Four Techniques To Lead Through an Economic Storm
Hi leaders, there’s a lot going on in my world and the worlds of my clients, so I thought I’d share a quick guide for best practices to weather potentially difficult changes in the wider economy.
1. Don’t waste time on the drama
Instability in the wider economy means stress for most people in the day-to-day. And stress or anxiety is an energetic black hole for both you and your employees. As a leader, it’s your job to understand the reality of this and how it’s playing out in your specific company context. One of the greatest contributors to productive and successful workplaces (á la Amy Edmondson) is “psychological safety,” so making sure your employees feel seen, thought about, and cared for will help them to do their best work.
For this reason, it can be good to slow down on things like initiating conflict, pushing employees to do more work, or even layoffs–especially if you know those employees seem stressed. Listen to conflicts to ensure employees are heard, but try not to get too caught up in who is saying this or who is thinking that. People aren’t their best selves under stress, so try to “keep the main thing the main thing”, as the saying goes. And reorient your expectations: during a period of economic instability, to have an average day is to have a good day.
2. Take a step back
What I discover is difficult about these times is that–precisely when there’s added instability and therefore more work to do–our stress makes every action cost more energy and limits our ability to think clearly/creatively.
That’s why, if you lead in any capacity, you need to take a step back to strategize and make sure you’re able to think and feel clearly. When the world is changing, our business priorities need to change as well, and it’s hard to do that critical thinking under stress. (Sway has biweekly CEO coaching and an online Change, Transition, and Transformation workshop for these exact reasons!)
3. Your company is in the details
Once we’ve taken a step back, it’s easy to get caught up in big abstract conversations/ideas that we forget our days actually consist of a lot of little things. So return to the details! Bring special snacks to the team meeting, spend an extra 5 minutes drinking a latté with your employee and asking how they’re doing, add a couple plants to beautify the office, implement a dress up/down day on Fridays, send your employees $10 Uber Eats gift-cards for lunch. Anything that makes you and your employees enjoy their lives a little more will make everyone less stressed and therefore more productive.
4. Have the conversations
Lastly, some of you may need to have extraordinarily difficult conversations during this time. For those who do, my advice is to spend time strategizing from the overall business perspective and also empathizing from your employees’ perspectives. Then, have the conversations as quickly, straightforwardly, and empathetically as possible.
One of the best examples I’ve seen of this was in March 2020 when the COVID pandemic started. A CEO I had coached with met with all 20 employees over Zoom and very carefully told everyone that there was about 3 months savings in the business portfolio, so that the business could last 3 months even if they lost all their work overnight. Only then would they need to consider things like personnel changes or layoffs, and then the company would potentially ask the employees who could afford it (including the CEO) to take a pay-cut before laying people off. Doing this created a vision that immediately unified the entire company and created an extraordinary sense of psychological safety! The business actually doubled during the pandemic (for larger economic reasons obviously, but also very much thanks to the CEO’s leadership intelligence).
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Other Tips:
Some other strategies that can be useful during this time is to prioritize short-term ROI as well as long-term (2-ish year) ideas/strategy to ensure your company can weather a downturn and then has more powerful sails when re-entering a more abundant economy. (People forget that having less-defined medium-term work can mean more freedom to just focus on whatever sounds enjoyable and will give your company added skills and identity for the future marketplace). If you run a company with many employees and there is not enough work, have them use freed-up hours to work on side projects that can help your business in the long-term. If you are a solo-preneur, take some time to invest in education, such as learning that UX or graphic design program you’ve always hated.
Along those lines, if your company is experiencing an economic downturn, this can also be a great opportunity to think about what’s been getting passed over in the personal lives of you and your employees. This may be the time to give extra care to your family/social life or to take a trip to visit your parents. While paradoxical—if your company is in fact low on work but there are savings—attending to your personal life is actually the most productive thing you can do because you will be a better version of yourself again when returning to company work. Just make sure your employees aren’t taking off all at once :)
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So these are some tips I’ve seen work for my clients. Are there others that we missed? If you need help with anything, Sway and our team is always here. We’re thinking creatively during this time too, so please reach out if there’s an immediate difficulty/opportunity your company would like help with during this time. It’s also nice to know how your companies are weathering the current economic forecast(s), so feel free to reach out with any updates, happy/sad/or in between. We want to hear it all.
Look forward to leading with you,
Ashlee
