Leading in Challenging Times
- Kim Miller
- 1 day ago
- 9 min read
Challenging times require the true leaders to step forward and lead.
10 Steps for Leading in Challenging Times
These are incredibly challenging times. Our rapidly changing world has now accelerated even further, with significant changes happening on a daily basis. What was important yesterday is often irrelevant today. Many leaders are asking the same question. If I am constantly reacting to these changes and throwing out the plans I’ve made, and with so much negative information about the economy and job loss, how can I possibly lead my team? The answer is to follow these ten steps for leading in challenging times.
True Leaders
Now is the time for the true leaders to step forward. They understand and accept what is happening today. They see the threats, and they also see the many opportunities and possibilities. They see the world as it could be. They create a vision for the future and inspire others to help make it a reality. True leaders can lead from anywhere, regardless of their position or title. They are a powerful force for change and transformation. They lead without fear and hate. They use the principles of Universal Elevation and the Wise Loving Being to inspire others to take action.
With Great Change Lies Great Opportunity
Today you can make changes you couldn’t have made a year ago or even a month ago. Ideas for improvement people would have dismissed as too difficult, unnecessary, or expensive, can now be presented as a way to survive. The fear of change is now replaced by the fear of not surviving. Now is the time to identify the many opportunities and threats that affect you. Take inventory of your strengths and weaknesses. Rethink all the ways you can maximize the value you deliver to your most important customers and stakeholders. Then create a vision and inspire others to act.
Prepare for the Worst and Plan for the Best
Rapid change, uncertainty, and threats to our survival caused by job loss, rising costs, and losing customers can throw us into a state of fear. Our mind goes into survival mode which focuses us on the immediate threat. Unfortunately, this limits our ability to think rationally and see all the opportunities available to us. We have to get out of survival mode so we can access our rational and creative thinking.
The first step for true leaders is to prepare for the worst. Acknowledge the worst-case scenario and assign it a likely probability of happening and a level of impact. Then prepare for this event with the appropriate amount of effort. If the probability and impact are both low, there is no need to spend much preparation time, while a high probability and impact requires a considerable amount of effort. Ask yourself these questions:
What’s the worst that can happen?
What’s the probability of this happening?
What's the potential impact of this event?
How much time should I spend preparing for this event?
What can I do to lower the probability of this event happening?
What can I do to lower its impact?
How can I prepare for this event?
For example, if you think there’s a 10% chance you will lose your job and there would be minimal impact because you have enough savings to cover your bills for at least six months and you have other sources of household income, then you don't need to spend a lot of time preparing. These aren’t odds you would bet on in Vegas, so the amount of preparation time should be low.
However, if there is a high probability of occurrence, you have only one source of income, and you don't have much money in the bank, then you need to spend a lot more time preparing. Here are some things you could do:
Stop all discretionary spending and reduce your expenses.
Update your resume and line up several references.
Create a profile on a couple of job sites and set up an automatic job search to send you the results on a daily basis.
Survey the job market to see what is available.
Identify companies that are growing and hiring.
Identify people in your network or current employees in those companies you can contact about job openings. Note that only a small fraction of the jobs available are actually posted on job sites and on company websites. You’ll want to inquire about these hidden jobs.
Make contact with these people to let them know you are looking and see if they are aware of any job openings that would be a good fit for your experience and abilities.
Take training classes to improve your chances of getting your desired job.
Look for ways to increase and diversify your income by getting a part-time job.
Look into the process for getting unemployment payments from your state.
Balanced View
Addressing the potential threats first then frees up our minds to look for opportunities. We tend to focus on negative news, and we are often fed the worst-case scenarios from the media. The second step is to take a balanced view of the situation and acknowledge all the good and bad possibilities. List all the changes that are happening, the threats, and all the opportunities that are opening up. Everything has positive and negative consequences. Unfortunately, we tend to look at the negative when we are in survival mode.
A balanced view helps us get out of the fear state and see the reality of the situation. Yes, losing your job could be a problem, but it’s not the end of the world. Look at the upside of getting a new job. There are lots of companies that are hiring. From my experience, the odds are you will find a better job that pays you more than you are today.
Focus on What You Can Control
It is human nature to focus on what is out of our control. We keep waiting for others to show up and help us when we need to take ownership and solve the problem ourselves. Plus, when we own the solution, we can tailor it to better meet our needs.
The third step is to focus on what is under our control. Ask yourself these questions:
What is out of my control?
What is within my control?
What opportunities does this present?
How can I take advantage of these opportunities?
Maximize Your Value
The fourth step is to determine how you can maximize the value you deliver to your most important customers and stakeholders, from their perspective. Customers are more likely to keep vendors they like and who provide high value at a reasonable cost. Don’t forget to look at how your customer’s customers benefit.
Your goal is to be the Vendor of Choice. They choose you because you can do it faster, better, and cheaper than anyone else. You take great care of them with outstanding customer service. You have high integrity and always deliver as promised. You listen to their concerns and make changes to better meet their needs. They trust you and know you will give them exactly what they asked for in the time frame they requested.
Present Moment
The fifth step is to take a fresh look in the present moment at what your highest priorities are today. It’s important that we start with a blank piece of paper and move forward without the baggage from the past. In management theory terms, this is called ignoring sunk costs, which is the time and money we’ve already invested and can’t get back. By freeing ourselves from past planning and goals, we are able to be more flexible and effective in the present.
What was important at the beginning of the year is probably no longer relevant. Even what was important yesterday can become obsolete today. The goals given to you at the beginning of your fiscal year most certainly need to be reevaluated or you’ll be out of business.
Set a Goal
The sixth step is to create a goal using the 5W’s Complete Goal-Setting Framework. Define what you want to accomplish using a statement that is twenty words or less and can be understood by a 5-year-old. Remember that how you will achieve the goal is not addressed in this step. This will increase your chances of success and prevent you from setting small, safe goals you are certain you can achieve. It's important to set significant, meaningful goals that produce the outcomes you actually need.
Brainstorm on 4 Questions
The seventh step is to come up with as many ideas as you can to maximize your value and achieve your goal. Examine these four areas:
Stop. What are you doing today that is no longer providing significant value?
Continue. What should you continue doing that adds maximum value?
Change. What are you doing that can be even more valuable if changes are made?
Start. What aren’t you doing today that you should be doing?
Evaluate Your Ideas
Once you have brainstormed as many ideas as possible, the eighth step is to evaluate your ideas for viability. This is a good time to take inventory of your available resources and to identify the things you'll need. For each idea on your brainstorming list, ask the following questions:
Value. What is the value to your most important customers and stakeholders? Use a simple scale of high, medium, and low.
Effort. How much effort will it take? Use a five-point scale for this: 1 is low and 5 is high.
Schedule. How long will it take to complete from a schedule perspective from 1 to 5?
Cost. How much will it cost financially on a scale of 1 to 5?
Total Cost. Calculate the total cost by adding your scores for effort, schedule, and cost. This is a number between 3 and 15.
Risks. What are the risks and how can you mitigate them?
ROI. Is there a significant return on investment? Do the benefits outweigh the costs?
Select Your Best Ideas
The ninth step is to select those ideas you want to move forward with. These are the ideas that provide the highest value for the least total cost, the smallest amount of risk, and the biggest ROI.
Make a Plan
The tenth step is to create a plan for achieving your goal. There are a lot of things a customer would like to have but only a few things that are critically important. This is called a Minimum Viable Product. Create the requirements for these critical, high-value items. Use an agile process with two-week sprints and corresponding product review meetings with customer and stakeholder representatives. Have them play with the product and provide you feedback on what needs to change. This approach is the fastest way to generate a new system that exactly meets your customer’s needs and will be used by them.
Create Metrics
Make sure you create metrics for determining a successful outcome. For example, if your goal is to deliver a system to your customer, measurements like completing the project on time, schedule, functionality, and quality are good but they don’t effectively measure the goal of maximizing your value.
Better metrics are viewed from your customer’s perspective. Does the system meet their needs today or do changes need to be made before it can be used? There have been lots of “successful” projects for systems that are never used, which is a total waste of time and resources. Some better project measurements are:
Your customer’s overall satisfaction with the system and the process used to create it.
The number of people who are using the system on a consistent basis.
The number of customer requests required to make the system viable.
The actual value your customer is receiving.
The actual ROI for the project.
Unleash the Power of Your Team
Just as you can’t win a football game all by yourself, a team is required to create great things. In order to unleash the power of your team you will need to go through the same ten-step process with them. You’ll need to get them out of the fear state, so they aren’t in a survival mindset. You might start with some one-on-one meetings to directly address their fears.
Put Your People First
With all the focus lately being on profit and efficiency, it’s important to bring back some much-needed humanity. Schedule one-on-one meetings with each member of your team. Tell them that you see them, that they’re important, and that you’re here for them. Tell then you’ll get through this together. Yes, there are some bad things going on, but there are also lots of opportunities for something better. Give them genuine hope about the future. Show them that you value them by making sure they hear any important information from you first.
Then you can follow up these individual discussions with several team meetings to take them through the rest of the process. By scheduling these meetings for the same time each week, you can create structure, certainty, consistency, and hope. You’ll transform negative, fear-based thinking focused on doom, to positive thinking focused on possibility. You’ll increase the probability that things will go well and reduce the odds that things will go bad.
Ten Steps to Lead in Challenging Times
To summarize, the ten steps for leading in challenging times are:
Prepare for the worst.
Take a balanced view of the situation.
Focus on what is under your control.
Determine how you can maximize your value.
Take a fresh look at your highest priorities in the present moment.
Set a complete goal.
Brainstorm ideas on how to achieve your goal.
Evaluate your ideas.
Select the best ideas.
Create a plan to achieve your goal.
Bright Future
These challenging times are made for true leaders. The future is bright, and they can see that. In such a negative world, true leaders provide genuine enthusiasm and hope. Release the true leader in you. Be a positive force for change. Inspire others to help. And take massive action to make your vision a reality.
I wish you much success, and I look forward to seeing all the great things you will accomplish!
Note: To learn more about how Two Aspirins can help you elevate your leadership and management skills, check out our Leadership Coaching for Managers program page.