Thriving organizations
Look like healthy families.
Some of the same things your family needs from you right now are exactly what your employees and clients need. When leading through crisis remember that thriving organizations look a lot like healthy families. Healthy families are not perfect and they do not get a pass on problems, they just have different people first strategies for handling difficulties. In the days to come I will be sharing strategies to help you lead your family and your organization.
Strategy #1. Healthy families and organizations move towards each other in times of crisis. During this time of social distancing your people need to see you and you need to see them. When people see their leaders it helps to reduce anxiety and create a sense that they are not alone. It reorients their compass and gives them a direction to go. In the midst of combat the military has a process to make sure a leader is always visible. In healthy families when children are scared or there is a crisis, loving parents make every attempt to get to them and let them see your face.
When my son, now 23, was only 3 years old he fell and ripped the soft skin under his eye. Because of the size of the tear and the jagged nature he needed to have stitches to pull the skin back together. Due to the incredibly close proximity to his eye, the doctor told me he was going to have to give my son a shot in his eye to numb the area.
Now, I don’t know about you but watching a needle come straight for me and into my eye would be really scary.
The doctor warned me of how important it was for my son not to move during this process (he could lose his eye sight). Then he gave me the opportunity to hold my son’s head and stay visible during a really tough moment or to let the nurses strap him down and anchor him in so he wouldn’t move. As hard as it was for me to stand over my son and hold his head as tight as I could there is no other place I would rather be in that moment.
I held my son’s head, not knowing what was coming next, and I told him to look into my eyes and don’t move. Don’t look at the scary thing coming towards you look at me, I have you. Whatever happens we are in this together and I will not let go.
Just like the circumstances we are in right now, we as leaders may be scared and we are trusting others the do their job and keep us safe through this but those we lead need to see us visible. So they can feel our strength, our confidence and our unwavering commitment to them and the clients you serve. No matter what happens we will be connected on the other side of this.
Putting your people first starts with being visible. Figure out the technology we are so fortunate to have access to and visually go towards your people. See them and let them see you.
