Calling all leaders

Unprecedented times in the world, in what could mean the survival of a business or an excellent opportunity not foreseen, business leaders are looked at right now to be…actual “leaders”. Whether you’re the owner of a small business, in the C-suite of a large enterprise, or middle management of any company, you’ll have someone looking at you and asking “what’s next”?

How do you answer that question when we are going through something that most have never experienced?  What are the right answers? Only time will tell as we look back and reflect on the decisions we made, but that doesn’t help you right now when someone is looking at you for direction as their life is impacted and they too wonder what the right answers are.

My suggestion; focus on being honest and genuine with people and yourself.  You don’t have to know all the answers, but you will know some. You are going to make right and wrong judgements and you will change your mind and direction, probably multiple times.  All of this is fine, no leader, in a large company or small, is perfect or knows all the answers, so why should you?  So, when presented with questions from staff, be honest, tell staff why you made the decision, why you changed your mind or why you don’t know an answer. If you’re not genuine and try act like you have all the answers or ignore the questions, staff will see through it and then a loss of trust and credibility follows.

Let them know what you know today, good or bad. Let them know you may change your direction tomorrow or the next day as you receive new information.  If you are asked a question that you don’t know the answer to, it is okay to say you don’t know, but get back to them when you do know. Be as transparent as you can, let them know why you and your leadership team made a decision and how you think that decision will impact the business and the staff.

Yes, you have to make business decisions and very rapidly. You will get some right and some wrong, but always be straight forward and honest with your people as you make these decisions.  There are things out of your control, but you can always control your integrity to those you lead. One final piece of advice, I don’t believe you need a crisis to lead in this manner, this can be done at any time and your staff will appreciate your honest and transparent approach.