Leadership in Tough Times

February 13, 2014 by Ben Yoskovitz 12 Comments

captain-america

The all-time most popular post on this blog is 10 Essential Business Leadership Skills. I wrote that in 2007. It ranks near the top of Google results for “leadership skills” (which is what drives most of the traffic).

I’ve struggled from time-to-time since then with my own leadership abilities. Writing ideas down about how to improve as a leader is one thing, actually living it daily is another thing entirely.

One of the biggest challenges with leadership is what you do when times are tough.

When things are going well, it’s pretty easy being a leader. The good stuff drives a lot of the motivation, and you just need to keep people on track and serve, in many ways, as a constant cheerleader and supporter of everyone’s work.

When things aren’t going well, a lot of people retreat into themselves and don’t tackle the problems head on. They communicate less. They get paralyzed. They react negatively to feedback and try willing things into existence (which doesn’t work) as opposed to taking a proactive approach to solving problems. I’ve done all of those things.

I’d like to think I’m getting better at leading through tough times, but for most of us, it’s not natural.

Here’s what I would challenge you to do when things aren’t going well: communicate more. Invest more time in communicating with team members on what’s going on, be honest and straight. Don’t sugarcoat. On the flip side, keep your emotions in check and don’t make a bad situation worse. Most likely the sky isn’t falling. The world isn’t ending. You have to remain calm. Just tell it like it is.

I would challenge you to communicate more with employees, but also with your investors. I know that admitting “weakness” to investors, or that you’re facing challenges is scary, but once you stop communicating you lose investors’ trust and they write you off. Fast. So during the rocky parts of your business (and there will be rocky parts), communicate more.

I used to yell a lot more than I do now. These days I still display frustration, but less so, and I try very hard to remain action and results-oriented versus blustering and grumpy. What might come off as grumpiness is really just me being focused. But there’s a delicate balance there. Leaders have to be passionate–if you don’t care, why should anyone else? But there’s a fine line between passion and panic. Be careful about crossing that too often.

When the shit hits the fan, lead by example. Communicate actively. Direct people clearly. Stay calm. Be action and results oriented. Get problems fixed as fast as you can. Go for small wins to re-energize everyone. Remain until the end. Don’t spend time reflecting on what happened, do that later. Don’t play the blame game; decompress after.

In some cases, when times are tough, there’s no immediate answer. At some point as an entrepreneur / leader you won’t have the answer. (It happens to me all the time!) There’s no quick fix solution. It’s in those times that you can be a great leader or turtle and give up. It’s in those moments when you can open up, admit that you don’t have the answers and get everyone around you helping. Your employees and your investors are working with you because of you–that’s a huge burden but also a huge opportunity to leverage the resources around you for help. Don’t close yourself off to that. People will rally around you, and that’s a way better feeling than sitting in a dark room alone trying to solve all the problems yourself or praying for a miracle.

Photo courtesy of stickkim.

Warren Fauvel

Do you think this has anything to do with the Extroversion/Introversion dichotomy and Leaders generally being extroverts?

I’m naturally an extrovert, ‘take control’ person. But when the pressure is on, I get my head down and work hard. I thought it was a good thing.

The only problem is, it meant my team got lost. The pressure made me introverted. So I learned to adapt.

It’s well documented in MyersBriggs type models.
Benjamin Yoskovitz

That’s an interesting way of describing what happens to people. I think for a lot of entrepreneurs, it’s more about paralysis than “putting your head down and working” when things get really difficult and troublesome. But if you find yourself retreating into your shell to try and “work your way out of something”, as you’ve experienced, that might also not be the answer, because it leaves everyone else in limbo.
Warren Fauvel

For me the paralysis started there. The lack of communication led to lack of ideas of how to solve the problem. The minute I opened up and shared the responsibility, it got easier to find solutions. Though the decisions were still mine, the conversations made them clearer.
James Ferguson @kWIQly

Another approach which pays off when “willing things into existence” (eg a solution) instead of handling a crisis directly is to accept there are inevitable aspects (but the important ones often take time to play out) and side step.

To open a new avenue from a different perspective – this can have three positive effects and one negative

1) Channels energy frustration and fear into a non-active arena (which may fail or succeed, but does not currently matter) – A “Hail Mary Pass” is better than no pass at all.
2) Gives time for reflection – Like mediating or going for a walk or some hard sport – it clears the mind
3) It leads and unfreezes response

Treating a crisis with disdain or at least dettachement can inspire and seem bold and brave and cool – but in hindsight might be seen as “fiddling while Rome burns”
Benjamin Yoskovitz

Thanks for stopping by and commenting James, appreciate it!
Divorced She

.Alienation, (by Prof.Dr.H.C.Y?ld?z)
(Alienation depends on age in USA)
Alienation: be overwhelmed or an outsider from task.
The alienation arises, when motivation of manager is at low level.
Which is more important: Money or Job Satisfaction?
Intrinsically motivated managers:
1.When their ages are 45 — 50 age.
2.It comes to money satisfaction, but not to job satisfaction.
3.They still think of their dignity.
4.Level of their motivation don’t decrease.

Dignity at Work:
http://www.westminstercollege.edu, 2013:
People are born with intrinsic motivation, self-esteem, and dignity,
(CarlaValencia).
People are born with dignity.
In general, people are born with abilities, (www.123helpme.com).

Causes of Alienation:
a.Similarity between Maslow — Alienation.
Extrinsic motivation purposes reward and money, and it is not long term(x).
Extrinsically motivated managers:
1.When their ages are 45 — 50 age.
2.It comes to money satisfaction (x).
3.Level of their motivation decreases.
4.In this case, alienation begins. They think of whether strong performance
or effort is necessary.
The change in level of motivation leads to the alienation.
After being 45 — 50 years old, they could careless work and don’t take their
tasks seriously.
Why did the Titanic sink?
Main cause: due to weak (faulty) rivets.
(www.titanicuniverse.com/weak-rivets).
Commentary: weak (faulty) rivet is result of the irrational decision.
b.Relationship between Pay Policy — Alienation.
Wrong Pay Policy:
The pay must depend on the work difficulty. But some administration
can wrong measure the work difficulty. In this case, it comes to lack of
performance.
The pay policy determines the performance of manager and thus CUR
could decrease.
CUR: capacity utilisation rate.
The alienation depents on the success of wage (pay) policy.
The unsuccessful wage (pay) policy leads to the alienation.
Divorced She

Suitable Education System: War on Terrorism, (Prof.Dr.H.C.Yildiz)
The terrorism is consequences of imitation by poor countries in education
area. It could come to the terrorism, if national education reform is not
created.
This imitation and global administration are responsible for the international
terrorism. Else, police protection can not hinder it.
Causes of Terrorism:
Before:
It didn’t come to the terrorism or different economic growth rates
(precipice) among countries.
After:
Industrial
Revolution. But poor countries didn’t create their own education
system.
Imitation (in education area and poor countries) led to the poverty.
Namely:
Imitition or unsuccessful education system leads to the poverty.
Suitable education system can hinder the international terrorism from the
poor countries.
Terrorism is created or seduced:
1.When it comes to the imitation in education area (poverty).
2.When it comes to the prejudice as spark.
No peace, without national education reform in poor countries.
The education system wastes scarce resources in Pakistan and India.
Thus it became unsuccessful.
Namely, however:
Turkey must create own synthesis or model,
(Minister.H.Ulugbay, 17.6.2003).
Comment: Imitation is wrong, false.
What does ‘Knowledge Management (KM)’ mean?
KM must focus on the students who learn assimilated
knowledge or who are intrinsically motivated. In this case, it
comes to focus on assimilated knowledge, they will be successful, and the productivity increases.
New technology can not be produced, if new knowledge is not
assimilated. Higher savings and investment are result of higher productivity.
If administration doesn’t take the assimilated knowledge seriously, it doesn’t
come to success.
The core task of economic policy is knowledge management,
(Prof.Dr.Utz Claassen).
Divorced She

Technology requires long term motivation, by Prof.Dr.H.C.Yildiz.
Technology (technical change) means production of new knowledge.
Assimilated knowledge facilitates production of new knowledge,
innovation or technology import (new technical knowledge).
New knowledge can be produced only by assimilated knowledge.
When knowledge of managers is not assimilated, technology can not
be developed.
China permits free technology import, but new technology can not be
produced. If so, new knowledge can not be assimilated.
Existing knowledge and the ability (intrinsic motivation) facilitate to grasp
(totally understand) key knowledge in a certain field of work. Assimilated
knowledge is important because it makes the job easier and faster without
accident.
Extrinsic motivation can not facilitate assimilating new information with
previous knowledge, because it is not long term.
Brainstorm can make the sparks to solve problem.
They are intrinsically motivated and educated managers, and can produce
more creative ideas. Their activity can turn employees.
They are both (long term) motivated and qualifed.
My synthesis (intrinsic motivation and knowledge)
leads to production of new knowledge. Thus unemployment decreases.
Production Factors:
1.Land, raw material.
2.Labor.
3.Capital.
4.Execution of my synthesis.
A value add can either increase the product’s price or value.
It comes to good with high added value.
Value added product will include improving product quality and will
be priced higher. Their production needs to equip with skilled employees.
skilled (employees): both educated and long term motivated.
long term motivated: intrinsically motivated.
cem yildiz

According to my experinces:
Extrinsically motivated managers who can not be motivated over 45 years old. Because they especially focus on money (bribes) or idleness (laziness), but not on productivity or competitiveness. Therefore they can not challenge.
cem yildiz

According to my experinces:
Extrinsically motivated managers can not be motivated over 45 years old. Because they especially focus on money (bribes) or idleness (laziness), but not on productivity or competitiveness. Therefore they can not challenge.
cem y?ld?z

Some employees are extrinsically motivated and over 45 years old.
Investors can especially motivate only with money their employees who are extrinsically motivated and older than 40 – 50 years old.
According to my experiences:
Extrinsically motivated managers can be motivated only with money over 45 years old. Because they especially tend to money (bribes) or idleness (laziness), but not to productivity or competitiveness. Therefore they can not challenge.
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