Leadership Needed to Make it Through Scary Times
It’s nuts out there. But you knew that. Just did a seminar yesterday for one of my favorite clients out here in Hawaii. Kamehameha Schools has over 100 year-history of providing education for the children of Hawaii. I love those people. Every time I get to train on their campus, I can feel the real spirit of Aloha that the ancients must have felt. The leaders in my session yesterday were truly caring, intelligent people.
We talked about how to handle this mess on a local level. It’s easy to get all caught up in the insanity on TV and radio. But at the end of the day, what matters is how your team is responding. Are they feeling hopeless? If they are, it will reflect in their work.
So we talked about Accountability. About being present. About role modeling the behaviors you want to see in your people. How can you expect them to react with resourcefulness and strength if you are falling apart?
Ok – so we’ve had a meltdown. We can sit around and whine. Argue about fault. Moan about our lost stocks. Or we can DO SOMETHING. As leaders, that’s our only choice.
Remember who you are. Remember your mission. Look again at your vision statements. Does anything need to be revised with the new situation? Can you get your people focused on the good stuff?
One thing I have revisited in recent months is a process I used to use called Appreciative Inquiry. It’s a fairly simple process. Look at what’s working. Get people focused there. See what you can do to transfer the best practices that work to other departments and processes in the organization.
Some of the questions you can ask your team:
- What are we doing right?
- What’s working? Why?
- What policies and procedures make our employees and customers happy?
- Which processes/activities bring in the best return on our investments?
- What did we do to make these successes possible?
- How can we transfer these successes throughout the organization?
When you get the answers to these conversations, you can begin to rewrite your vision and mission with positive outcomes in mind. People begin remembering what works and what part they played in the success. By focusing on the positive, their brains naturally become more open to creativity and resourcefulness.
And that’s the beauty of this process: It get’s people’s heads screwed on straight. You’re looking for what’s good about the organization. In a down economy, a lot of people really want to look for everything that’s wrong – at home and at work. That kind of negativity can overwhelm even the most positive of people and slow down their productivity.
What’s happened has happened. It may very well get worse before it gets better. But it doesn’t help if people are sabotaging the things that still work in the organization. Set some standards. Let them know you expect them to continue to help your company succeed. Do some Appreciative Inquiry exercises. Keep communication two-way and SAFE. And always Remember Who You Are.
For more info on Appreciative Inquiry, go here.
All the best to you and your organizations,
Beth
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© 2008 Beth Terry Seminars, Inc.
