During this season of economic pause, keeping an eye on and having a clear sense of where your ‘business head’ is, is vital. What’s your ‘business head’? It’s how your leaders are thinking about and coping with this ‘pause’, and how these attitudes flow through the entire organisation. The right headspace is vital for today’s survival and even more vital for tomorrow’s growth.
Active Knowledge Question:
How are you maintaining your centripetal leadership strength during this time of social distancing?
Separation
During this time of separation where you are not physically with your leadership team on a continual basis, there is a real risk that the strength of your centripetal leadership will weaken. Centripetal leadership arises from the physics of leadership and defines the relationship that exists between leaders and the community that turns into them for cues and direction.
The influence, strength, of your leadership weakens the further or longer you are away from your community. It has a limited reach, and that reach is typically extended by appointing worthy leaders whom you are connected with and who can then act as your representative in those distant communities. This is your leadership team at work spread across and throughout your business at varying levels.
Social distancing can lead to a loss of contact/connection with your leaders, and they can drift and begin to develop traits and thinking that are not consistent with the way you want the business to evolve.
The current economic pause and social distancing will impact every person in varying ways and at different levels. You must care for your leadership team and maintain your close connections with them to ensure they do not drift or worse are lost. And that they are doing the same for their team members.
Head Space
There are ten areas where you should ensure all your leaders, and all those who work within and with your business, are on the same page:
- Your response is critical: how you frame the current pause and your response will set the tone throughout your organisation. Is it a complete disaster from which the business will not recover, will there be massive job losses or is this an opportunity to improve capability and processes which otherwise would not occur? A chance to strengthen the business for when everything fires up again. Check: on the mental health of everyone in your team to make sure they are coping and have a positive attitude toward the future.
- Your isolation is only physical: while everyone is now working from home, there is no reason why you are still not a team. In fact, this is a chance to hone digital communication skills and learn how to use skype/zoom etc. The same meetings that happened in the office should still occur with everyone arriving with their coffee in hand. This is a time in which team strength and support is more important than ever before. Check: make a point of increasing the level of contact you have with key people and that they do the same. The one-on-one chats around the water cooler should still occur.
- Where you are looking is vital: there is a future and what you do now will seed that future. Everyone should be focused on that future and taking every opportunity to build towards an even better future. If team members are looking backwards at what used to be and what has been lost, there will be no future. Check: that the future is clear, and everyone is committed to it.
- You must find peace at night: wellbeing is vital to performance and clear thinking. At night everyone must be able to put their head down and not wake at 3 am worried about what the future may hold. As best you can, provide certainty for everyone. Check: ask how your team members are sleeping and what is worrying them and keeping them awake. Be actively concerned about their welfare.
- Frustration will not help you: it’s easy to become angry and frustrated with what is happening and the fact that there will be many things that you cannot do anything about. Acceptance of what can’t be changed is important so you can focus on what can be. Check: make sure everyone’s attention is on what can be changed, what can be done and not locked into a battle with things over which they have no influence.
- Remember to laugh: laughter is a great release of tension, and no matter how bad things seem to be laughing is invaluable. At times laughing is all you can do. You must bring a lightness into yours and others’ lives, and through this action, you enable finding answers and solutions. Check: has any of your team totally lost it and can only communicate with anger? Make sure this doesn’t happen.
- Courage will sustain you: there will be many hard decisions to make, and you must make them for the right reasons and not out of fear, self-interest or pride. You will likely not be able to support everyone into the future who has been with you in the past, and these can be some of your hardest decisions. Check: are my decisions the best to ensure the business has a future, and are they courageous?
- Seek support: no one can or should try and journey forward through the present challenges alone. You need three champions standing with you to support and encourage you forward on this journey. Check: ensure everyone on your team has champions or buddies who are there to support and encourage them. No one is to be left to stand alone.
- This season is only for a moment: the current pause will come to an end, although at this time that may seem unclear and uncertain. We may not know how consumer behaviours may have changed, but needs will remain. This is the opportunity to reshape our businesses to be more competitively fit and ready to step strongly into the future. Check: that everyone is working to make their part of the business better than it ever was and fit for a new emerging future.
- Now is the time to prove yourself: in times of challenge, you must step forward, meet and overcome all challenges. It is not a time to shy away. It is a time in which you can help others and lift your capabilities and traits to the forefront. Look for opportunities that may never present themselves again, learn from them and prove to yourself your worth as a person. Check: look to see who is stepping up to meet the challenges and importantly, who is helping others. They are your leaders for tomorrow.
The current disconnection across your leadership team can have a profound impact on your business performance. Double up your efforts to remain strongly connected with everyone on the same page and with the ‘right attitude’ to bring the business forward. And ensure that this ethic flows through your entire business at all levels. The strength that this building of connections and relationships will bring will endure well into the future and underpin your business’s future performance.
An entirely new level of performance.
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All the best in the success of your business,
Richard Shrapnel
