Leadership During Trying Times

I was delighted to see these two posts in my LinkedIn feed this morning, reaffirming my belief that a company, its culture, and its future, are defined by strong leadership during trying times:

Times like these reveal our innate character. They call upon us to define our priorities and act in accordance with our principles. It is so reassuring to see firms taking actions that focus on contributing to the stabilization of our society without explicitly seeking some reward. This is the time for “doing good”, without looking for the “win-win.”

Of course, when you’re running a business, you do need to think about turning crisis into opportunity.  I previously wrote on this topic, and think it is wise to revisit the strategies I enumerated then in the current context:

  • Identify the weak links that enabled the crisis – With hindsight, we can name our missed opportunities when there were early-signs, and identify those places where our risk-tolerance may have been a bit too high (or not even evaluated!). These insights should be inputs to our future behaviors.
  • Map your product to the current market needs  – As the two above links show, you can map your existing product to the weak links in the crisis at hand, and provide a quick solution to the community. Time is of the essence!
  • Focus on your core business – While the world is distracted, there doesn’t seem to be much Business As Usual. So use this time to focus on your PEOPLE and your processes! Practice empathy. Not a bad time to firm up your company’s WFH procedures and tools, and ensure that even the newest employee gets comfortable with them.
  • Reassess the future – The general sentiment is that this virus is on a curve that will flatten with the passage of time. Look for opportunity to preserve cash – so that you are part of the rising tide when it comes!
  • Reassure your team – The strongest leadership is now necessary to guide your teams, those who are new to crisis, and those who are jaded from past crisis management. This is a time to inspire your teams with active communication about decisive actions, based on the best information that you have at hand, while fully acknowledging the enormity of what we don’t yet know.

Honesty, transparency, self-reflection, and the flexibility to embrace new information as it comes along will get us through this to see healthier days ahead.