Leadership contains a lot of paradoxes. When it's simple, we make it difficult. When it's difficult, we over simplify it. You look smart when you are not the smartest person in the room. To lead people you must serve them. The list goes on and on. The circumstances of leading during the crisis of COVID-19 threw leaders into a relentless spin cycle of all of these paradoxes and that can create a lot confusion for leaders which usually leads to paralysis by analysis. However, leading during crises can produce important lessons that should not be forgotten.
I have found one leadership truth that ought not be forgotten when cutting through the turmoil of leading during crisis...
PROXIMITY correlates to leadership effectiveness during crisis. Leaders should always aspire to and plan for way to be close to their people, but the more negative and disrupting the circumstances the closer the leader should draw to their people. A leader doesn't even have to have all the answers or any of the answers. Sometimes the crisis are so intense there is not an answer or a solution. But I believe a leader is on the path to leading well during crisis if they just get close to their people.
University of Kentucky Basketball Coach, Coach John Calipari in his book, 'Players First', described his proximity method. Calipari states he never walks past a player on campus without touching them. A high five, fist bump, hug, or backslap always happens. 'When I touch them, I remove any doubt they may have about how I feel about them and that allows me to instill how much I believe in them.' When a leader stays close to their people it removes doubt and instills belief. If that's true while walking past someone on campus how much more true is it for a leader and their people during crisis?
University of Kentucky Basketball Coach, Coach John Calipari in his book, 'Players First', described his proximity method. Calipari states he never walks past a player on campus without touching them. A high five, fist bump, hug, or backslap always happens. 'When I touch them, I remove any doubt they may have about how I feel about them and that allows me to instill how much I believe in them.' When a leader stays close to their people it removes doubt and instills belief. If that's true while walking past someone on campus how much more true is it for a leader and their people during crisis?
Be the type of leader that your people want around when everything is burning to the ground.
Whitworth President Emeritus, Bill Robinson, describes in his book 'Incarnate Leadership' that leaders need to curve towards their people and get on their turf. When COVID-19 hit and quarantine arrived, I knew that I had to stay connected to the people that I lead. I didn't have any answers or good ideas at first. I admitted that when we got together (thank you, Zoom). The good ideas and answers would actually come as a result of staying close to my people. Collective wisdom is a thing. I just knew we had to get together and stay together.
Here's a couple ways you can get close to your people during crisis...
Stop texting and emailing. Start calling and Facetiming. Hearing voices and seeing facial expressions are critical to feeling connected. The texts and emails make a lot more sense after the calls and Facetimes.
Ask 'how are you doing?' and make sure they describe how they are doing! Don't accept a one word answer. If you get the one-word answer, follow up with 'and what else?' You'll be surprised how quickly the other person starts to talk.
Send ideas to your people and ask them, 'what do you think about this?' I continue to be stunned how one of my mediocre ideas gets refined into a genius idea when I simply give people freedom to speak into it, critique it, and criticize it. I would guess that a large percentage of good ideas are mediocre or even bad ideas that my people have spoken into.
Schedule a meeting and clearly state that the number one objective is that 'we have to stay connected'. It's amazing how well you can put together a meaningful agenda and how good attendance will be. A meeting that has 'connection' as the number one objective is a meeting that is people-centric and not leader-centric. People like to attend meetings that they are the center of.
It has been a wild ride for leaders recently and it does not look like it is calming down. Stay close to your people and you just might enjoy the ride.
*Bonus content: Here are some resources to dig deeper on this topic. ‘Incarnate Leadership’ by Bill Robinson. ‘Players First’ by John Calipari. ‘The Culture Code’ by Daniel Coyle. ‘The Future Leader’ by Jacob Morgan
Keep on, keepin’ on, friends!
‘Bite Down and Don’t Let Go’ is a collection of writings on being intentional about life in a way that produces great persistence. Read about it more here.
Dr. Chris Hobbs is an educational leader with more than two decades of experience. He’s earned a few degrees and won some awards. He’s happily married to his high school sweetheart and they have three teen age children. Life is messy and complicated most of the time. You can follow him on Twitter for all sorts of inspirational thoughts and good laughs.
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