Why do leaders need coaching during uncertain times?

What do you do when the rules have changed?

And what do you do when by the time you become used to the rules, the turf has changed?

The world has suddenly been laid bare at its essentials. We are willingly doing away with excess and figuring out the parts of life that truly matter. Leaders more than others today are at a precarious place. While they have to work through their own insecurities, they also have to help their teams manage uncertainty and change.

Suddenly what good looks like is not clear. When you need to make decisions based on incomplete data, decisions that will impact livelihoods, self-doubt creeps in. And that’s where having a sounding board, a leadership coach becomes non-negotiable.

Max reached out to me last week. He heads Organization Development at a mid- sized company. They have had to let go off quite a few people. Some skill sets that they considered a must have for their organization have no more takers today. They don’t have anybody on the bench and the business as a whole is pivoting to survive.

Max was worried because while he had worked through the last crisis, this one was bigger and had impacted not just his industry, but all associated suppliers, clients and partners. He called me to talk about what kind of competencies will make a difference in the near future. As he made the judgment call of letting go of people that were not aligned to the operations today, he knew that this move could backfire in the medium term.

As the business pivoted, he was unsure about his choices of which people and which skills needed to be retained – and if this short-term operational decision will be a medium to long term strategic mistake.

And how far is the near future?

Here are some of the themes we discussed:

Communicate honestly, clearly and repeatedly

Fear and vulnerability in the disguise of assertiveness and over-the-top optimism always backfires. We are in the initial stage of this crisis. It’s OK to not know everything, it’s OK to be unsure. However, I can’t insist enough on the value of transparent and honest communication, especially when you don’t know everything. People trust their employers more than any other source. In a survey by Edelman in 10 countries, 63 percent of respondents said that they would believe information about the virus from their employer. Don’t give them incomplete truths or half lies, tell them where you stand, where the company stands. Any decision made on clear communication gives meaning and stability to the parties involved. Shared facts can build a whole story.

Crowd source ideas and experiences

Max was in a tough spot because he assumed that the organisation expected him to have the answers. Max could be the facilitator of conversations across the management teams rather than sharing his own research and thought process. May be this is also the time to involve customers and suppliers to get an ‘outside-in’ view. Collective experience is insightful and powerful that can help people connect and address shared griefs, stress and struggles.

As a coach to many leaders in these turbulent times, I often ask “If you are saying yes to this today, what are you saying no to?”.

Acknowledge loss, Instill optimism, Build resilience

Trust is a powerful sentiment that follows truth. The first step towards restoring faith and building a loyal and resilient workforce is acknowledging the truth – the losses and the struggles. Accept the chaos.

Choose your verbatim wisely. To instill confidence and build a resilient and stable community, talk in terms of what will help than what will jeopardize lives and beget further chaos, for example – ‘Stay home’ over ‘Don’t travel to work’ or ‘Physical distancing’ over ‘Stay away’.

Ask questions to discover stable solutions

The Covid-19 pandemic has put forth several uncertainties in the world including economic and financial ones. The solutions will arise from questions. You can only draw solutions when you ask questions. Ask yourself, what you want, what’s your priority. Ask it as many times as you need to. Ask your employees. Ask your customers. Don’t assume. Questions will give you clarity.

Simplify responsibility

This is not the time to hog responsibility. In fact, decentralized accountability works best when nothing truly is under your control. Work back from the outcomes. If you need most of your people to still have jobs by the end of the year, what needs to change today?

If you need to understand how your customers’ needs are changing, what needs to be done today?

Look for simple solutions. Find the courage to voice them and see where that takes you. Every thought doesn’t have to be backed by a plan today. These are unique times, where you can build the plan as the days take shape. 

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About the author:

My passion is to create opportunities and catalyse relationships that help us thrive! I believe that personal, organisational and societal change is an interactive development process and through my interventions I seek to build awareness and action across all. I have had the privilege to have coached and trained leaders and management teams in 40 plus countries globally and on all continents.

Over the last two decades, I have engaged with leadership development, L&D and talent management across the entire spectrum from diagnosis to design to implementation. Currently I run my own niche Executive Coaching Practice to accelerate leader's path to success through my focus on #LeadershipBranding.

Drop me a message at shivangi@shivangiwalke.com or to schedule a call with me please use : calendly.com/shivangi

Here are 2 initiatives I have founded : www.thrivewithmentoring.com, a non-profit that catalyses women to women mentoring (currently present in 5 countries) and www.xponential.cc (through which I bring award winning leadership trainings such as Crucial Conversations and Power of Habit).