COVID-19 Leadership Challenges – Non-obvious Strategies for Your Team – Behind the Scenes
Leading through tough circumstances is part of the job. When you have the right mindset and strategies, you can move forward and keep calm, no matter what you face. This behind the scenes episode is taken from a series of conversations I have been having with my clients to help them through COVID-19 leadership challenges. When I asked one of my clients what was on his mind, he responded by saying, “Calm minds prevail.” I felt like this was ideal for strong leadership. Being calm will calm your employees. Being worried will worry your team. It is your choice. In today’s video, I give you three non-obvious strategies for your team during challenging times like this. COVID-19 leadership challenges are going to be with us for a while, so let’s approach them proactively now.
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COVID-19 Leadership Challenges: The Transcript
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Disclaimer: This transcript was created using YouTube’s translator tool and that may mean that some of the words, grammar, and typos come from a misinterpretation of the video.
When times are tough, we really need a leader. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately with what’s going on with COVID-19, coronavirus, whatever you want to call it. We are in the midst of something we’ve never seen before. And this is the exact time where we need leaders, managers will be able to optimize and more efficiently run the operations. leaders will be able to take us into a place we’ve never been before. And this is exactly why we need leaders.
[0:31]
When you think about leadership, hopefully, you know that you’ve got to show up differently for your people. You’ve got to calm their nerves. You’ve got to do something that will make a difference for everyone. I had a client that I was talking to the other day about the being prepared for this whole coronavirus thing, and he said something that I want to share with you. Calm minds prevail. Calm mines prevail when he said that, it just hits It’s about not worrying, it’s not feeding into the panic. It’s about recognizing that we’re in a different situation than we were last week. It’s crazy, right? But calm minds will prevail. And this means at the top leadership level, but this means throughout the organization.
[1:17]
So today we’re going to talk about some non obvious approaches to calming the mind to being leaders to truly navigating through this tough time. I’ve been thinking about this for about a week, and I didn’t want to feed into the frenzy of all of the things that are going on. But I have been looking at it within my business I’ve been talking about with my clients. So I feel like it’s time to serve you, my audience around what could you do? What are the things that you could do differently, to be a better leader to show up differently and to be the leader that your team deserves?
[1:52]
So here’s the first one. praise your team. value them, let them truly understand how important they are. To them, because they’re probably nervous about their paycheck, they’re paying for their family, you’re probably nervous about all the things going around them, wouldn’t it be great for them to not worry about how you feel about them, but giving them some praise, giving them maybe even a bonus to help them really understand that you really appreciate them, they feel that appreciation, their loyalty will ring through, especially if they’re moving into a place where they’re going to be working virtually, and you can’t look over their shoulder, you can’t micromanage them effectively. Hopefully, you’re not micromanaging them anyway. But you get my point. praise your people. It’s not obvious because not a lot of people are worried about what those people feel like because they’re worried about what do we need to do behind you know, to get ahead of this? How do we need to navigate through all these changes, and this is one of those approaches. I really believe that will help you bring the team together, align them and that’s really important during this time.
[3:00]
All right, the second thing that you could do that’s non obvious is talk about their fears. This may not be something that’s comfortable for you, but they need a place to go to and talk, they may not be able to talk to their family about it, they may not be able to talk to someone close to them. Or maybe they just want to know that you’re in this together, we have conversations around, what are they afraid of? Is it their paycheck? Is it the losing clients? Is it you know, not hitting some goals that they have set? What is it they’re, they’re afraid of? Talk to them, listen to them. Take the time, because when you take the time to really make people feel like you are listening to them, they do have more loyalty to the organization and to the mission of the company.
[3:45]
When you as a leader don’t take the time, you’re missing that opportunity because they get to fill in the gaps with their own conversations. They don’t get to express themselves and so they make assumptions, their inner voice will continue to talk to them. in ways that will keep them from being motivated and inspiring them and doing good work. I really believe that this is a time when we can actually get together do some good work, maybe it’s getting some projects off the ground that we haven’t had the time for. Maybe it’s really focusing more proactively on getting clients and changing some marketing approaches and doing some new strategies that will really help you get out in front. This is the time where you talk about their fears, because that will align you together and let them know that they’re being heard.
[4:32]
The third and final non obvious approach that you as a leader can take right now is spend money, spend money wisely, I don’t mean, you know, just throw money around and continue doing things. But maybe there’s some people out there within your network within your strategic partners that you could spend money with, so that they know that you’re going to be partners with them, because you’re in this for the long haul. those partnerships were cultivated over time, and all the people around you maybe it’s your general understaffed that needs to be paid without working. Maybe it’s the people that clean your house, maybe it’s all the people around you. If you could really look at places where they need the money to, they will appreciate it. Spend money wisely.
[5:14]
In a downturn market, maybe you want to hire new salespeople. I’ve heard many companies talk about the need for increased sales during this period. And the way to do that is to hire people or to bring in outsiders or bring in bonus structures to give people money to bring in deals, spend money wisely, your natural tendency may be to restrict and and stop spending money and I get it and your cash flow may not allow that. But if you can, you can find a way you will see the benefit long term of spending that money today with the people that mean the most inside your network of your business.
[5:55]
I share this with you because we are in a tough time. We do need leaders Managers are great leaders step up. leaders have difficult conversations, leaders are able to be resilient, have the grit to get through all of these tough times, we’re going to get through this, you’re going to get through this. But you’ve got to take action, you’ve got to show up differently. You’ve got to bring your own level of competence to this like you’ve never had before. You’ve got to talk about things with your routine that you’ve never talked about before. You’ve got to show your appreciation for them and the work that they do. And finally, you’ve got to manage your own energy, you’ve got to really show up in a new way for your team. They need you more than ever.
[6:40]
This is the time for leaders. It’s a tough time for all of us. If I can do anything to help you understand this if you need just someone to talk to someone to listen, if you have a strategy that you’re not clear about. If you really want to have someone to do this is not about a sales conversation. This is about serving you if you’re in my audience urge you if you’re listening to this, there’s something you want to talk through. I’m here for you. My name is Gene Hammett. I’m happy to work with leaders that want to go beyond where they are today to develop the leaders inside the organization that are necessary. If there’s anything I can do for you, make sure to reach out to [email protected]. As always leave with courage. I’ll see you next time.
Disclaimer: This transcript was created using YouTube’s translator tool and that may mean that some of the words, grammar, and typos come from a misinterpretation of the video.
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