Leadership in Crisis

Leadership in the midst of the global pandemic of COVID-19 is essential for survival of the societies and systems we have assumed would always be here. With uncertainty comes fear and anxiety. It is the role of a leader - any leader - to address these tensions by seeking credible information from primary sources, synthesizing that information and sharing with people they are responsible for, in one way or another.

It has become all too clear that there is a dearth of transformational leadership in the public arena, at the moment. But, you can change that in your own way and in your own organizations.

Emergency Operations Center at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

I was recently asked to provide some tips on how best to confront the reality that people will lose their jobs as a result of the rapidly growing novel coronavirus outbreak. How do you tell people that they may lose their jobs because of sheltering-in-place orders, for example?While no one solution fits every situation, my advice was to focus on four things - Trust, Compassion, Stability & Hope - in order to effectively communicate difficult news about people's future with an organization.

• Lean into the concept of establishing trust with your employees and colleagues. Now is not the time to harbor hidden agendas. Speak the truth about the situation you are facing. It may not be nice to hear, but it will be appreciated.

• Remember that we are ALL human. We all have feelings, fears and insecurities that could be particularly frayed at this moment. Extend a bit of grace, and show the basic human compassion that we all need when facing difficult circumstances that threaten our livelihood.

• Share your intentions about the future and how you propose to move forward with the business, department or organization. Maybe that means creating some kind of 90-day re-entry plan that outlines your intentions for the business after things begin to settle. Show that you are trying to create a level of stability, even in the midst of crisis.

• Speak about your hopes for the future with your people, and include them in that vision. Offering a sense of hope that things will get better is what transformational leaders do. You can't promise people what you don't have. But, you can promise to work hard to achieve your goals. Giving people hope is what can motivate people to accomplish extraordinary things.

Leadership is not easy. Particularly when it requires you to make difficult decisions about the future of people that you work with. I believe that if you do your best to create a human connection with folks and you tell them the truth as you know it, you are modeling the best of our transformational leaders. You are the kind of leader we need now.

Visionary Leadership: In Celebration of July 4, 1776

Great leadership requires vision, foresight, belief and a willingness to challenge orthodoxy in order to bring about change. This is the kind of example set by the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and in later years those that ratified the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights and other seminal documents that have afforded the opportunities many Americans enjoy.

Yet as we know, this grand experiment in representative Democracy strives for perfection, but is not - in fact - perfect. We all are familiar with many of the troubling truths about our history that have left stains which have yet to be reconciled. Still it is the value of visionary leadership that gives us hope for a better future.

Take the time to celebrate the ideals espoused in the Declaration of Independence today. Share it with family, friends and coworkers alike. It never hurts to revisit the principles that are the foundation of the environment that we operate in. Happy Fourth of July!

7 Ways to Improve Meeting Productivity

How familiar does this sound? “Why do we have to have so many meetings?” or “I hate meetings.”

Anybody involved with being a leader in an organization know that meetings take up as much as 50% of the average workday. And for those that are in the start-up phase of an entrepreneurial endeavor know that number is often even higher. But how closely do we examine our meeting habits to determine the value they bring to our bottom lines?

Rereading a piece in Inc. Magazine from several years ago on the subject was a great reminder of how important it is to understand the impact meetings have on my organization’s productivity.

For example, as the first quarter of 2019 comes to a close and you look back on what went right during the first three months of the year, entrepreneurs, leaders and managers automatically look at predictable indicators, including sales numbers, achievement of cost savings or maybe the success of your marketing campaigns.

While all of these indicators are important, it is how are meetings are conducted and organized that can serve as a “real time” KPI and help steer your organization towards success. Just as you “entrepreneurial elevator pitch” can open up doors to start-up investment, good management of your organization’s meeting culture can help leaders maintain a steady cadence towards business success.

I know, meetings seem like the least important activities businesses (and their leaders) participate in. In fact, we’ve previous noted in this blog that the four major activities businesses must master are Decision Making, Organizing, Controlling and Leading. Establishing a meeting structure is an essential subset of the Management Process.

Below are 7 ways you can improve effectiveness and impact of your meetings: 

Establish the ‘why’

Make sure each meeting that is convened has a clear objective or purpose. Don’t just meet for meeting’s sake. If there is no discernible outcome that you are aiming for, the meeting isn’t worth happening.

Pick the right people

Make sure that the right people are in the meeting. That means people who have decision-making authority; people who’s creativity on the subject can offer unseen alternative solutions; and key leaders of the activities being discussed should be the core members of important meetings.

Keep it short

There are no rules that say every meeting must last at least an hour. Meetings as short as 15 minutes can be very effective, provided you prepare well for each.

Build an agenda

An agenda is important for the flow of meetings. It is also important for memorializing decisions and assignments. But maybe the most important, agendas are designed to help you (and your team) be productive.

Design the structure

Whether it’s a reporting-out meeting, an update meeting or a brainstorming session, each meeting should be designed in a way where there are pre-specifications that are measurable. This allows meeting facilitators to opportunity to evaluate the relative success of their meeting styles.

Everyone participates

If you have the right people in a room, then every voice in the room has an important contribution to the success of the meeting. Make sure everyone has an opportunity to share their perspectives.

Get agreement and follow up

An effective agenda helps participants get agreement on the relevance of specific issues, thereby allowing for the editing of items to be discussed. Once decisions are made in a meeting, there needs to be an acknowledgment of all of the follow up activities that are assigned.

 If you have other meeting design suggestions to increase productivity, please share your ideas in the comment section below.

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Get Agreement To Move Your Agenda Forward

Last week I was in Michigan giving a presentation to a group of leaders about the importance of adopting universally understood leadership language. This notion of leadership language was preceded by commonly asked question of managers across industries: “How can you get the concept of engagement to show up in behavior and performance of associates and team members?”

The short answer I gave was practice.

Providing leaders of teams with a common language to talk about performance and behavior expectations is half the battle. It’s the “secret sauce” for getting team buy-in. And once you have a common language, everyone has to practice using it, in order for there to be a common measure of performance.

Some organizations use assessment tools to establish behavioral norms.

For example, using behavioral interviewing tools, pulse surveys, personality and/or problem-solving tests to begin establishing a set of expectations from potential employees. And once they are on the team, organizational norms are further reinforced by training modules.

Below is a partial list of tools that organizations can use to help develop a common language and shared values amongst team members:

• Gallup’s CliftonStrengths Assessment

• Myers Briggs Type Indicator

• DiSC Assessment

• SennDelaney Culture Assessment

• WonScore

Regardless of the tools selected, each of these assessments offer unique approaches to establish organizational language that, if adopted, can serve as foundational blocks for determining the types of behaviors that are expected in your organization. And if those blocks are set, they can then be used to inform the written and spoken materials that describe the culture your organization hopes to display.

For example, what do you mean when you things like: “I want my associates to be more engaged.” or “Our teams are operating in silos.” or “We lack good communication in our organization.”? It’s these types of assessment tools that can narrow the definitions of the terms you want to be a part of your organization’s lexicon.

Finally, when your organization’s “cultural artifacts” are on display, you will need “ambassadors” that exemplify the qualities needed to succeed in your culture. These are people that walk the walk, talk the talk and are able to translate the nuances that form your unique culture. And this is where finding support from outside your organization can be a competitive advantage.

While applying the tools noted above can be straightforward, getting an accurate interpretation of the results of the assessments is often done best by people outside the organization. The role of a change management consultant, for example, is to be able to help leadership see how well or poorly new language is taking hold with an organization. That same consultant must also be able to provide a set of measures that can track the team’s adherence to the new language being used to change culture.

All of this work is designed to help companies identify, validate, practice and improve ways of engaging employees, who in turn represent your organization’s values to your customers. Further, it provides managers & supervisors (often considered the most important roles within organizations) with actionable data to move the needle on engagement in your company.

The more employees understand, appreciate and internalize your company’s unique language, the better equipped they are to help others understand and appreciate your company.

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