MOVING THROUGH AND OUT THE OTHER SIDE

Last week’s ONS GDP figures (UK) were seismic in their scale and certainly not unexpected either, even the Unemployment Data Sets released today are very sobering. They may get considerably worse before they get better!

Our whole environment now – society, business, economics, and our previously 'normal lives' are now in some form of crisis.

When you are working in a crisis in any organisation, one fundamental part is you need to know everything. No surprises – none at all.

Every piece of data, information and problem that has an impact on how you move forward must be exposed – everyone gets their ‘hands down the drain’, to pull out the muck and the dirt and have it laid bare in front of you. You have to see the whole picture.

Why? Well, like any Government now, as in many organisations across the globe, once you know everything, you can then start to plan a way out of it. Even if things are a moving picture, your continually forecasting and stress testing.

In business – and to some extent in society, the terms turnaround, crisis leadership, restructuring, transformation is all familiar to a group of people that have lived and been through these situations on several occasions.

Someone asked me recently, why would you do it? Here's my answer:

Well, having worked through a few of these in the past, each one is a challenge - they all are, you have to want to help people, and in those moments, it should always come down to your ability to empathise with the leadership, the situation, the business owners and of course, its people. And critically, to create a real tangible new vision, a way through the fog and turmoil that many just find extremely hard to see through.

You are there to stop the slide, to hold up and create a solid transforming resolution for the entire business, its leadership, and its people. Your rebuilding and creating its new future.

Leading in a crisis is challenging of course, and in these very troubled times, unfortunately, some organisations will not make it through, and that is tragic for so, so many leaders and their people.

But what you have honed, learnt and built over many years is that ability to sit right at the centre of the storm, ‘an odd moment of calm’ ensuring your stakeholder management, decisions, situational analysis, measured thinking and calm demeanour all get shared, it is the continual building of your knowledge and experience that you reveal and impart to others.

There are 3 core traits that each organisation and most certainly its leadership - and I’m sure Governments need to have now, to enable a way through and out the other side – something I’ve written about a great deal recently:

1: #Acceptance – Of the current situation

2: #Mindset – There is a solution, always

3: #Resilience – You keep moving forward

For many who know me, I am always a great believer in positivity – irrespective of the situation.

The glass really must be half full, no room for negativity, procrastination or gloom, everyone knows what you are now facing, it’s time to accept. No time for hindsight or blame, so you must pull together, focus, formulate your plan and drive your way through and out the other side. The first stage is stabilising and then moving towards growth. Your pace is key.

Once you have stabilised, supported all the key stakeholders and started the rehabilitation, you can then start to build again with confidence. There is one major difference now due to Covid-19, compared to previous: speed of change and pace is critical, our digital environment and consumer bias has and is shifting at an alarming rate, your organisations have to also.

Here are 5 key points as a leader you need up your sleeve:

1: Leadership: you need to show up, roll your sleeves up and jump in

2: People: be with them, always empathise and support 

3: Communication: always keep talking, keep your people informed – whatever the news

4: Demeanour: many around you would have never experienced crisis before, so you need to be calm and measured in your approach

5: Vision: you need to be able to see a long way down the road, and critically be able to look around the corners

These are unique times, likely, the ‘Atypical’ transformation programme to some extent is ‘out of the window’ for the time being at least. You need transformational leadership – highly skilled leaders who have been there and done it, with many scars to prove it. It needs a unique and agile mindset and approach with real vision and tenacity. Longer-term strategic planning is now drastically cut to shorter bursts with continual reviewing – its all fluid for the foreseeable future.

Finally, your ability to re-energise an organisations unique story, re-telling it in a new and dynamic way to suit the untapped land on the horizon. A real pioneering spirit. A new spirit that is focused on today’s business needs – Digital, ESG, Diversity and Inclusion, and 1st in Class Customer Service.

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