Browsing through some articles on turn arounds and leadership by corporate honchos on LinkedIn, I realized that while strategy, planning, execution et cetera continue will always be important, it is leadership which will differentiate how a team of individuals responds to a crisis, and fights its way back. This was prompted by the general overall sluggish macro economic scenario, and conversations with friends on how corporate India is responding to stuff around them.
I am no scientist, or thinker - so I'll just say what I feel my leader should say / or what I would say to my team when things are not going well.
1. Admit that the chips are down. : The citizens/employees are not dumb. They are connected to a internet driven, news hungry, content creating world.They read stuff, they discuss stuff. All of this causes a lot of flux and tends to give birth to unsubstantiated "facts". There are a few smart ones who also tend to cook up new theories to add to the confusion. But a single, clear message from the leader, admitting that we have a challenge on our hands, and that we need to buck up, signals that yes, the leaders are aware of the problem, they are not sitting in an ivory tower, but are energetically thinking ahead on how to come back.
2. Create a positive & healthy environment : Encourage people, let them not be afraid of speaking their minds and ask questions. More often then not, the grand strategies of boardrooms prove ineffective on the ground because the people driving these strategies do not believe / are not convinced by them. An environment which allows them to freely question and understand stuff (especially since they are expected to drive actions that will help convert vision to reality) - will set imaginations free, and help people understand what is really expected of them, and more importantly, how are they expected to do so. Removing fear of reprisals is another critical element to this.
3.Celebrate the small wins : It is an unfortunate human tendency (acquired thru years of evolution) to highlight and pin point failures / misses. It helped us transition from being cave men to farmers, and then on to various other life stages. However, a company in crisis must consciously avoid making criticism its raison d etre and consciously make efforts to celebrate the small successes. This has a short, positive, morale boosting effect, and enhances the confidence levels of the team, which slowly can trigger a virtuous cycle.
4.Guide, coach and mentor: Senior leaders bring with them the wealth of experience - in some cases, they would have seen similar circumstances and even been part of turnaround stories. Their guidance and coaching to selected team leadership members on how they can do the small, behavioural things right, that would set the larger teams on the road to recovery, can be a crucial input that really differentiates. Its critical to remember that the teams largely know what corrective actions are required - they just need support, guidance and regular monitoring and feedback to help them deliver the required results.
While most of the above sounds cliched and largely theoretical, it is largely true that most of our leaders today, both business and political, are concerned with getting the larger, strategic priorities right, leaving the job of managing the "smaller", softer aspects to the frontline / regular leadership, which is anyway under the regular pressure to manage operating reality on a day to day basis , leaving them with less of precious bandwidth to be able to really act as change agents. Coming to terms with change and the behavioural shifts required to cope with it require patience, maturity and immense self knowledge - and leaders who can exhibit the right mix all of these, while being able to set a consistent tone thru the system, would have lead their teams successfully.
I am no scientist, or thinker - so I'll just say what I feel my leader should say / or what I would say to my team when things are not going well.
1. Admit that the chips are down. : The citizens/employees are not dumb. They are connected to a internet driven, news hungry, content creating world.They read stuff, they discuss stuff. All of this causes a lot of flux and tends to give birth to unsubstantiated "facts". There are a few smart ones who also tend to cook up new theories to add to the confusion. But a single, clear message from the leader, admitting that we have a challenge on our hands, and that we need to buck up, signals that yes, the leaders are aware of the problem, they are not sitting in an ivory tower, but are energetically thinking ahead on how to come back.
2. Create a positive & healthy environment : Encourage people, let them not be afraid of speaking their minds and ask questions. More often then not, the grand strategies of boardrooms prove ineffective on the ground because the people driving these strategies do not believe / are not convinced by them. An environment which allows them to freely question and understand stuff (especially since they are expected to drive actions that will help convert vision to reality) - will set imaginations free, and help people understand what is really expected of them, and more importantly, how are they expected to do so. Removing fear of reprisals is another critical element to this.
3.Celebrate the small wins : It is an unfortunate human tendency (acquired thru years of evolution) to highlight and pin point failures / misses. It helped us transition from being cave men to farmers, and then on to various other life stages. However, a company in crisis must consciously avoid making criticism its raison d etre and consciously make efforts to celebrate the small successes. This has a short, positive, morale boosting effect, and enhances the confidence levels of the team, which slowly can trigger a virtuous cycle.
4.Guide, coach and mentor: Senior leaders bring with them the wealth of experience - in some cases, they would have seen similar circumstances and even been part of turnaround stories. Their guidance and coaching to selected team leadership members on how they can do the small, behavioural things right, that would set the larger teams on the road to recovery, can be a crucial input that really differentiates. Its critical to remember that the teams largely know what corrective actions are required - they just need support, guidance and regular monitoring and feedback to help them deliver the required results.
While most of the above sounds cliched and largely theoretical, it is largely true that most of our leaders today, both business and political, are concerned with getting the larger, strategic priorities right, leaving the job of managing the "smaller", softer aspects to the frontline / regular leadership, which is anyway under the regular pressure to manage operating reality on a day to day basis , leaving them with less of precious bandwidth to be able to really act as change agents. Coming to terms with change and the behavioural shifts required to cope with it require patience, maturity and immense self knowledge - and leaders who can exhibit the right mix all of these, while being able to set a consistent tone thru the system, would have lead their teams successfully.
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