7 High-Impact Ways to Demonstrate Leadership Right Now
DRD ADVISORS, LLC
During times of stress, leaders demonstrate their true leadership skills, or lack thereof.
Here are 7 ways you can make sure to do the former.
1) Pay Attention & Take Notes. Who is freezing and who is rising to the occasion? The way people respond to hypothetical situations during interviews is much less telling than how they are responding right now. Real crises reveal real behaviors and competencies so take note.
2) Act Swiftly & With Confidence. Since hard decisions are inevitable during tough times, make them fast and confidently. You will get things wrong, but if you fail to take decisive action it can be way more problematic for company culture in the long-run.
3) Acknowledge Greatness. Verbally acknowledge (i.e. via group video calls) employees and managers who are taking charge, adapting to the circumstances and setting the right example for others. By doing so, you give your employees the chance to cling to something positive and bond with one another.
4) Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. Uncertainty is a breeding ground for anxiety and fear. When employees don’t have access to information from their leaders, they create their own dialogue or scour the internet for answers – oftentimes from unreliable sources. Speak regularly with your employees to manage their expectations.
5) State Facts Rather Than Opinions. While it is tempting to draw from personal experience right now, employees need reliable sources (i.e. Johns Hopkins Research Data, CDC, WHO) to provide them with objective information. If such unbiased information is not given, they will instead listen to their favorite social media influencer who may lack expertise or have a biased point of view or both.
6) Educate With Pictures. Use pictures when appropriate because they are easier to relate to than mere data. For example, a client revealed an image of COVID-19 up close and then gave a brief lesson in micro biology about why concentrated alcohol can destroy it. Another client showed his employees a line graph from the World Health Organization (WHO) that displayed the increasing number of global cases of COVID-19. Pictures tell stories so use them to get the attention of and educate your employees.
7) Talk Using Percentages. As of the time we posted this, worldometers.info reported 181,906 COVID-19 cases in the US, of which 3,655 have been fatal. The ratio of fatal cases to all cases of the virus, therefore, comes out to 2% – a very small percentage when put into context. While any number of deaths is tragic, framing the data in terms of percentages helps your employees keep things in perspective and manage their anxieties and fears. Once they do that, they can be both mentally and emotionally available for their families who are experiencing high levels of stress and anxiety during these unprecedented times.