Leading in uncertain times

Leading in uncertain times is tough for any leader, and it is even tougher in an online or virtual working environment. I've been following updates of some great leaders, reading articles and attending webinars to tackle this issue and there is too much information out there. 

Also, I tried to implement some of these to make life better for my team, and there is a lot more I can do, I will try to summarize some of the points here, like most of the tips we read online you might not find these points very specific to your role, but this gives you a good structure or a high-level measurement framework on how you are managing the team in the current situation. 

For every point, just ask yourself if you are doing this or some version of this? I did and I think there is a lot more to be done.

1. Delegate tasks with context and set clear expectations: I wrote a LinkedIn post about this recently on this, in a real-world environment its easy to ‘assign’ tasks with little context because your team might be getting it from somewhere else, but in this working from home environment you have to be very specific, on top of this you need to be very clear on what you are expecting, iteration is a luxury, be clear and be specific.

2. Be decisive, make difficult decisions: By being decisive you are not only clearing your backlog of things to do but you are also giving confidence to the team, decisiveness induces positivity into people during uncertain times, don’t be afraid to make difficult decisions, sometimes it better to take wrong decisions than to procrastinate it. Just by picking up a phone and making a call might help a lot of your team members

3. It's okay to over-communicate: communicate organizations strategy down to every single employee, it gives a clear sense of direction, communicate your plan for the team, communicate even if you don’t have one, communicating the strategy to the employees gives clarity to their jobs and decrease their stress, some employees might find it repetitive but people expect more from leaders in a virtual environment and most of them are happy to be engaged.

4. Express optimism: In a virtual world it's very easy for employees to feel isolated and disconnected, it is very important that leaders extend their support and positive energy, by doing this you are not only reducing the stress but also giving them a sense of hope for the future in uncertain times.

5. Be transparent about the business impact: Project clarity on how the current external trends are impacting your business, it's important for employees to make sense of the world right now, leaders must be honest and transparent on what is happening with your function, even though the honest news might hurt a handful of people but it reduces the fear, anxiety, and stress for the larger team.

I hope this helps and do let me know if you have anything to add to this list, I will try to implement your suggestions and update this article.

One of the best content sources for me during this WFH period is visual capitalist.