"In leadership, the word "same" is a bad word. A leader must be consistently different."
The global outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) is creating significant challenges for leaders at all levels and organizations of all sizes. There is no playbook on how to lead teams at a distance or a guidebook with answers on what to do in the face of this coronavirus pandemic. Right now, organisations need sober, smart, values-driven, and focused leadership, but there are key lessons that apply to good leadership, whatever the conditions are, as Mark Fritz reminded us, in the last Beyond Now Webinar.
"This is an opportunity to grow leaders everwhere"
1. OUCOME FOCUS
All too often, employees are found doing tasks mainly because “the boss” asked them to do so. With clear outcomes in place however, your people can more easily take initiative, step-up and take responsibility for achieving impact, manage their time, and unleash their creativity.
Be very clear on what you, as leader, and your organization need to achieve.
"When you need people to take action, you, as a leader, need tpo give clarity to your team"
2. NOSE IN. FINGERS OUT.
Good people take pride in their work and expect their managers to show confidence in their ability. There’s a big difference between oversight and taking over. Do'nt tell people what to do, or you will be saving them from thinking and from growing.
"Don't tell them what to do. Ask questions. Ask for the milestones."
3. COLLABORATION
When teams are able to collaborate with each other, the leader doesn't need to be involved at everytime and participate in every meeting. Leading teams collaboratively helps them engage, move through the stages of team development, become high-performing, solve problems and get more work done.
We should consider team collaboration under three main aspects:
- Trust: it is fundamental that your people trust each other;
- Information Sharing: information visible by everyone, everywhere;
- Processes: map processe that will allow to hold everything together, "as glue".
"You can see a poor organization when an email comes with lots of CCs."
4. EMPATHY
Empathy is not about seeing the other person, is about listening. Listening values the other person. In these "virtual times" it is not enough to just have operational meetingd. "We have to call people up and say "how are you doing?" and actually listen".
"The virtual environment is interesting but no every meeting need face to face and video. Sometimes a phone call is more productive. You can't image how much you can get just from someone's voice".
5. BE CONSISTENTLY DIFFERENT
"If a leader uses the same way of commmunication all the time with all the people this is not good nor effective". In a virtual environment communication is even more important.
You have to deliver clear messages and "be strategic, reinforcing your messages through follow up, specially when it come to two-steppers [people in an organization that ear the message but need some time and reinforcement, by the leader or by ther peers, before committing.]
"Whe it comes to lead teams, there is no one-size-fits-all formula"
6. "DISTANCE MULTIPLIES"
When leading at a distance, one needs to be careful, because distance multiplies the effect.
"If someting bad happens, call, up and reset people to avoid things going to big."
7. BE A CORPORATE MATCH-MAKER
Find common interests and trigger people to talk more with each other. The more you do this, the easier will be to take an issue in a face to face conversation, between your team, instead of solving things by email.
8. SET PRINCIPLES, INSTEAD OF VALUES, AND IDENTIFY THE RIGHT BEHAVIOURS TO COPY
Get some of the key people in your organization and come up to 5 top principles needed to organization to thrive. By doing this you will protect the organizational culture and reinforce identification between the people and the organisation. At the same time, you will be identifyng role models to copy.
"Lead by example"
9. UNDERSTAND YOURSELF TO BECOME A BETTER LEADER
The best leaders are the ones who understand themselves. You don't need a copy of you to be your right arm. On the contrary, what you need is to be conscient of your strenghts and weaknesses and to have people around you who offset some of the negative things that you have in your own leadership.
10. KEEP YOUR TEAMS MOTIVATED BY USING THE 2 P's: PRIDE AND POTENTIAL
Ask for their ideas and give visibility to what your teams achieve. This will make you people feel pride;
Talk about their potential and, when you delegate, show how the task will allow them to grow, by raising their potential and by improving their weaknesses, as well.
