Tough times can test even the most seasoned business. What makes the difference is how their leaders choose to navigate these times and lead their people. To many businesses, a crisis is a turning point. How your organization navigates it says volumes. We have put together a few tips for you and your company’s leaders to make these waters a little easier to navigate.
Leverage your Team’s Strengths
Help your team play to their strengths – that’s where they will be most effective and feel the best. Doing things they do well, particularly in a crisis, can help them feel more comfortable and in control, while at the same time helping your team tackle the challenges in front of you. At the same time – remember that you have a range of skill sets and self-perspectives to juggle. Some of your employees are good at far more than just what their job description says. Others may have a view of their own strengths that don’t necessarily match what they are actually good at. Playing to your team’s strengths isn’t about letting everyone do what they want – it’s about acknowledging what people are objectively good at and putting them in positions to shine. Favoritism and bias have no place here – and if your team thinks they do, that perception will undermine the process.
Create Order in Chaos
People like order and structure (at varying degrees, of course!). When chaos hits that gets disrupted. But this can be a time when your company’s leaders can create order out of all this chaos. Pick a direction in which you want your company to move and then disseminate that across the organization. Get in-front of the chaos that has been created and put your company’s spin on it to create the structure that will give your employees direction. Look for opportunities and focus the team on them. During this whole time, you need to be receptive to all feedback that is given and remember to take it in, process and continue to seek more feedback. Communication is the best tool when it comes to building the structure in which everyone is looking for in the midst of chaos.
Help Others Lead
Being a great leader also means you have great followership and when you put someone in charge of something the last thing they want is to be micromanaged. When you help others lead this allows you the ability to focus efforts elsewhere in the company that may need more attention from you or even give you the ability to focus on things in your personal life for a moment. When you as the company leader promote others to take the lead on a project and let them run away with it you are developing them no only as a leader within the company which people can turn to but it shows confidence in your employees and their individual skill. Set expectations. Coach. Find out what they need from you to be successful. And help them shine.
Focus on Core values
Your companies mission, culture and values will be tested during tough times and every company will experience these times at one point or another. It comes down to how it is handled. A skill that is essential to your leadership is making sure the company knows and amplifies the mission statement to reassure those around them and galvanize them. Refocus your company on your core values and keeping an eye on what your company was founded for will help give direction during tough times and make sure that your company does right not only by the mission statement but your employees as well.
