The next few years, as the pandemic becomes endemic, are going to be some of the most challenging times any company leader will face in their career–however long they’ve been at it. Building your business from scratch, rebuilding your existing enterprise, or growing to accommodate new and different opportunities are all going to be brutal tasks. In part because the path forward is so uncertain and the players and circumstances have changed in so many ways.
Most of the traditional management tools, storytelling skills, role models, and cultural crutches we’ve relied on are no longer up to the job. As difficult as it may seem, post-pandemic, the road ahead for CEOs and other senior managers is going to be bumpier than the past three years.
So, it appears that it’s up to the business builders–the ever-eager entrepreneurs and those remaining credible corporate and company executives as well–to develop, deliver, and then live up to objectives and behaviors that show the way forward. And we have to do a much better job of sending and selling our messages than even the politicians on the sane side of the fence have done to date.
Here are my four suggestions:
Hold Your Own Head Up–What You Do Is More Important Than What You Say
Leadership isn’t just a position, it’s an ongoing process of storytelling, role playing, and modeling the behavior that’s expected of all team members. Leaders can cast shadows or light; In troubled times, we can make ourselves miserable or make ourselves strong–it takes the same amount of effort. Don’t expect others to listen to your advice and ignore your actions or inaction.
When bad things happen, as Dr. Suess said, you can let them define you, let them destroy you, or let them strengthen you. The right choice is obvious. Your faith in yourself and your business needs to be stronger than your fear of failure and it needs to be readily apparent to all your people.
Commit Yourself and Your Resources Wholeheartedly
Don’t try to do things cheaply that you shouldn’t do at all, or put lipstick on a pig. The cost of doing things correctly is the same as doing them halfway or half-heartedly and far less stressful. Sticking to your principles 97 percent of the time is painful and grueling and actually much harder than going all the way all the time. There’s no such thing as a minor lapse in integrity. Have the strength and the willpower to do the important things quickly, completely, and to the very best of your ability. If you’re not all in, you don’t have a position; you’ve merely got an opinion offered from the cheap seats and not worth much.
It just doesn’t pay to be tentative: You can’t steal second base with one foot on first. If you’re going to agree to do something, just say yes. Don’t say “yes, but,” because anything you say before “but” won’t really mean a thing. “Maybe” is a loser’s word–don’t say “maybe” when you should say either yes or no and mean it.
Remind Your Team That You’ve All Been Here Before and Survived
The best entrepreneurs have learned that, while skill and smarts are important, the largest single determinant of success in the long run is perseverance–persistence with intention–not beating your head against a brick wall but understanding that you’ve faced and triumphed over larger obstacles in the past and that the newest threats are just another set of mountains to climb.
Recognizing, reacting, responding, and adapting to the latest challenges isn’t any more difficult than it was in the past. But it does require confidence and belief in your team and an appreciation for the old Bob Marley line that “you never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice.” Sharing prior wins, war stories, desperate times of old, and super close calls are all ways to reinforce the message that the only way out of the current swamp is all the way through it to better days.
Resist the Temptation to Settle for Silence
Talk is cheap and plentiful, and when the world’s on fire around you, there’s a powerful tendency in business discussions, and especially in painful personnel negotiations, to “buy” peace and to secure some silence by settling for half a loaf or just giving up on some important concerns. It’s always a mistake to deny your convictions for the sake of peace and quiet. Seeking universal consensus so that everyone feels good about the result (except you) is also foolhardy, unachievable, and likely to lead to mediocre results in the end.
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