194: Warren Rustand — Leading in a Time of Crisis

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Host of the show.

This episode is one of a series of five episodes on the five big moves that leaders need to make right now in order to navigate a major crisis like the one we are facing today. You'll find this series in about 200.

Other episodes on leadership and scaling up.

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Now as we talk with Warren Rustand.

All right, well, I'm joined now by a farm boy from Minnesota. Warren Rustand is familiar to some of our listeners. He's also served in the White House.

Played for the NBA, run companies over a billion dollars. He guides and helps people in the world of leadership leaders around the world today. And he's all around family man, lovely human being. Welcome to the show, Warren.

Thank you very much, Bill. Good to be with you.

So we're talking today about like a really timely thing. People are in the middle of a crisis and we have a particular large significant one on a global basis now. But even in other times we go through periods of crisis and there's always a question of how to lead and what leadership is and how do I lead, what do I tell people if I don't know what to do, if I don't have A plan yet what do people need from me? These are all things on folks mind right now, right?

Right, absolutely. This is a really challenging time and something we've never seen quite like this before. And it'll be interesting to watch it as it progresses. And hopefully as few people as possible will be seriously injured or resulting in death during this whole process. But it's going to be rolled out over the next many months and there'll be an opportunity for many people at all levels of our societies to provide leadership in a crisis. And that oftentimes is slightly different than other things. And I would just offer a couple of thoughts on it. Number one is that I think each of us that views ourselves as a leader in this situation, whether that's the leader of our family, a leader of our business, in our community, however we see this, that first, did we seek clarity, that we step back for just a second without panic, without fear, to be sure we have a very clear view of what's going on. And so clarity of vision and circumstances is really critical to this. What comes from clarity of vision then is what we call certainty of intent. It's this notion that we will act with intentionality in everything, which means we have to be data based in our decision making. And there are lots of rumors flying around, there are lots of facts that maybe can be interpreted different ways and so forth. So we need to go to good sources for information, get those sources, understand the facts as best we can of the circumstance. And when we communicate as a leader, we want to communicate from a data based set of information so that we're not speculating, we're not leading into nuances and subtleties of rumor, but rather these are the facts as we know them. I think a second part of our leadership during this time has to be the notion that we have to be completely transparent, honest and vulnerable. That we have to be completely open to new knowledge coming to us moment by moment, and also seeking additional clarity as we go through this process because it's changing by hour and we have to be certain we know best what we can do. And then thirdly, I would suggest create a plan of intentionality. These are the things that I want to do with my family and write them down. These are the things that I'm going to do in our business and then really review that and process that before you make choices and make decisions. All too often in crisis, people react spontaneously, moment by moment. And as the fluidity of these circumstances alters facts, we sometimes get caught in making decisions either too quickly or Too or too spontaneously. And so we have to find the timing for decision making as well, which is really critical. And sometimes that's very quick, sometimes it's much slower. I've had scores of calls over the last week from entrepreneurs and leaders all over the world who are struggling to understand the magnitude of this, the complexity of it, its impact on their businesses, on their families. And so we've gone to sources of information, we've taken time to really try to get clarity around this and then develop their plans. And if they do those three step, there's a greater opportunity for successful outcomes. That certainly doesn't ensure that we'll have great outcomes, but it gives us greater opportunity for it. So I'll pause there.

That was a lot to think about. Right. But you're talking first about communicating, getting the facts right as best you can and allowing for them to change, communicating them carefully, deliberately to your team, your people, the people who are looking to you and evaluating and adjusting your plans as you go in light of changing circumstances.

Yes, yes, that's correct.

Something else occurs. You said don't make your decisions so quickly, like too emotionally, too from the hip. Shoot from the hip, but not too slow either.

Right, right, right.

There's the other thing that I've been thinking about that I've been on the phone with the companies we work with this week and that's. Well, what do I say to my team now? I don't yet have a plan.

Well, that's right. I think collective sometimes. In collaboration with your team. Yeah, in collaboration with your team. You sift and sort among that which is known and that is unknown and then you agree the plan together, agree on a set of facts, agree on a set of assumptions. Right?

Yeah.

I think sometimes we want to be and our ego allows us to be. Sometimes we want to be the fountain of knowledge. We want to be the all knowing person. Right. And that, that can oftentimes be very difficult in a situation like this where things are moving so rapidly. We have to draw upon all of our colleagues and what they know and most of all how are they feeling about what's going on and then create something that works for the greatest number of people. And I think I'm very much a consensus based collaborative leader and I think there's great wisdom in the room. I don't think it resides just in one person, but there's great wisdom in the room.

When I think about some of the crises that I've either had to lead through or been a contributing leader in or even just Been part of a community. This function of this notion of we're going to work on this together, not the leader, has the answer and is your all knowing guru, but brings to you, says rallies the team together, works through the process, understands that the right ideas will emerge collectively in the room is really powerful.

I agree with you. I think it's really important. And your colleagues will really appreciate that those with whom you work every day will respect you for including them in the decision making process and listening to what they have to say. And that when you come out the other end of the tunnel after the crisis, there will be an even deeper, better culture in your organization as a result of that. As opposed to you simply waving the magic wand, directing people, telling them what to do without regard to their feelings.

Or to engaging them.

Yeah, without engaging them. So. And in my lifetime, Bill, I've been down through 13 downturns in the economy, a couple of really serious recessions.

Right.

And you know, we're sort of headed in that direction right now. If we're watching the markets, we don't know exactly where that's going to turn out yet. But the poll that I saw this morning says there's an 80 to 90% chance of a serious recession in the next few months. So we need to be thinking, well, what do we do? Well, you know, as a business leader, if we're just talking about business separate, apart from family, the first is protect cash. Cash is really important during this period of time. If we're going to go for a while, months with a decline in our business or disruption to a business, then cash becomes really critical. The next is to really think about what liquid assets do we have available to us in times of crisis and emergency. Are those liquid assets truly liquid or are they not? And could we use them if we had to? Right. And then there's the notion of how do we move our workforce to a new way of working. Many people who come to work every day are now working virtually. Are we prepared and are we set up to work virtually as an organization for business continuation? Right. And then you limit meetings, limit face to face contact. I mean, all the normal and necessary things about what we know of this thing called the coronavirus. Right. And I think we have to be very thoughtful. Most of all, and I think highest on the totem pole is our people and our human resources. How do we treat them, how do we calm them, how do we assist them in their own crisis? Because not only are they worried about their jobs and what's going on in the Business as we are. They also have to worry about their family, just like we do, and their extended family and the threats to them and so forth. So in times of high stress, there are things that we can do to mitigate that stress. And there are three things. Jenny Evans, who's written books on this, on stress, is an amazing lady. And talking with her over the last few days, she said there are sort of three things we have to do. First, we need to work out regularly, physically exhaust ourselves, work out. And one of the first things people do in crisis is they quit their routines. Yeah, we need to stay with our routines. We need to work out on a regular basis. So Dr. Fred Roby, who did a lot of research in this field of stress, said there's really only one thing that relieves stress in the end, it's rigorous physical exercise. So this notion of getting exercise, the second is nutrition. Sometimes during periods of stress, we tend to take the first thing available and it's chocolate and it's soft drinks and it's stuff. You know, we're feeding our faces and stuff. And that disrupts our bodies and hurts us in times of stress. So we need to be very diligent and disciplined about eating well, giving our body what it needs. And then the third step, which is really critical is getting adequate sleep. And that's sometimes difficult during periods of stress, but we need to really develop a regular routine of how we go to bed each night, turn off our. Turn off our cell phones and our computers and our TVs, have a quiet period, read some books, listen to soft music, meditate, and then prepare our minds and our bodies to actually enter our sleeping area and sleep. And we need to work on that routine more diligently. So discipline, working out food and sleep during a crisis become even more critical and important.

Well, I think it's interesting. You open first with our people have emotional needs and stresses and that kind of thing. And we've got to tune into that and respond and accept and give the people around us and our teams the room to have their range of response and then help bring them to a grounded place. But you can't do that if you're off. If your fitness, if your nutrition, if you're rest, if your mental health is off, you've got to take care of yourself. We know the phrase, put on your own oxygen mask.

Yeah, that's right. Well, and I think, Bill, you and I have been in crisis before, where we often gravitate to the calm, rational, reasoned person in the room when chaos is sweeping Others or stress leaving others. As a leader, we want to be that calm, rational person. Right. That has command of the facts as command of the situation and speaks with some authority while still allowing others to participate in the process. And. And so I think that's the kind of leadership we'd like to see. And if you think about Winston Churchill during World War II, when London was being bombed, and he'd go into his bunker every night and he would rally the people in London with his radio broadcasts, he was calm, he was reasonable, he was inspirational. You know, that's the kind of leadership that I think we need in crisis.

Yeah. And, you know, you might be a leader who's very strategic. You might be a great networking leader. If you're not yet in the mindset or place to do that, you've got to work, calm yourself first, and you may even appoint someone to do that. I know I've. There's a person who manages the neighborhood that we live in. Right. But then if things really go to hell, they're not of cool, calm mind. And I know that I am right. And so when we do, like, emergency drills in our neighborhood, I will take that role of neighborhood commander because I'm very good if bombs are going off and things are melting down. But that's not everyone. And you need to recognize if you're there or not, if you have that capacity or not, and who does. There's always someone around who has the ability, and you can't do it if you're losing your own cool. You've got to take care of yourself in that place and then take care of the people around you.

And if you think about this particular crisis, it's one in a series of crises that we've seen, and the world seems to have an acceleration of crisis right now. Maybe it's because of social media, and we hear about them all sooner or in more detail, but the sheer number of them, and you know, that started with the tsunami in Aceh province several years ago, where thousands of people were killed. And it's the earthquake off of Japan that shut down the nuclear reactor and created the tsunami there. And it's tornadoes and it's hurricanes, and it's a host of things that are happening in the. In the world right now. And so I think as leaders, we're going to be challenged more and more often to deal with various crises. It could be crisis on an individual level or a corporate level. It could be crisis much more broad like this is. But I think each of us who are leaders and have responsibilities of leadership. Need to begin to be very thoughtful about the way in which we're going to lead through crisis because I believe we're going to be called upon to do that more and more often.

Yeah, easily could be. And we are seeing all of these kinds of things again and again. And we have the direct crisis, right. We have the health crisis, which some people downplay, but you see it can rapidly overwhelm a healthcare system. But then you have the secondary kinds of impacts on the markets and then those in turn affect other kinds of things. I have some of the with now are seeing huge increase in demand for things they, they do and sell and a few others are not sure if they'll have an effect. And then I have a couple who are dramatically down and looking at how to survive and, and get through to a place of looking for the opportunity. Right now they're just looking for staying alive for a minute.

Yeah. And I think also sometimes we tend to focus on the big issues. The NBA canceling their games, professional sports canceling their games, all that sort of thing. We're talking about in most cases the people at the head of that chain all being multi millionaires, being very successful people and they're going to be able to weather the storm. What my concern is, what about the concessionaires, what about the supply chains? What about the small mom and pop entrepreneur lifestyle businesses that are going to be impacted down that change chain, that are going to go out of business, that can't feed their family, that will have no income and, and, and those people will be dramatically affected and impacted by what's going on right now. And, and it's not going to change the life of the megastars because of their cash position, but it really affects the supply chain.

Well, this is where our families, our neighborhoods, our communities of interest, our faith communities, all can come together and support each other because there will be impacts. There will be people among us who live not as much our listenership, but the people in our world. We have to be sensitive to the fact that they may be seriously impacted and really stressed out about doing it and dealing with it. And I think with some of them the same approach can be. I worked with one of our CEO owners the last two days who's looking at a massive downturn in their business. And I said you need to go make unreasonable requests of people. You need to let people know that you are on the ropes and you intend to survive. And, and you need to ask something that is not fair, reasonable or warranted. But, but Ask for free rent, ask for people to take pay kits, ask for whatever, you know what's not comfortable, but ask from a place of working through something together. And already he's had dramatic response from people, massive rent relief and concessions and things like that. So it's extraordinary.

Oh, I absolutely agree with you. And I think sometimes people are reticent to make those requests, and yet in this crisis environment, you have to do that. That's great advice that you gave them. I also think it's a time for leaders of organizations that are going to be okay during this time of crisis to really show their humanity, to really step beyond their corporate boundaries, to use their assets and resources to benefit others in the environment who are going through really tough time. And I think this consciousness of leadership is really important. It's not just about me and my family or me and my company. It's about all of us together in our society trying to make it. And we need to be great humanitarians during this period of time and be sensitive and responsible for our fellow citizens who are on this journey with us, but who are struggling more than we are.

You know, I remember in, during the Sandy hurricane, right, we had a lot of retailers that worked with our other company that were going to be impacted. So I got a list and we plot them on the map. We figured out who, who looked to be in the line of to be hit by it being hit or soon to be hit. And I made a list and I called all of them. I don't know, 60, 70 company retailers. And I called them and I don't think I talked but one, but I left messages for them and I also sent them all an email and I said, look, we're thinking of you. We're here with you. Whatever you need, Emerg resupplies, fixturing, restocking. We will take care of you. We are your partners. We're thinking of you sending prayers. And nobody asked me for anything direct, but multiple people came up to me months and even a year later and said, you're the only one that called.

Thank you. Yeah, I think that, I think the point you're making here, Bill, is really important. And that's the whole chain of communication that needs to occur, occur again. It's a leadership issue. Reach out to our clients, reach out to our customers who are most effective. Show that humanity, show that respect for what they're going through, and then offer your assistance. And, and if they do ask, sometimes it's just small things, but, but it's the notion that you're willing to reach out beyond yourself and beyond your own pain and suffering to think about it. And that's critically important in times of need. So I think this whole notion of how do we communicate not only with those closest to us, but those who are more remote with whom we have a relationship or an association that are feeling the full impact of this whatever disaster it might be. So your point is very well made.

Well, thanks for your time and for.

Sharing a little wisdom with us in these stressful, challenging times. Hopefully things will improve and you and I will be speaking and leading a conference later this year in Santorini.

That's right. We're looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to being with you and hopefully that conference will still be viable. And if it's not, then it's for the best reasons, and that's to protect people.

Thanks again.

Thank you Bill. Appreciate it.

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