Dear friend,
The current economic and political situations like the Brexit, the yellow vests crisis in France or the independence movement in areas like Catalonia in Spain, drive uncertainty in the marketplace. Because of that, I get asked the same question more and more: “How do we keep our people engaged during difficult times?” I have pulled the views from my friend and mentor Mark Cole, CEO of the John Maxwell Group on how to deal with tough times and do some crisis management from the perspective of the leader.
Entrepreneurs and business leaders turn often to me for some encouragement regarding the Brexit matter. From a pure business perspective, we don’t know what will happen. But reality is, whatever happens, we need to work intentionally in keeping the teams engaged. Even more that what we do in less turbulent times.
Asking Mark about this topic, he brought an interesting perspective I would like to share with you today:
“Our role as leaders is not to have all the answers about the market conditions, but it is to give our people HOPE and CLARITY. People usually ask three things to their leaders:
Do you care for me?
Can you help me?
Can I trust you?
And we have to constantly be answering these 3 questions. Specially in though times. Because those are the times where, under stress, we may forget our role as leaders.”
Some of our leadership behaviors may not be naturally wired in our personality style, but rather we anchor them in our adapted personality style trough repetition. For example, if I am a high D (Dominant in the DISC model, represented by the color red), I may have difficulties to naturally be patient and listen to my teams. While I may be intentional in doing so during regular times, under stress my natural style surfaces and I may be perceived as an authoritarian, non-listening person. This effect gets reinforced by the fact that the people in my team may also be in stress mode, thus retracting also to their natural styles. If a person in my team is a high C (Compliant, blue), their natural style is to ask questions and get the details, so they help me and the team to “get it right”. In times of stress, this may become “paralysis by analysis”. Rather than me moving into my authoritarian style, the person needs some coaching from me to help her go out of this state.
“DO YOU CARE FOR ME? It is the love question. Our people need to know that we are genuinely interested in them and their well-being. And that such interest keeps being a priority in times of crisis. Sometimes, when overwhelmed by the circumstances, we may have a tendency to focus solely in the numbers and not in the people.
CAN YOU HELP ME? I can help you. The sky will not fall on us. We will go through this, together, as a team. We count on each other, all playing on our strengths to move the ball forward and carry the organization to the other side of the critical situation successfully.
CAN I TRUST YOU? We’re on this together. Trust is the foundation of leadership. If my team members are worried because they don’t know if I am going to “cut their head” if needed, it’s going to be very difficult for me to keep them engaged. Because they will leak huge amounts of energy in those thoughts. Energy that I need them to put into focus, creativity and dedication to our work.”
Mark keeps talking: “Vision and trust are the keys to galvanize our teams. You have to reiterate it over and over again. Back in 2007 in the US, companies were going out of business, people losing their jobs massively. The companies that survived were the ones able to galvanize their people and to live the crisis in a vulnerable way, not in an angry way. Too many leaders deal with problems like Brexit or political diversity by getting involved in the political differences, polarizing people instead of galvanizing people.
We don’t know what’s going to happen, we don’t know the decisions that will be made at political level, how other countries and economies will respond to that, but we can’t try to get into the politics: “we don’t like it, we hate it, we will resist it”… all that polarizes people and creates a repeal. Even if they agree with you politically, it repeals them from engaging with you relationally, and so what I would tell the leaders is:
We won’t know the implications of Brexit for a long time. What we know is that the human beings we lead, they want to be loved, they want to know they work for competent people and they want to feel the trust. Your responsibility is to keep and reinforce those 3 things during time of crisis. Which is paradoxically where we usually tend to let those go away, because we tend to act under stress, fatigue and overwhelm.”
My friend and mentor Paul Martinelli told me recently, when discussing about one of my client’s cases: “If we feel overwhelmed is because we’re under-purposed. Getting clear on the purpose of the organization, the reason why you do what you do, helps establish a link, a bridge with the “after the crisis”. It’s like the safe line used by the commando forces when they go into the water.”
I remember the 2008 crisis in Europe. We all lost some money and hopefully we all learnt lessons. My main lesson was that, as we can see now, the markets recovered and over time, things went well. Moreover, times of crisis are also times of opportunity. But to capture opportunity we need to have our reticular system set in mode “look for opportunities” and not in mode “look for life threats”, driven by stress. I made some of my best investments in that period, when everyone was trying to sell everything driven by panic.
The most successful investors in the world will tell you that: “Look for the opportunities in the times of crisis”. Keep being in love with your purpose, the why you do what you do. But if the current plan is not good enough to get you to the other side, shoot it and modify it if needed. Communicate with your people, show them love, added value and trust and you’ll keep them engaged on your side.
Mark closed his answer with “They (the team) will know that we’re going thru tough times, but that their leader is around them and no matter what happens, he will be around them.”
So, my challenge for you today is:
1. Think about and list the ways you show you care for your people.
2. How do you add value to your team members? How do you help them get better at what they do?
3. How do you develop trust with them? Are they under the impression that you count on them for still a long time or do you think their dedication may be undermined by some worry about their future within your team? Are you displaying integrity with them?
4. Is there anything you could do on a daily basis to reinforce those 3 bonds, especially if you’re going through difficult times? Make a list of simple, easy actions, and put them in place immediately.
You may want to have a candid conversation with some of your team members to help you answer the questions, because their perception is their reality. If you feel your team disengaged despite your efforts, it may be well that you’re trying to do things in those three areas, but that they are not perceived as such by them.
So, let me know how it goes. I congratulate you for your action and your commitment to become a better leader and for investing on you to secure better results for yourself and your organisation.
Please, share this post with anyone around you who may need it. They are very much welcome in our community! Create an awesome week for you and those around you!
To your success,
Ezequiel
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