 
As a manager or leader one of the most difficult situations to manage is dealing with an unexpected crisis that nobody has forewarned you about. So if you are say running a department in a law firm that is working flat out and has no capacity, the last thing you need as the department head is one of your junior partners telling you late on a Friday evening out of the blue that he or she has just taken on a major new matter requiring extensive resource without telling you.
 
Or if you work as an inhouse legal adviser in a company providing facilities management services, you receive an email about the major new contract signed a year ago (which you thought was going swimmingly) from the delivery manager telling you that it’s all going wrong and the customer is threatening termination.
 
It’s not the new business opportunity or the contract crisis of itself that is the problem. These are our daily meat and bread as professional advisers. We can plan and resource for them. No, it’s rather the fact that nobody in your team or in the business told you there was a problem, so you are in effect blindsided and have to deal with the matter as a crisis.
 
I’ve come to realise that these sort of unexpected situations which leaders face can be seen as inevitable. I don’t think this is always right. They can often be anticipated and if not prevented mitigated. Here is a short to the point blog Open your eyes and look to find weak spots where trouble could start which considers this in the context of crisis management and shares this insight Don’t ever assume that you have considered everything you need to know about your business, its people and the marketplace.  Things are changing so fast that you must see everything through a wide-enough angle lens that enables you to anticipate crisis and manage change before circumstances force your hand. Anticipating the unexpected enables you to see around, beneath and beyond what you seek – well beyond the obvious.
 
See also this Harvard Business Review article Research: Why Companies Keep Getting Blind-Sided by Risk which discusses supply chain risk from an unexpected major supply chain disruptioncommenting Part of the problem stems from the familiar gap between the talk and the walk. Survey findings indicate that most organizations’ leaders did indeed express concern about the impact of politicalturmoil, natural disasters, or extreme weather. But the findings also show that the people at the front lines of the business were hamstrung by a lack of visibility into risk.
 
What I think we can do is like the football team manager anticipate that your precious playmaking quarter back will be vulnerable and make sure you have excellent linesman like Michael Oher protecting the blind side. 
 
We can perhaps also assume that these situation will be inevitable to some extent and be ready to deal with it – see this article A Blueprint for Dealing with the Unexpected in Work which suggests
 

• Don’t rush take – maybe do nothing at first
• Stay optimistic
• Consult others
• Have a plan and execute it
• Focus on the big picture
• Look to how this can be prevented in the future

 
quoting Julius Ceaser No one is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected.
 
And we should always always look for the positive – as John F Kennedy said The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger--but recognize the opportunity.
 
All that said wouldn’t it be better if somebody in your team or business gave you you some forewarning of the problem? Prevention is always better than cure. I think we need to create open cultures where team members and managers communicate openly and regularly so the unexpected can be anticipated.
 
A good approach to this as a team member is to think what you would like to know about and then make sure you tell your boss the same Communicate unto the other person that which you would want him to communicate unto you if your positions were reversed- the American businessman Aaron Goldman.
 
Anyway, as Henry Kissinger commented There can't be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full!!

Remember back in school there were always those gifted children who seemed to breeze through lessons, tests and exams with minimum effort. They always grasped complex maths theorems and understood physics whilst still managing to appreciate Shakespeare and memorise all the facts and dates from medieval history.
 
The same was true in sport to some extent. Some were naturally gifted at soccer or tennis or hockey and made all the school teams at least until senior school. However there seemed to come a time as you approached more difficult levels of academic work or sports where talent alone was not sufficient. Everybody who wanted to be in the top rowing crews or rugby teams, for example, were all gifted and able; the difference between those who were selected and the rest was a willingness to work hard improve and get even better and even fitter.
 
Sir Clive Woodward who managed the English rugby team that won the world cup in 2003 insisted that gifted international standard players got even better or he dropped them from his squad. Toto Wolff the Mercedes Formula One team boss said of Lewis Hamilton winning his sixth world title in 2019 “It’s where talent meets big push for improvement all the time”. The footballer Cristiano Ronaldo said “Talent without working hard is nothing.”
 
The same is very true in the working world. You simply can’t get by on talent alone without application. See, for example, this article What is more important Talent or Hardwork which observes We live in a society that is often quick to brand successful person “talented”, “genius”, “gifted”. Our society has an obsession for “achievements”, “success”. That’s why successful people are generally perceived as someone born with natural abilities.but concludes It’s “hard work”, determination, and patience that pays off at the end. It gives the examples of Oprah Winfrey who was once suggested that she “wasn’t fit for television”and legendary basketball player Michael Jordan who was dismissed from his high school basketball team but he worked hard to become the greatest sportsperson of all time.
 
This blog suggests that when people are being hired there is a natural tendency to choose natural talent over hard work, even if hiring the natural will cost more. However, hiring somebody with talent who won’t work hard is a mistake. See this article Why Hard Work is Better Than Talent which also recognises that  We live in an achievement-obsessed society that is quick to apply the labels “talented” and “gifted” to everyone who has accomplished anything of note. Successful people are often portrayed as superhuman, born with magical abilities that separate them from the rest of the human race. But then goes on to state Although the media would have you believe otherwise, hard work really does trump talent. It gives another example - Animation pioneer Walt Disney was told that he had “no original ideas” and “lacked imagination” by the newspaper that fired him.
 
Anyway talent is not always recognised. The Beatles were rejected by Decca records in 1962 with the comment “Guitar groups are on the way out”! A synopsis for J K Rowling’s Harry Potter was rejected by 12 publishers.
 
Of course, somebody who is very talented and hard working will be a great asset for any organisation, but I firmly believe we all have ability and can improve. The author and public speaker Ken Poirot said “Hard work increases the probability of serendipity”.
 
As Michelangelo observed "If people knew how hard I worked to achieve my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful after all."
 
While Thomas Jefferson commented "I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it".

“Context” is a simple but important word that derives from the Latin ‘con’ and ‘texere’ (to form ‘contextus’), which means ‘weave together’ and can be defined as the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event or situation.
 
If I could provide anyone starting in the professions whether as a lawyer, accountant, commercial manager, doctor or procurement executive with one tip as to how to succeed in their chosen career it would be to take the time to understand the overall context before giving advice.
 
So many times, the apparently simple initial request for support masks a far more important issue. So, for example, if as a lawyer a client approaches you and asks for an interpretation of a specific clause in a contract why does she or he want to know? Has the contract actually been signed and there is some dispute, or is it still being negotiated? Is this a one-off request founded in some curiosity about legal meaning – or is this a bet the company issue, the result of which could determine the fate of an entire organisation? Some simple questions about who, what, where, why and when will often uncover a much truer understanding of the context of the request and then facilitate the correct advice.
 
Stephen R Covey in his book the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People commented“Seek first to understand, then to be understood”. This means taking the time to listen and to probe the question and understand the real nature of the problem and the potential solution before giving an opinion. See this article How To understand Context Instead Of Just Responding which comments that Without context, we immediately jump in our heads to what we want to say next, based on the very first few words we hear from the other person.
 
And here is a more academic article Context is everything which contains this quote in its introduction ‘Social scientists of the most varying standpoints agree that human action can be rendered meaningful only by relating it to the contexts
in which it takes place. The meaning and consequences of a behaviour pattern will vary with the contexts in which it occurs. This is commonly recognized in the saying that there is a “time and a place for everything”.’ Alvin Gouldner, 1955.
 
It goes on to say Nothing exists, and therefore can be understood, in isolation from its context, for it is context that gives meaning to what we think and do.
 
So an elderly patient complaining of a sore foot should be given the chance to explain if and how they may have recently incurred an injury before jumping to the conclusion they have gout. A client requesting a pro forma agreement for a company purchase should be gently persuaded to say whether this is a business transfer or an acquisition of shares. I have now taken to refusing to provide template legal agreements unless I absolutely understand what it is for. I did this in private practice once under pressure from a client – only to be chastised by them a week later for providing an agreement which was not fit for the purpose they required – which they had neglected to explain!
 
Context matters for careers as well. A technology partner in a legal practice may fail to build a business in an avaricious “eat what you kill” law firm, but be very successful in a more collegiate practice – and vice versa.   
 
This is equally true of leadership and the selection of leaders for different business opportunities – see this article which says There is a direct link between the context of a senior leadership role and the set of capabilities, experience and style that a leader will need to be effective in that position. For a business facing a changing competitive landscape, getting the strategy right may be the main business challenge that a new leader will need to address. Culture may be the primary business challenge for an organization that faces a war for talent and needs to improve employee engagement and loyalty. Only after carefully defining the business challenge, including the underlying conditions in which executives will have to lead, is it possible to understand what kind of leader is needed.
 
As the American painter Kenneth Noland said “For me context is the key – from that comes the understanding of everything.” 
 
Or more generally It is practically impossible to understand a thought, an act, a move of any sort from the situation in which it occurs.– the American psychologist Jerome Bruner. 

In a professional practice it is easy to associate change with some form of major reorganisation. For example, I recall discussions as a partner in private practice about mergers with perhaps an American firm. I was in a law practice that split up with my area joining another firm. 
 
Everybody recognised that these events represent significant change which will impact on the working lives of the professionals involved and will need careful management. The same is true in a reorganisation which creates a different management and reporting structure within a function.
 
As this PWC report suggests Long-term structural transformation is characterized by scale — it affects all or most of the organization; by magnitude — it involves significant alterations from the status quo; by duration — the change program lasts for months if not years; and by its strategic importance.
 
These major changes have to be managed at an organisational and a people level. See this useful article  10 Principles of Change Management commenting that “companies will reap the rewards only when change occurs at the level of the individual employee”.
 
However, as I have come to realise and as a colleague commented recently change does not just relate to these big events. They may be seminal but actually change of some sort is happening around us all of the time – constantly. As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said around 500 BC The only constant in life is change.
 
It may be that technology is increasing the pace of change. See this Forbes article Workplace Changes Are Accelerating: Why And What Millennials Should Do About It which says Change is to be expected, unfolding at a constant rate as new generations replace old generations, and as old ideas become obsolete. But here’s the thing; in today’s world, change isn’t unfolding at a constant rate—it’s unfolding at a faster and faster rate. 
 
Change is always there and like it or not is a factor in our working lives. Once understood this makes life easier because change can be embraced and welcomed. See this Gallup article How to Adapt to Constant Change: Create It which suggests As leaders well know, constant change is the new normal in today's workplacesand comments To prepare their people to help lead change, leaders need a workplace culture that lives and breathes adaptability -- a culture with agility in its DNA advising Leaders must fundamentally alter their approach to change management to create an adaptable work culture. Modern change realities require modern change strategies that prioritize the human capacity to thrive in a state of continuous change.
 
Once this principle is grasped I suggest it makes day to day and month by month management and performance at work much easier as managers and employees alike recognise that they are operating in a constantly shifting environment to which they need to adapt.
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Benjamin Franklin said “In a progressive country change is constant; change is inevitable”.
 
How we adapt to and address business change defines our ability to succeed. Returning to ancient times another Greek philosopher Socrates advised “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”