Keep Calm and Lead On: Leading Through Challenging Times
Southeast Louisiana suffered yet another devastating hurricane this month, and it has got me thinking about how leaders approach challenging times. The business community has had no shortage of difficult events in the past few years – storms, a pandemic, market shifts, and employment volatility, to name just a few. While we often talk about VUCA leadership (leading your team or company through volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous events), sometimes it’s unclear where one VUCA event ends, and another begins. Or are we just in an unceasing pattern of crisis? Is the “new normal” just a mirage?
It might help to get a little more specific about what a VUCA event actually is, versus an acute crisis that demands a specific and immediate response. Think of it this way – the pandemic has been a long-running VUCA event, characterized by a lack of information, uncertainty about the future, and no real playbook for the businesses affected. Hurricane Ida, while causing immense destruction, does have a playbook – helping employees, clients, and business operations recover as quickly as possible, while minimizing future risk. To put it this way, here in south Louisiana, hurricanes are among a class of anticipated crises that leaders are expected to manage as their teams look to them for guidance.
Over the next few weeks, our consultants will be sharing insight on leading through our ongoing challenging times – how to communicate well in a crisis and out of it, building teams through an intense challenge, and the importance of a strong transition out of the challenge period. I’m kicking things off by laying the groundwork for how we define and react to sustained VUCA events, versus a more contained crisis. Here’s what leaders and organizations need to know:
Different challenges require different tools.
During a long term challenge, transparent communication is crucial for maintaining trust and getting things done in a shifting landscape. Even if you don't know exactly what's going on or what will happen, your team needs to trust that you will be open with them. During a more limited crisis, especially where time is of the essence, it's especially important to communicate through delegation – which includes imparting information and tasks to key individuals so that action can be taken promptly and well.
A VUCA event will have different impacts on different sectors of the business landscape, while an acute crisis often has a more blanket impact on a region or sector.
Crises of course affect different businesses differently, but in a large scale, sudden crisis you can be pretty sure that competitors and partners alike are scrambling to respond and minimize impact to their business. In that sense, everyone is in the same boat. Whereas a longer term challenge, by nature, will see some organizations pull ahead, some fall behind, and others not impacted at all. Leaders have to be aware of what’s happening in their business environment and react accordingly.
All of this requires analysis and adjustment to your teams strategic response – your people need to know that you are keeping all of the variables in mind and are ready to guide them through every scenario.
In conclusion, a lot of this comes down to whether or not you already have a playbook in place to deal with the situation at hand. If your company or industry has dealt with similar challenges before and knows roughly how it will play out, then your job as a leader is to keep calm, and follow the plan in place – while being responsive to the needs of your team, paying attention to how the landscape might shift, and updating the playbook to address new and future scenarios.
If you are dealing with a VUCA event that has no playbook, then my advice is partly the same: keep calm! When everything is uncertain, being steady at the wheel goes a long way. It will also be the job of the leader to absorb a lot of shifting information and filter it to their team in a way that allows them to take productive action. We see this during the pandemic – as recommendations change and guidelines shift, employees need to know what to expect for that shift or that day, even as you are transparent about the possibility of future changes.
We know that in the coming weeks many businesses will be addressing both the immediate crisis of Hurricane Ida, and the long term impacts of the pandemic. As we know by now, these events have very different implications and require different responses. As you steer your organization through these challenging times, always remember to pay attention to what kind of situation you are dealing with – be proactive, not reactive. And keep calm and lead on!
Success Labs is a leadership development and management consulting firm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to grow leaders, build teams and drive results through great people strategy. Contact us to get proactive about expanding your company’s potential, and stay up-to-date with our latest news and leadership development updates here.
