Leading Change in Crisis
The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have created plenty of problems. But for most of us and many of our organizations what it has done more is magnify challenges that already existed. For many leaders this has caused a great amount of reflection for themselves and their organizations.
So leaders what does that mean if now you see problems more clearly than you ever did before because they appear much larger? How do you go about addressing these issues in the middle of a pandemic? Here’s a few thoughts.
Change doesn’t happen well in “survival mode.
When we are faced with a crisis, our initial response is to take on the challenge or shrink in fear. Psychologist called this fight or flight. For those who take on the threat there is timeframe where you just do what you need to do to survive. The length of the survival mode period will vary from person to person and organization organization. Do not rush change if the majority of your organization is still in survival mode.
Processing changes takes time.
Every subsequent change is more chaotic in this season. You will need to allow more time for changes to settle before you make the next one. Every new change brings its own survival mode period because each change is its own new threat. Yes leaders, it’s quite possible that will mean you will see problems and have potential solutions and you will have to let them go for now. Don’t attempt to change everything and solve every problem at once, now more than ever.
A crisis calls for decisive leadership, but not 10 months in.
The right to be decisive is earned through trust. Your people have to be unequivocally certain that you will always do the right thing by them. They have to be confident that you are leading the charge, and are willing to take the first hit when things don’t go as planned. This is why warriors will follow their commanding officer into the most daunting and dangerous battlefields, their leaders have earned their trust.
Leaders can also eroded trust with decisive actions that turned out poorly. This happens when initiatives fails to produce results or where those who report to you take the brunt of the fall-out.
Perhaps extenuating circumstances or your own lack of certainty have made you indecisive up to this point. This has been a crisis like no other with circumstances beyond what we could even imagine. Leading in this time might have left you leading at less than your best.
If any of these situations apply, do not start making quick changes now, you’ve lost that privilege. You have either used up your “trust capital” or never had it to begin with. Now you must rebuild or gain trust in order to make effective change. Now is not the time to make unilateral wholesale adjustments, your people will not follow you.
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Change is a challenge for people or organizations under “normal circumstances.” Now more than ever leaders must challenge their people to growth by intentionally building trust to tackle one problem at a time. Change and growth are possible in these trying times, but it requires those in charge to lead well, perhaps better than they ever have before. And while this is written with leaders in mind, this all applies to us as individuals as well. After all, the first person we must learn to lead is ourselves, and change starts with us.
