Tina's 3 Leadership Lessons

Tina runs a business that has 350 people in it. She has worked really hard, along with her leadership team, to steer her organisation through these very choppy waters. Along the way, she has had to develop and adapt her approach and style, and has learnt a huge amount. The lessons are applicable much more broadly - so what can you take from this?

Communication

Tina didn’t get this right at first. She struggled with the fact that she was feeling a bit scared, facing something that was so unclear and unprecedented.

Through the last few months, Tina has been following this simple mantra, both for her internal and external comms: ROC - Regular, open and clear.

One area she has really had to improve on is dealing with not having all the answers, particularly when she has tried to conduct an open forum with her staff. She was directed towards a Harvard Business Review article on this that set out some very useful guidance, including:

• acknowledge your anxiety;

• listen to the need underneath the question;

• ask questions that help others find strength;

• don’t interpret questions as criticism; and

• practice your tone and physical delivery ahead of time.

Style

Tina is a capable person, someone who doesn’t get ruffled easily. However, in the early days of the pandemic she found herself with unusual levels of anxiety, driven by a sense of not being in control. As the situation has continued, she has had prolonged periods of frustration.

To combat this, Tina has put a post-it note on her computer screen, with these five pointers:

• empathetic;

• compassionate;

• flexible;

• calm;

• bounded optimism

She has developed a great set of techniques to put these into practice. To drive a more empathetic approach, she makes sure that she actually asks people how they are at the beginning of each call. The one she has struggled with most is keeping calm - retaining a sense of perspective has helped (driven by daily reminders to herself that she is just one amongst hundreds of thousands of CEOs in the UK to face this situation, and that she is working hard to deal with it as effectively as possible), as has showing vulnerability to, and working even more collaboratively with, her leadership team. Her approach of bounded optimism has also helped - balancing confidence and hope with realism. Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst. She has found this to be vital to morale and focused effort throughout the organisation, and has recently shared the following quote with her entire staff:

“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end - which you can never afford to lose - with the discipline to confront the brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

— Admiral James Stockdale (Vietnam POW)

Strategic Approach

Pretty early on Tina realised that there were some things on which the organisation would need to be firm, and some that needed flexibility. Working out what sat where was key.

As an organisation, they have been firm on:

• what they are trying to achieve;

• the principles that govern how they have gone about things; and

• the priority actions.

In terms of what they are trying to achieve, all discussions and decisions have been guided by their Purpose, Vision and Mission, as well as the articulation of their objective for this pandemic: “to steer the organisation through this period in a way that best enables us to survive and thrive in the future.”

In terms of principles that govern how they have gone about things, their Core Values have been key: Collaboration; Resilience; and Ambition. The organisation had already done a fairly good job of embedding these, but the pandemic has really given them the opportunity to use the Values as they should - ensuring that they provide the framework through which every action is taken and every decision made. Their interpretation and application of the Resilience Value has been helped by these words:

“Myopia is making decisions based on what the world looks like today. Innovation comes from making bets on how the world could be different tomorrow. Resilience depends on developing strategies that can succeed across multiple possible futures.”

— Adam Grant, author and organisational psychologist

In addition to their Values, they quickly agreed on three key themes that would govern their response (they borrowed these from the English Institute of Sport as they thought they were brilliant…):

• stay safe;

• keep connected;

• get creative.

Using all of the above helped Tina and team determine their priorities, both immediate and longer term. It made discussion and decision-making much more straightforward - incredibly welcome to all.

So what about flexibility?

Tina has been mindful of one of her favourite quotes:

“It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able to adapt to and to adjust best to the changing environment in which it finds itself.”

— Charles Darwin

So there have been areas where Tina, her leadership team, and the organisation as a whole have had to adapt. These include:

• broadening out levels of ownership and responsibility;

• working hard to develop greater trust;

• working even more collaboratively (internally and externally);

• instigating more thorough scenario planning than they have used before; and

• adapting key parts of the strategy, and their reporting measures and format accordingly.

Tina has had a welcome break over the last couple of weeks, aiming to come back refreshed and reinvigorated for the continued challenges ahead. The organisation has made changes, streamlined and pivoted, and is on the front foot. 

For any leaders needing help or support on these or other areas, contact us here to explore your options.