We’re All in this Together - Leading in Uncertainty

The COVID-19 uncertainty has certainly created challenges and opportunities – depending on how you look at it. It is our choice as leaders how we react to this uncertainty. Here are the five “C’s” to keep in mind as you’re leading through COVID-19.

Clarity
The essence of leadership is to provide vision for the future. Through the uncertainty, clarity in messaging is critical. Team members want to know that you have a plan – again knowing plans keep changing by the minute, which leads to our next “C”.

Communicate
The second part of leadership is to communicate that vision. It is important to share what you know, and company policies and changes – try hard to stick with qualified facts. Be sure to check in with your team members via email, virtual meetings, texts, or seeing them face-to-face. It is important to keep in touch with them on a daily basis – even small connections are important during this time. Most important to all of your communication is to actively listen and mirror your team member’s communication style.

Compassion
As Mitch Albom shared in a recent article, how we react to this crisis as a country will be imperative. We all come into situations with past experiences and through different paradigms. Having compassion for someone’s reaction to the crisis embodies empathy towards other humans and reminds us not to judge where they’re coming from. Compassion is integral to building trust with others and in our world today, we could use a little more trust.

Community
As I mention to my clients often, great organizations and teams can receive strong advice from the movie, High School Musical’s song, “We’re All in This Together.” We need to stick by each other during these turbulent times. Let’s not judge. Let’s not hoard. Let’s not panic. Instead, let’s build a community of mutual respect, wisdom, peace, and strength together.

Calm
Exude peacefulness. The experts say this situation is temporary and so, this too shall pass. A leader’s calm nature in uncertainty breeds tranquility – let this trait become contagious.

None of these leadership skills are new, but during a time like we are in today; we need to sharpen the saw on our strongest leadership efforts.

From us here at Leadership Delta, please, be well! And if you need us as we all make our way through the uncertainty, please reach out, we would love to offer our assistance in any way possible.