These are challenging times for any leader. Regardless of how big your company is, or how many people are on your team, it can feel like you’ve lost your focus or are unable to rally your team forward.
How do you regain momentum and improve the health of your team and organization?
Traci Barrett, President and Founder of Navigate the Journey, can put you on the right path. As she says, “How you lead during this time is how you’re going to be remembered for a really long time to come.” While leadership is more difficult now than ever, it doesn’t take superhuman skills to persevere. As creative leaders, we’re uniquely positioned to make positive change.
In the midst of a crisis, there are two directions we can go. We can lean towards fear and helplessness, or we can search out clarity tobe engaged and achieve self-actualization. Doing so requires a focus on four core elements:
Focus on your leadership
Focus on your communication
Focus on your key business levers
Focus on your culture
Traci outlines steps for each so you can show up for your team and drive results.
Step 1: Focus on Your Leadership
It’s difficult to help team members in your care if you don’t have the right mindset. Put your oxygen mask on first, then turn your attention to others. Let go of who you were yesterday and reset your internal so you can focus on the external.
To do so, Traci recommends taking a breath and evaluating your emotions. No one talks to you more than you do, so it’s important to give yourself a new dialogue and rewrite your inner script. Here are some other tips to take care of yourself:
Be okay with being vulnerable: Sure, ambiguity and uncertainty can feed imposter syndrome. But no one expects you to have all the answers. Be okay with that and be okay with being vulnerable.
Have a team outside your team: Look to a coach, best friend, consultant or someone within the Bureau community to offer outside opinions, perspective and honesty.
Disconnect each day: As work life blends with home life, it’s important to start your day at a proper time, get into routine and then disconnect to exercise, meditate and spend time offline and with loved ones.
Protect your Emotional Intelligence (EQ): Take a diet from the news and work proactively on your mental and physical health in order to safeguard your EQ.
“Your character will drive your empathy, and your ambition is going to drive your resilience. Who you are is how you will lead.”
— Traci Barrett, President & Founder of Navigate the Journey
What does your team need from you? A recent Gallup poll revealed four things people seek from leaders in the midst of this pandemic. Traci pieces these together into a formula to help you support your team:
Trust: How you lead will determine if your people trust you, and if they trust each other.
Compassion: If your motives are good, they will drive empathy and help you exhibit compassion.
Stability: Your resilience to get through to the other side will provide stability. Remember your mission and core values.
Hope: Healthy optimism will provide hope.
Step 2: Focus on Your Communication
While it may be tempting to put your head down to figure out the business and all the moving pieces, your team needs you to be visible and overcommunicate.
Traci recommended focusing on relationships and one-on-one conversations based on those relationships. Tell your team members and clients, “I’m here for you.” Acknowledge that times are tough, but you’re there to support people as needed.
Send updates often and have regular meetings. Be as transparent as possible—your team can handle the brutal facts when balanced with healthy optimism. Remind people of progress, even if it’s small, and recognize your team for their efforts. Gratitude is an antidote for anxiety. Traci suggests scheduling times to pause and express gratitude for your team members, family, etc.
Step 3: Focus on Your Key Business Levers
So much today is beyond our control, so it’s important to identify and work on the things that are within our grasp. In terms of key business levers,
Focus on value, not selling: Right now is an awkward time to start hitting the pavement. Instead, focus on your current clients and opportunities to create value for them, even if it’s giving away time to consult with them. Relationships will pay off in the end.
Create a three-month forecast: Plot out what you have and what’s coming in to evaluate revenue scenarios.
Create a plan to conserve cash: Look at ways to tighten up your accounts receivable and reduce spending.
Conduct short-term strategic planning: Get a handle on shorter amounts of time: your 30-, 60- and 90-day windows.
Keep your meeting rhythms: Continue to have tactical, strategic and project meetings, but don’t start adding meetings just because you may feel out of control.
Identify, discuss, solve: Everything you’re dealing with is an issue. Hone in on root problems and discuss and solve them together with your team.
Keep to-do lists short: If you get three things done today, that’s great. Focus on short lists and you’ll feel an increase in productivity.
Set clear expectations and hold employees accountable: Some leaders may fall into micromanager mode during a crisis, but you want to avoid that. Balance tough conversations with trusting your team members.
As leaders or owners, we can get fixated on losses and revenue scenarios. While these rightfully deserve our attention, we also need to leave space and time to pivot and talk about opportunities. How can we embrace the new normal, and what opportunities exist for our business and clients? Our needs have shifted. Our clients’ needs have shifted. How do we cope?
What new ideas, processes, tools and resources are needed for ourselves and our clients? Traci suggests asking these questions as a team. What’s changed? What’s next? What’s better?
Step 4: Focus on Your Culture
Hopefully, you entered this crisis with a good culture and are now reaping the benefits. Regardless of where your culture stands, you can strengthen it by helping your team to adjust to this new environment. Creativity can be an ally in your efforts. Some of Traci’s clients are trying team-building exercises such as games (two truths and a lie) or bringing family into the mix with a kids happy hour (invite team members’ children in and ask each kid one question).
Also, allow for growth and development. Because people aren’t commuting or hanging out at the watercooler, you can use this time to allow team members to work on learning, internal projects and building new strengths.
Putting It All Together
Focusing on these four areas will make it easier to embrace uncertainty and learn through challenges. If you’re looking for more ideas or help, reach out to our friends at Navigate the Journey. Also, join us for an upcoming event, with free webinar and Bureau Q&A registration for Bureau members.