I want to comment on is how HARD
it is to be a leader right now…

…AND the fact that because everything
is crappy (customers aren’t spending,
everyone is struggling, budgets are
shrinking and decisions are frozen) –

Real Leadership, right now, is more
important than ever. 

One of the big aha’s in my own career
was to realize just how much of doing
your job as a leader has nothing to do with what you are supposed to deliver. 

Don’t get me wrong, you still need to deliver, but dealing with all the crap that gets in the way of doing what you are supposed to deliver is what your job actually is, and where leadership really kicks in.

Let me give you an example:

You are multi-level manager in a corporation.  Your goals include keeping the current business going, while taking on new initiatives which are either transformational or to enable new revenue streams (or both) — without sacrificing short term revenue.

You had a plan.  It was approved.  You were going to re-organize a little, hire some new people, and brilliantly execute on both the current and new initiatives. 

Then the world changed. 

Now hiring is frozen, your budget is frozen, and in fact you are facing the need to downsize.  You are waiting for decisions to be made from above, which will hopefully unfreeze things…

But no real relief has been given on the schedules or the goals in the mean time, and you don’t know how long you will be waiting for answers.  Everyone is worried, motivation is waning, and progress has stalled. 

In this situation it can be tempting to wait for clarity, and wait for the roadblocks to be cleared so you can then “get back to doing your job”. 

But as a leader you need to realize that proactively dealing with this lousy situation IS your job: 

• Coping…not getting paralyzed, making decisions without all the information.
• Still finding a way to focus precious few resources on new initiatives.
• Implementing cutbacks in a way that you can still execute on the current business. 
• Not to mention communicating, motivating, and selling your plan along the way…
• And going the extra mile to re-engage the team and retain your top performers. 

Whew!

Here is what I do in this type of situation:

1. Victim time:  First, I find someone I can complain to.  Really.  Don’t skip this step.    No one is a superhero.  It’s important to get it out of your system, if for no other reason to know the difference between what complaining and doing feels like.  Your spouse will get sick of this, and you can’t use your team, so it’s good to find a peer, or a coach, or a mentor.

 I give myself a allotted amount of time to complain about how hard everything is.  (~1-2 hours once/ 1-2month(s)).

I go on about how I am being prevented from doing my job, how if I could control my own budget I could be creating value, how I am losing ground against the competition because I am by being blocked.  Basically everything that is other people’s fault!

It IS hard and it IS crappy.  So give yourself some victim time.  But time-limit it, and then move on briskly.

2. Get to the Doing: A big part of overcoming paralysis and discouragement is taking action that results in forward progress.  Even if it’s not your grand plan, make sure that everyone wakes up in the morning with something to DO. 

Leaving people wondering about what they should be doing is one of the biggest demotivators and invites extra-negativity.  Even if the end goal is no longer clear, pick an intermediate outcome that is useful, and get people working on it. 

Even if you have to throw away some work later, it’s still better than just waiting and worrying – and if you really think about it, you will find at least some stuff to do that will create value in any outcome.

3. Re-Plan:  In absence of answers, and with a growing reality that you are not going to get more money – build your new plan.  Here’s a rough cut:  Focus 20% of your resources on the new initiatives.  Now.  Then implement a 20% budget cut on the existing business to pay for it.

Even in good times, it’s your job as a leader to take cost out of doing the same things you did last year. (see also Better with Less.)  But in times like this it is vital or you will get stuck. 

And just think, if you get more money after all, you will be 20% more efficient and can apply the extra resources to winning vs. maintaining existing infrastructure.

Real leadership in ugly situations is hard and it’s lonely. 

If it doesn’t feel hard, you may be reacting to conditions and working on tactical things instead of leading.  If it doesn’t feel lonely you are probably not owning the decisions you need to make.

The uglier the situation, the more Leadership helps.

Just keep in mind that creating positive outcomes in bad environments will benefit your team and your business greatly.  And it will add significant career capital to your resume.  It’s so much easier to say, this is what I DID in this very difficult time, vs. note how I was present when the whole company grew fast.

I built my career on several turn-arounds, and I found the ugly experiences to be the most compelling and the most useful to my own leadership, even applied to growing businesses.

So, remember – It may feel lonely, (especially if you are doing it right!) but remember, you are making a big difference if you choose to be positive and to lead through this difficult time, and this IS the job.  Hang on, and focus on driving positive, specific actions.  Lead – it’s really worth it!

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Tags: leading in difficult times

This entry was posted on Monday, January 26th, 2009 at 9:34 pm and is filed under Get a Better Job, Personal Effectiveness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.