This is a scary time. We’re all facing the black swan of black swans. As a leader and influencer, your community is counting on you to guide them through unprecedented volatility. Here are Lipkin’s 15 essential-actions to activate others’ success:
- Communicate that this situation will take time to resolve but you’re hunting for the best solutions, together with some very smart people. This too shall pass. It always does.
- You’ve got to go old school – call as many people as frequently as possible. And encourage your people to do the same. Provide support; explore how they feel; let them vent; give them insights.
- Activate your open, reassuring, warm, charismatic persona. Proactively reach out. Don’t default to being an observer or spectator.
- Lean in and lead wherever possible. In these times, conviction is the antidote to panic.
- We’re in “wartime” with a foe that keeps morphing into something else. Make sure that people hear your faith in the future and that your organization will win.
- Acknowledge that people may be feeling overwhelmed. Tell them that’s normal. Then tell them to move forward one conversation at a time. Also recommend that people share their thoughts with other. We’re all both coaches and peers.
- Communicate that every day is a victory. We will definitely win if we try to be the best we can under the circumstances
- People want data. Package it in the best way and get it to them.
- Get creative in how you connect with customers – just like I’m doing now.
- You cannot over-communicate enough in this environment. Even though we cannot connect physically, we can connect virtually.
- Encourage training around being able to communicate effectively on video. I can even play this role for you.
- The small things are big. They need to be done extraordinarily well. When the crisis passes, people will remember how you performed right now.
- Get ideas from your stars about how they are rising to the challenges and share their stories.
- We’re all experimenting as we go along – we’re all leaders and followers at the same time. No-one has the answer, but those that ask the best questions will get there first.
- The question is: are we evolving faster than the competition?
