Leading Through Crisis
Everything has changed.
Life as we knew it, is no longer.
Extreme times are upon us as we face one of our biggest adversaries in modern history, the Coronavirus/COVID-19.
Leading a business has never been a walk in the park. Challenges come at leaders on a daily, if not hourly basis. Your composure is repeatedly tested. Today’s pit-in-your-stomach challenges bring even greater stress. People are working at home. Schools are closed. Layoffs mount. People are sick and dying. The stock market is plummeting. Uncertainty and fear prevail.
Employees are looking to their leaders for guidance through the chaos. Leadership at its finest calls for levelheadedness.
Remaining levelheaded when stress is heightened takes self-observation. Leaders who are self-observant and accepting of their strengths and weaknesses, build stronger relationships, leading to gained loyalty and trust.
To enhance, self-observation, use the SWITS leadership tool:
- Strengths. List your top 5.
- Weaknesses. List your top 5. Be honest.
- Impact. Know your ability to influence, whether positive or negative. Such as, do you have to temper your perfectionism, realizing this can shut down someone’s performance?
- Triggers. List your top 3. What do you struggle to tolerate in others? Does someone say yes to your request, and then doesn’t complete the task?
- Slow down. Before you respond or react, stop, take deep breaths, relax any tense muscles, then bring your attention back to the person(s) in front of you.
As you incorporate the SWITS leadership tool, you’ll become more self-observant and gain greater insight into managing your emotions and reactions. This will lead to a heightened awareness of your impact on others. When you are aware of your impact, you can choose to speak with enhanced clarity and be a more empathetic listener. Your levelheadedness will be an example of how to lead through crisis, even remotely, as you build a stronger team with greater loyalty and trust.
