LEAD Through Crisis

We're seeing the outfall of ineffective leadership all over the world. Every organization seems to be infected with really lackluster or bad leadership. The backpedaling, the justifications, the necessity to make excuses to cover one's butt is a clear sign that leadership is failing. Add to that that The need to cover up, manipulate, find ways to save face does nothing but prove the level of dishonesty when really, all people are looking for is the transparency and the truth. But how in the middle of crisis can leaders deal with that expected transparency and truth from their people? And that's coming up next on Marc Haine Live. Welcome back to Marc Haine Live! Welcome back to Marc Haine Live where small business owners and entrepreneurs pick up core skill sets to help them work on their business, not just in their business. I'm your host, Service Expert and Master of Experiences Marc Haine. If you haven't done so, go ahead and follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Uh, the list is long. Just so you know, I will be putting a summary of the content of this in the show notes so that you can just fast forward if you're playing this on repeat. If you're playing this, if you're just playing, doing the replay, um, go ahead and support me on this channel. I'd love it if you would click the subscribe button, give me a thumbs up, share this with people that you think might benefit from the information. Knowledge is power. But knowledge is power only if we share it. So, please go ahead and do that. I recently spoke with an employee of a well-known casino brand here in Canada. She and her co-workers are so demoralized and so tainted with their company's response to the COVID-19 closures and their lack of communication, their lack of planning, their lack of fortitude to get their staff back earning a wage. She's sitting on her thumbs not knowing what the game plan is. So today I'd like to delve into what leaders can do to lead effectively in the times of crisis like COVID-19 or like a recession or whatever. Before we get into it, I just want to say welcome to those people watching live. Thank you so much for joining me today. It's so nice to have you. And of course, if you are watching this on replay, thank Thank you so much for being here. Before we get into our topic, I do have a question for you, and that's coming up next with our Question of the Day. So, what has your experience been like working with ineffective leadership? We all have had leaders and managers that we could look back on and say they were really helpful, they were really supportive, they were like my coach. But we've also had experiences where we look back and we say, oh my goodness, if I ever become a leader, I'm never going to become like that guy. So go ahead and put your comments in the comment box below. I'd love to hear your story, see your stories. I love it when people share kind of their experience with it. As leaders, we will always be challenged to do the right thing. There are so many pushes, so many different things pushing us to do things that aren't maybe 100% right at the right time. Sometimes, we're so involved with kind of the short-term thinking that we stop thinking long-term. We will always be challenged to hoard information and put on a brave face and say that that we're doing it so we don't cause a panic. We've been hearing that a lot in the last few days from one particular world leader saying that as much as he had the information, he didn't want to cause a panic. But because of that, people weren't prepared for what needed to be done. The truth is, these are pitiful excuses from weak, inferior leaders who care more about their shareholders themselves and their reputations than they do the good that they need to do for the benefit of those they choose to serve. It's tough. Before we get into our session, I just want to remind you that today's show is powered by the Speaker Presentation Timer app. It's an app that I created to help speakers and presenters who want to develop great stories and compelling presentations without ever breaking the fourth wall. It is available for iOS and Android-powered devices, and it's at the App Store and on Google Play. So if you want to learn more about that, especially this idea of what exactly is the fourth wall, go ahead and visit my website at speakerpresentationtimer.com. So today I'd like to share 4 practices as a leader that you can adopt to round out your leadership skills so that in today's COVID-19 world, you can create clarity and resilience in your role. And you can work towards helping other people shine. Just so you know, this is probably going to be a shorter version of Marc Haine Live than usual. I don't have a special guest today. But I did want to take the time and the energy to share this information with you. so that you could apply it to your leadership role. So, number one, part of the challenge when it comes down to leadership is this idea of breaking down walls. We have to stop building walls up. We have to stop putting things between us and the people that we serve, meaning our employees. We have to leverage our relationships. That's part Number one, that is the L in the acronym LEAD. Leverage your relationship. This is the time to bring people together. This is a time to get your team together and start doing things like reviewing your vision and mission for your organization, being able to go through and review with your team, how are we doing with this? Are we still on mission? Is our vision still the reality that we're heading towards? And if not, this is a perfect time to kind of reflect back on that and say, okay, well, maybe we need to— even though the vision might stay intact, we might need to revisit the mission of the organization and adapt it to our new reality. It's important that you bring your team together and review your values of why you do what you do. You know the why. You do what you do as your team. This is a perfect time to review it to make sure that everybody's on the same page with it. If you start off and say, okay folks, our values is to make sure our shareholders get all the money that they can, that's a pretty weak value. Right. But including your team in the discussion, maybe you open up and maybe you see how your values are reflecting on them. how they view your brand. And in the flip side to that, they could probably— the front of house or the forward-facing employees could probably tell you how your customers are viewing your brand. So, that's the L. The E in LEAD is empathy. Show understanding of the situation. Show understanding of the situation on the company And on the other people. This is a perfect time to collect and share knowledge. This is not the time to hoard stuff, keep it close to your chest. Nobody's going to understand what you're going through, so you better not share it. And plus, you don't want to look weak in front of other people. Understand that your first responsibility is to those in your service. The ones that you're in service for So that you can be of service to them. If, again, if you look at your role as, I'm the leader, everybody's here to serve me, then you're probably on the wrong video. However, if you believe as a leader that your first role is to support those that you lead, that you are there for them so that they can be successful, and in turn, they make you successful, Then we're on the right track. But it's essential that you figure out exactly what you need to do to be of service to your team. I hope this makes a little bit of sense to you and is of value to you. My hope is that whenever I do these videos, that it's going to resonate with somebody somewhere. And that ultimately, you will find it valuable enough that you want to share. But again, I would really appreciate your comments in the comment box below. Even if it's contrary to what I'm presenting today, I'd love to hear your opinion. And if you know anybody who could benefit from this information, please go ahead, share it with them, and post it on your social media page. So, we've done L and E. Now, we want to A. We want to acknowledge. And we want to acknowledge with optimism. The first job of a leader is to alleviate the stress on others. Not create the stress. As a leader in your role, your job is to take the stress off your team. That goes on your shoulders. The last thing that anybody wants to see their leaders do is to bury their head. The last thing anybody wants to see from their leader is them having information that they hoard away. And when they go face to face with you, they don't tell you the truth. It's a terrible situation. It leads people, keeps people in the dark, and then people scratch their head and go, why do they talk like that? Like, we see the issue. Why don't they see the issue? Right? So we lose a ton of credibility when we bury our head in the sand and say, oh well, you know, I knew it all along. I just didn't want to panic anybody. People. are looking to you as the leader for strength. They're not looking to you for the answers. People are absolutely willing to work towards the answers with you, but they're looking to you for strength. So it's important that you're clear with what you know and what you don't know. I don't know what it was, but growing up in the '80s, whenever you talk to a manager, because they had the tie on, You had to go to them for everything. And they would tell you. It was like, Marc, if I want your opinion, I'll tell you what it is. Right. But today, we have to have a lot more humility in what we do. We can go to the front, to our staff, to the front-end people, to the people who are forward-facing to our customers and say, can you please help us with this? This is something I as the owner or I as the manager don't know. So why don't we investigate and find out what we can do and invite the opinions of others? And a good friend just reminded me, opinions are like belly buttons. Everybody has one. So invite the opinions and take the stance that no idea is a terrible idea. No idea is awful. Get them all down. Because you know what? In the most ridiculous idea, might lie the seed that will spawn something better. So share those ideas. Get people together to share their opinions with you and create a safe space that they're able to do that so that they don't feel like, oh, well, he's just going to think I've got a stupid idea. And the last, number 4, the D of lead. Deliver on your expectations that people have of you. It's absolutely essential that you communicate often and clearly. The number one complaint I get from employees is that they don't know what's going on with their leadership. I'll talk to leaders and leaders will hoard information. Oh, you know, if I tell them how much we're making, they're going to demand a raise. If I tell them that we're losing money or that we're not doing very well, they're going to bail on me and they're going to Ditch us and they're going to tell our competition. It's time for us to stop thinking in this short-term, very finite way and start, as Simon Sinek would say, thinking, playing the infinite game. So it's really important that we communicate often and clearly, and it's important that we are present. I can't tell you, I felt I had an employee come to me once and I had my laptop open. And as the employee was talking to me, I was, I was in the middle of filing a report, but the employee came in and I realized this was an important conversation for the employee. And, but, you know, as I'm looking at the com— at the employee, I kept looking off to my laptop and, and moving my mouse and, and he was talking. I'd look and I thought, oh my goodness, I am doing nothing to validate this person and their problem. And so, at that point, I shut down my laptop and I made absolutely sure that the issue that that person had was as important to me as that person was. So, it's really important that you be present and listen intentionally with kindness. Listen with this idea that we are there to serve them. And I know, I know in our busy days where things are pushing at us constantly, deadlines and everything else, I know that we can fall back onto, okay, let's get a move on. I know what you're going to say. Right? But it's really important that we start listening intentionally with kindness first. I think we need to think along the philosophy of first them, then you. And that was absolutely clear in Simon Sinek's book, Leaders Eat Last. We want to be— I want— we want them to be okay first before we're okay. We want them to succeed before we succeed. I'm hoping that this makes sense. I want to know if this is valuable to you. Please give us a thumbs up. Thank you so much. I have one thumbs up in the comment box. And again, feel free to put the comments. Love to hear your comments. I appreciate the thumbs up. I'm glad that this is resonating. Leadership is such a funny animal because we are in the people business. And so, just quickly going over the 4 things, maybe I think it's probably wise if we create the visual for you. The 4 points of LEAD are leverage the relationships, so making sure that you know who is around you that you can tap into. Empathy, this level, this idea that as leaders, we must understand. We must understand the conditions in our business. We must understand the conditions on our staff. We must acknowledge with optimism. And then ultimately, we must deliver what is expected of us. And I don't necessarily mean expected from us to the boss. I mean, yeah, you have to service your company, but deliver to the expectations of those that you serve. I can't remember who said it but somebody said that if you're not serving a customer, you better be serving somebody who is. And that's where the deliver comes in in this acronym for LEAD. So, I hope this helps you a little bit. As always, I have a standing offer for you that if you'd like to take me up on it, feel free to reach out. I am more than happy to sit with you and your team to help brainstorm your situation. It's 30 minutes for free. There is no selling, nothing. My only want and desire is to serve you. So go ahead and hit the link below. There is a link below that is my calendar. It says meetme.so/MarcHaine. Go ahead and book 30 minutes free. It's 30 minutes free. And in the meantime, if I can ask Some really good questions to help you provide some clarity to you, then great. You know, it is so easy to get caught up in old behavior. It is so easy to turn around and say, you know what, I'm just going to do it myself. But that mentality means that you isolate yourself. You pull yourself away from your team. You may be pressured to keep things under wraps for fear it will make you look weak. Or not viable. But I, I can tell you honestly that when you show a level of humility during a crisis, when you say, this is what I know and this is what I don't know, people respect that and people will step up and help you with it. Your primary role is to take care of the people around you, especially, especially during a crisis. I suggest that you bring your team together. Look at your competitors and brainstorm areas that those competitors have missed. Again, if you go to your frontline staff, chances are that they will have some information you don't have because they're in the trenches every single day. So, being able to go to them and discuss, what do you think our competitors have missed? What opportunities do you think they're missing? You can start discussing where can you pivot, reinvent, or create something brand new so that it will give you an advantage in the marketplace today or post-COVID? Through the crisis, what opportunities have come up that you and your team can leverage? During the crisis, new things come to a realization. The ways that you did business have changed. And the crisis in itself, even though it's been hindering us, hindering business in many different aspects, Also opens up brand new opportunities as we talked about last week when we were talking to the lease specialist, Jeff Granfield. What experiences do you collectively— rented lips. What experiences do you collectively have that you can pass on to your clients? Again, talking with frontline staff, being able to say, hey, you know what? We have a capacity. It's different from our original business plan. But we can pass this on to our clients. We can start scoring some points with our clients. We can start engaging our clients. We can start creating loyalty. The secret to lead during this trying time is to lead. That is leverage your relationships. Be empathetic. Acknowledge with optimism. Deliver on the expectations that the team has for you. Folks, that's all the time that we have today. I'd love to know what you think about today's episode. So please, go ahead and drop me a comment in the box below. And if you know someone who could use this information, again, please go ahead and hit the share button. Share it on your social media to your network of leaders. And if you personally have a topic that you'd like me to cover on this show, please do let me know. I'd love to uncover topics that is of service to you. And if you haven't done so already, I will nag you one more time. Click the subscribe button and ring the bell. That'll give you fresh content every single time I bring you the— or that will give you a notification every time I bring you fresh content. My name is Marc Haine. I hope you stay safe, stay healthy, and dare. To be the exception.