In my previous message I stated the importance of
the leader planning beyond this crisis.
Transitional, intermediate and long term planning that provides the
direction of your company, or your team, in what is becoming the ‘new normal’.
I fully appreciate that there are a number of
unknowns as you look into the future.
And I expect that this will be a very fluid situation with unanticipated
factors impacting your decisions.
That said, it is vital to understand this. Having a goal or an objective is not a
plan. Too often leaders confuse the end
with the means and are surprised when the objective is unmet.
This period of uncertainty is new to everyone. Whether you anticipated it or not, there was
no way to predict the impact and ultimate outcome.
Lily Tomlin once opined that ‘truth is nothing more
than a collective hunch’ and during these times one may be inclined to agree
with her.
We are in the early stages of this pandemic. Everyone is anxious to have things return to
normal. We think that a lifting of the
shut-down represents the end.
The reality is that it may represent a small
victory. I think that Winston Churchill’s words best represent our current
situation. During WWII he commented
after a victory in North Africa “…this is not the end, it is not even the
beginning of the end. But this may be
the end of the beginning…”
Soon you must commit to a course of action.
Once you have, communicate, communicate, communicate.
Care
and listen, not the other way around.
If your team doesn’t think you care, they won’t say
anything that you can listen to!
Only now can you focus on execution. Stay focused on the process because this is
uncharted territory for all of us and the end may not even be where we think it
should be.
Your leadership mettle will never be more severely
tested. I urge you not to go it
alone. If you succeed there will be
glory enough to share.
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