Viewing leadership development through a human lens is a crucial innovation in every business sector. Rehumanizing leadership isn’t easy, and it begins with getting honest about the reality of innovation. Many companies seek our advice for leading rattled employees through uncertain, fear-inducing environments.
We have engaged with leaders in practically every business sector. Uncertainty has touched health care, education, manufacturing, retail, public, private, for-profit and not-for-profit leaders. We have helped leaders achieve heightened levels of problem solving through radical, trust-building honesty.
Throughout the pandemic, we have been listening to organizational leaders with well-deserved reputations for strategic execution and operational excellence. Like you, these leaders have encountered formidable obstacles. At InitiativeOne, we work with leaders who care about their people and companies. They crave innovative solutions to match and overcome today’s extraordinary challenges. And there are no easy answers.
Sometimes leaders need permission to voice their internal frustrations. The mantra “knowledge is power” has hindered openness and creativity for too long. However, when every team member has unbound knowledge at their fingertips, leaders innovate by leaning into purpose and influencing their teams in new ways. As admissions of “I don’t know” and “I don’t have all the answers” become regular aspects of daily life, healthy cultures quickly shift away from knowledge-based management and dive headfirst into influence-based leadership.
Our most significant innovation has been helping leaders shut out the noise, galvanize trust, and lead with purpose and confidence. InitiativeOne has incorporated the following 10 Innovative Insights that guide leaders toward increased results during crisis moments:
Trust your history
You have been here before. So has your organization. You both made it through. The perspective gained from past experiences gives credibility to present conversations and inspires hope for a preferred future. Initial vision during a crisis is foggy, and the truth is often uncertain. Sometimes the flow of pertinent information slows. Sometimes information is plentiful, but it takes time to filter what is true versus counterfeit. Emotions cloud clarity, needs are critical, and resources appear scarce. It may seem counterintuitive to look back instead of forward in demanding moments. But during a crisis, it’s vital to trust your history.
Treat your team like adults
Some leaders treat teammates like children, protecting them from hard news, pain or difficult decisions. Why are they then surprised when these same teammates act like children?
Credibility grows in the soil of healthy trust. Effective crisis leadership requires an extreme level of professional maturity. One of the most significant maturity measures is the way you give and receive information. In the most challenging moments, transparency is a leadership essential.
Scan the horizon
Ferry captains will tell nervous passengers in a storm not to focus on the waves immediately in front of them. Instead, to avoid seasickness, they urge them to look out in the distance to settle the mind and the stomach. We frequently tell leaders who come to us for crisis instruction that every wave is another wave toward the back of the storm. When many waves come at us, remember: The storm is finite. It will end. There will be bad days. It’s just a wave toward the endpoint. They will come less and less, but it is just part of the process.
Practice a 100% Responsibility Mindset
Great leaders choose to respond instead of reacting. You are not responsible for everything in the world; to believe so is pathological.
However, you are responsible for your thoughts and actions. A 100% Responsibility Mindset is a shift from victim thinking toward solutions. In contrast to emotionally charged reactions, your choice to respond is intentional.
Focus on your locus of control and give it all you have
Choose to filter out factors beyond your control. Focus on how you can directly impact a better outcome. One best practice for decision-making in times of crisis involves three steps: evaluating your emotions, evaluating the information you have, and choosing an intentional response.
Self-awareness and social awareness will allow you to connect your best self and inspire the best in others. Self-regulation will enable you to stay calm, focused and move forward amid uncertainty. Emotional intelligence will allow you to be open and honest about discomfort.
You don’t need to be superhuman
If you could have solved the situation by yourself, you would have. During intense crises, you need all of the leadership capacity you can muster. Effective decisions happen when you have the correct information and people are committed to the decision. To get the best info, you need the perspective of others; they see things you don’t. Where appropriate, involve others in decision-making because people support what they create. Note the previous sentence doesn’t say people reinforce what you create. Get others involved.
Choose to become comfortable with being uncomfortable
You have always been uncomfortable. Tension and discomfort have propelled you forward from your first steps, first kiss or last promotion. You are who you are because you have successfully dealt with discomfort. At InitiativeOne, we talk about stretching a rubber band, pulling it beyond its resting state. Stretch causes tension, and while tension is uncomfortable, nothing happens without it! Without pressure, there is no movement, no growth or satisfaction.
Choose to stay calm and resolute; believe in yourself
Typically, we have systems, protocols, regulations, applications, routines, and norms to direct our path and keep us “in line.” In crises, these standard guardrails may break.
Rapid, unexpected changes provide the tension for something to happen, and, counterintuitively, constraints actually sharpen thinking and improve creativity. Learn to recognize tension as a catalyst for positive change.
Is your team the one to provide new solutions?
Catch the knuckleball
You don’t know the ball’s exact path, but you know it’s been thrown, and it’s coming toward you. Don’t allow fear to prevent you from seizing unexpected opportunities. When faced with discipline, random times can yield surprising bursts of creativity. Put fears on the table and unleash your team for collaborative problem-solving in the present. Stay balanced, be focused, and respond as the ball nears.
Face the fear head on
Effectively address fear by admitting it to yourself and others. Get it from underneath the table and out in the open. There is no weakness in being afraid. Fear can inform us, but we must choose not to be dominated by it. Instead, rely on your sense of purpose and values to make critical decisions.
We know meaningful organizational change isn’t about learning new skills. It’s about changing at the human level — within the hearts and minds of your company’s leaders. And it starts with you. Innovation begins and ends with people. Organizations do not transform spontaneously. Transformed leaders transform organizations. That’s why we call what we do leadership transformation. People are your most valuable resources. They will create the momentum to overcome the challenges of change and expand into the future. We don’t just train leaders — we build partnerships that help leaders find a more profound understanding of the future.
Company:Â InitiativeOne
Innovation: Crisis leadership with purpose and confidence
Website: www.initiativeone.com
