10 things leaders can do to manage through difficult times
In difficult times, how do the best leaders manage through? It’s one of the questions on everyone’s mind at the moment.
Whilst I was recently travelling through the UK [my birth home], watching everything unfold and being away from my husband and friends in my adopted home of Australia, the excitement of the study I was doing and the adventure I was undertaking dropped away and I started to feel isolated and more than a little disconcerted.
I knew I needed to ground myself and get my head in a calmer state so I could continue to enjoy the remaining time I had there, despite everything, and be in the right frame of mind to be present with my clients, without worrying about PHQ and whether or not I would get back to Australia.
First, I had to accept that I might not – get back. And that was okay – I have family and friends there that opened their doors to me for as long as I needed.
Secondly, we are very fortunate as we can conduct our work over the internet – and often do – so why was I worrying?
Then as often is the case, something happened which assisted me greatly - Alison, in our team, came to my aid unprompted sending me two podcasts from Brendon Burchard.
I got a great deal out of these podcasts - I had the time to invest 2 hours sitting in a beautiful garden in North Devon – I’m sure you do not, so below is a synopsis for you.
Brendon Burchard’s Top Practices to handle difficult times had some great points on how to manage our responses both as leaders and personally to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brendon asks:
How do we set / manage our own emotional tone, whilst we deal with what’s in front of us?
How do we continue with our business and goals at the same clip or even faster than before amidst this challenging time? How do we hold the line in our businesses?
1. THE ROLE MODEL MINDSET – as a leader, business owner, family member - remember - people are watching you. Decide that you will be the one to remain centred amongst the chaos. Decide to choose the emotional tone and attitude of the “role model mindset”.
We can either react to the panic or choose to be centred during the chaos – not easy, but it's necessary to project a demonstrated calm and patience when others are freaking out. It’s here and we’ve gotta face it!
When we avoid what’s necessary in life, we betray ourselves, our stakeholders and our friends and families.
I also recommend recentering and reconnecting with 3 deep breaths – take the time to breathe. Its quick, easy and effective.
Be the captain of the ship: As a leader, you may not want to be in charge, but if you are a leader of people, family or community you have to be in charge and never more than now.
Be responsible for the energy you’re putting out and ask of others to find the best within themselves.
Be the person that stays centred amid the chaos: To stay centred, you have to remain a little distanced from the chaos. Don’t engage with the chaos all day – read the news yes, but only twice a day. Instead keep working your plan – even whilst accommodating adjustments - keep working your plan.
Don’t keep hitting refresh or you’ll keep perpetuating negative energy and you’ll feed into the emotion. Stay informed, but contagion energy spreads – emotional contagion. The more you check in, the more it affects you.
2. UNDERSTAND WHERE YOURS/OTHERS' FEAR COMES FROM - there are only 3 reasons, in Brendon's view, that people feel fear (apart from primal/physical fear):
- a) Loss Pain: pain from loss. Our health, our business income, our relationship, steady work, the comforts/certainty. Loss pain is the primary fear factor for most people. Scared to lose something? Do a perspective check – have I lost it yet? Did I lose it in the past? Will everything really be entirely lost or perhaps just for a while?
On the other side of this is confidence… no doubt somewhere in the past you've experienced scarcity before and survived it.
In psychology we call this self-efficacy - a concept we use a lot in coaching. If a client is feeling overwhelmed, we work with them to uncover times when they felt similarly and what happened at that time.
When you’re feeling loss pain – use it as an opportunity - perhaps an opportunity to obtain new clients in a different way, an opportunity to learn about the virtual services your business could provide, an opportunity to re-tool by learning, reach your customers in a different way.
Question:
When we look back on this [there will be a new normal, we’re designing it now], how much learning will you have done, or will you have just been consumed by social media?
- b) Process pain: we fear hardship … honour the struggle that is in front of you. Honour and deal with it. Brendon says "I’m surprised that everyone is so surprised". You can anticipate your reactions and plan for them.
- c) Outcome pain: I’m scared of what’s on the other side of this. People jump to worst case scenario – catastrophising, death, ruin. That’s part of being human. It causes us to protect ourselves by anticipating the worst.
It also brings about adrenalin, increased cortisol, stress and anxiety – which we just don’t need.
Can we ask ourselves:
What must I engage in right now to do the best I can for my business, family, community?
Can you do this with your team, your boss, your family, your customers – in an active, proactive positive way?
3. DON'T COMPLAIN - Listen to how you describe things. Every night give yourself a score of 1-10 on your complaining.
Activity:
Start a scorecard 1-10.
1 - you whinged several times – and 10 good job as you didn’t whinge or blame. If you justify this by thinking you're making an argument – then you’ll need to have moved the needle forward on something.
1-10. How you did today – were you patient with the kids, did you connect with your team?
Ask:
Where’s your mental bandwidth going right now?
4. BE THE "STEADY / 80 RULE" - Identify those things that keep us steady – don’t be overwhelmed. Instead minimise things to do. Steady wins the race so stay focused on delivering what you do with excellence.
There will be a few items that you already do, that bring you 80% of the success in your business or your life. You already know what these are. There will be a few things that move the needle – focus and amplify those.
Beware of the tendency to add more things to do – this will likely increase uncertainty during difficult times. Minimise and conserve your energy – focus on that which will yield most.
Stay steady with 80% of things – keep that 80% rock solid. “I'm still executing the plan” – look forward to say June or July – there will be a new normal soon.
I’m practicing this with PHQ – even if we lose April/May – “we’re still executing the plan". I’m staying focused on the things that move the needle in our business.
Activity:
What are the 5 things you should continue doing in your business? Dive deep on those things right now. Double down on the things that are working right now – confidence and momentum.
5. MINIMISE YOUR DOWNSIDE BY TAKING ACTION NOW - Minimise the downside of what’s happening to your business/life. If you’re losing clients, launch something that will gain new clients now and in a few months from now.
Ask:
What can I set up, structure or reallocate right now?
If you’re scared about what’s happening [to your business, your family etc] amplify what’s working now.
If you’ve got some risky bets happening right now – perhaps put them aside for a later time.
6. DON'T THINK ABOUT THE NEEDS OF OTHERS BUT INSTEAD WHAT THEY VALUE - I found this one interesting and thought-provoking:
Each person in your life is responsible for getting their own needs met or asking for something that will. Physical, sustenance, safety, belonging. Maslow’s hierarchy. Your job as a leader is to think about what’s of most value to your people right now - rather than what you need.
And it’s not all bad - some people are super-stoked that they can self-isolate right now 😊 Let’s use that and serve that.
7. KEEP FORECASTING with your daily rhythm of effort – amidst the crazy – how are you thinking about the future? It’s a self-reliant world. Your future is something you are building, it’s always ongoing – don’t wait it out … yes there’s a pandemic but you can still forecast.
Brendon says: “forecasting is always better on a trend line than a moment”. At PHQ, we’re still forecasting! We’re always asking "Are we doing the things that we know move the needle – and are we doing it consistently?"
- Establish and stick to your daily rhythm of what moves the needle for your business;
- Know how you’re going to show up - know that your today is predicting your future;
- Go to your battle board – on the white board draw up the next 12 months;
- Write the word SUCKS in March / April – then plan to do things that will aim to grow after that.
Ask:
What can I / we do now to dramatically increase Q4 budget [depending on your end of financial year]?
What will mitigate the losses you’re experiencing now?
Resist doing this as a solo effort: involve staff, wrangle in industry peers into joint efforts. Come together. Set in some type of joint effort in place. Build alliances.
8. DON'T MAKE MAJOR CHANGES in life/business right now as it creates stress you don’t need!
9. COURAGE - Courage is always found in action/initiative despite risk. This is how courage is most often described as researched around the world.
We often work with leaders to develop their ‘professional courage'. Brendon describes courage as one of the following three things:
- Speaking up for oneself;
- Doing something that is difficult;
- Or speaking up for another.
Ask:
What would be a strong, courageous, important action I could do today? And take it. Just one!
10. DON'T PLAY DEFENCE - PLAY OFFENCE – Be proactive and take the hard measures now so you can grow again in the future.
Ask:
What can I do now as a leader that would strengthen and expand me and, in turn, strengthen and expand us as an organisation? Can you address something now in service to your future growth and purpose – or that of others?
I hope this has helped you as it helped me.
We wish you well as you navigate this time and we are here to help as you do.
Please reach out if you or your team needs assistance.
Jacqui and the PHQ Team
Find Brendon Burchards podcasts HERE
Leaders rise above and look further out…