7 Conscious Leadership Traits to Practice During Covid Now
Leadership is about charting a course for the future path and a vision for how to get there. How are you doing with leading your team during this pandemic?
Do you have all the answers? Or is it a little like trying to find the bathroom in a strange house in the middle of the night? In my position, I have seen some brilliant men and women leading with the respect of their teams, despite missteps. I have also recently seen frustration with leaders who refuse to face facts, thinking they can navigate without a compass.
Leadership in crisis is not anything new. Before this covid-19 situation, leaders have always had VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous ) environments to contend with regularly. The most significant difference between today's challenges to past decades is generational. Generation X, Z, and Millennials expect a few different things than generations of the past.
What conscious leadership habits differentiate an effective crisis leader and a leader of minions, you ask? I have narrowed seven everyday practices that distinguish the best from the worst. These are seven simple traits to cultivate during any uncertain times I wish to share with you. They are simple and easily executed. It just takes a little courage and humility.
1. Honesty - First things first.
Nothing will work if you are not honest. Nothing.
Unless you are running a scam, you can fool your people (the board, co-owners, staff, clients) maybe once but not twice. The cost of admission to real leadership is integrity. I should not even need to mention this, but in this day of "alternative facts" and science relegated to an op/ed pages, I feel the need to make this clear from the onset.
Unfortunately, a couple of clients recently asked me how to appear more confident during this pandemic when the industry's ground rules change weekly. Bad question. Not sure about you, but I was not around during the 1918 Flu Pandemic, this is new territory for all of us.
I think it's a bad idea to posture this way or try to appear that. There are many people right now who know damn well nobody knows what the hell is going on. Now is not a time to "fake it 'till you make it."
If you are not honest, your people will remember this. If you are a business owner, you are in it for the long run. Do not limit who you can be in the future by making a basic integrity mistake now. Build trust with your team; be honest.
2. Be Compassionate.
Compassion is the first step to getting people's attention when they are scared or nervous. There is a saying, "nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care." In this case, I would go a little further and suggest, "everyone else knows you don't know much, so at least show you care."
According to McKinsey and Company, "Numerous studies show that in a business-as-usual environment, compassionate leaders perform better and foster more loyalty and engagement by their teams; however, compassion becomes especially critical during a crisis" (https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/tuning-in-turning-outward-cultivating-compassionate-leadership-in-a-crisis#)
The mere act of acknowledging the fears and uncertainty as we see yet another wave of illnesses spreading, businesses closing, and government in-fighting is a great way to get eye to eye with your people.
According to research findings compiled by Cornell University, "many studies have suggested that compassion at work yields collective benefits as well, including higher levels of shared positive emotion (e.g., pride and gratefulness; Dutton et al. 2006) as well as greater collective commitment and lower turnover rates." (https://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1733&context=articles.) And as a leader, aren't you trying to maintain commitment in this fluid environment of Covid.
Empathy, compassion, and caring about others are part of emotional intelligence, and I have discussed this elsewhere. Suffice it to say, caring about others is a sign of social health. Showing others a genuine interest in their concerns allows others to open up.
Compassion. Let it show.
3. Show Vulnerability.
After you show your staff that you care about them, their fears, their families, and futures, you get to come clean. Now it is your turn to be vulnerable. Allow yourself to be fully seen. Show your staff that we are in this together.
Harvard University researcher Jeff Polzer says that in a team environment, "being vulnerable gets the static out of the way and lets us do the job together, without worrying or hesitating."
The level of sharing will be different for each stakeholder. While nobody wants to hear their leader vomit all their worries, you can share your professional concerns. Maybe those expansion plans are out the window because you are not sure of anything anymore. Hiring for critical positions is paused, which is making your job more difficult. Whatever is pertinent.
If you can dig deep with the right group, you can share personal concerns. Not sure what school you can send your child to, tell them. Are you worried about your elderly parents in another state? Dreams dashed? Tell them.
4. Be humble and stay curious.
Ask for opinions, help, suggestions. Yep. This is the one in which your ego will get in the way. Most people won't ask for help because they think they need to know all the answers. But, you don't need to know the answers, and it will show a level of maturity by searching out better solutions from others.
If you know all the answers either you are truly brilliant (please DM me and let me follow you around for a year) or you need to surround yourself with some better people (side note: if you find yourself to be the smartest one in the room, change rooms.)
According to a 2014 article in Harvard Business Review, "The Best Leaders Are Humble Leaders," "When leaders humbly admit that they don't have all the answers, they create space for others to step forward and offer solutions." Humility is a trait of inclusive leadership in which the team has more buy-in to the mission.
One of the biggest mistakes I see with people I work with is not trusting the people they hire. I am sure you may have worked for bosses like that. How did that sit with you?
Superhero execs are a myth in these times. The world is too complicated for anyone to know all the answers in their own business, much less their industry. No one person can come in and save the day. Be curious as to what ideas others have.
Be humble. Stay curious.
5. Communicate.
Being an executive means you get paid to make decisions. After getting all the input you can, you will be anxious to make a decision. As a successful decision-maker, you have your reasons as to why you may have gone one way or another. Now is the time to share, to communicate your plan. So far, this should all sound pretty normal, right?
Here is the part that might be different. Share "the why" for your choices. As a leader, you will have to share what you believe to be true in the multiple crisis scenarios.
As Simon Sinek says in his bestselling book, Start with Why, "we are drawn to leaders and organizations that are good at communicating what they believe. Their ability to make us feel like we belong, to make us feel special, safe, and not alone is part of what gives them the ability to inspire us." I think this works for our teams as well as clients.
As a business leader, you may share the reasons you make choices as a matter of policy. Often the staff wants to know why something is changing. We all know implementing changes is hard, so let the team understand your reasoning. In crisis management, getting the staff involved and getting buy-in is essential at all levels. Although even if you do not get agreement all around, there will be an appreciation for your candor and communication.
6. Show Gratitude.
Now is the time to help those who are helping you. Now is the time to show gratitude to your team. Too many leaders these days are acting indifferent to the team that makes or breaks the leader's plans. Don't be "that person."
Multiple studies have linked increased productivity and optimism in employees who felt appreciated. With the uncertainty in the business cycle, worries about their professional futures, personal finances, and the other global stressors shared on the news daily; a little gratitude can go a long way.
During this time that you may be making some mistakes that require cleanups from those you lead, it might be useful to make a gratitude deposit in their emotional bank account.
7. Repeat.
And repeat again. You will have to repeat this process over and over. Course corrections during uncertain times are par for the course.
During this period, leaders may need to change course more times than they normally would, and you will need your team behind you at each step. Leaders are only leaders because they have followers.
Nothing here is new.
Concluding, I want to say that this is nothing new. These are simple habits to move from the fear-based leadership style of the past into what will become the future's defacto leadership style.
During this time of crisis, practice some conscious leadership practices, and you will have a more creative, loyal, and stable team to help you right the ship out of the storm. Practice fear-based management styles of the past, and you may find your team members moving to greener pastures.
A successful leadership style is much more conscious. These leaders are aware of the connectedness of themselves and their teams and their clients and see the value of leading a team inter-related stakeholders, rather than being the dictator of what they see as mindless minions. They understand leadership during a crisis.
You got this. Just remember to be honest, compassionate, vulnerable, humble, communicative, gracious, and do it again and again. Your staff will appreciate it and your life will be better for it.
Let me know if I missed anything or if you disagree in the comments below. If you know anyone who can use some help with their leadership skills, let me know.