Tips for supporting leadership teams during uncertain times
Following on from my previous article on leading during times of uncertainty, I wanted to provide you with some tips that I have picked up along my journey on how you and your organisation can support your leaders.
Leadership development requires an agile, courageous, and adaptable mindset. Encourage leaders to embrace change, learn from failures, showing robust vulnerability and seek continuous improvement. I have seen all too often how ineffective and harmful the wrong behaviours and training can be, and how finding the right solution can breathe new life into an organisation. But remember always stay true to yourself, stay authentic.
- Understand the specific uncertainties and challenges facing your organisation and industry. Identify the skills, competencies, and mindsets that leaders will need to navigate through uncertainty successfully.
- Effective leadership requires a powerful instrument like vulnerability. It enhances communication, stimulates innovation, boosts empathy, and creates trust. A culture of openness and honesty where team members are respected and encouraged is fostered by leaders who accept vulnerability.
- Develop a culture that embraces learning and growth. Encourage leaders to adopt a growth mindset, which involves seeing challenges as opportunities for development and improvement.
- Seeing or hearing a behaviour or attitude the first time is interesting, seeing it the second time is a flag, seeing it the third time is a culture issue.
- Provide training and support to help leaders manage stress, adapt to change, and make effective decisions in uncertain situations.
- Equip leaders with the ability to think strategically in uncertain times. Help them develop skills such as scenario planning, risk assessment, and strategic foresight. Encourage them to explore alternative futures and develop contingency plans.
- Encourage collaboration among leaders by creating opportunities for them to share experiences, insights, and best practices. Encourage cross-functional collaboration and build networks that extend beyond the organisation.
- Effective communication becomes crucial in times of uncertainty. Provide leaders with training on clear and empathetic communication, both internally and externally. Encourage transparency and open dialogue, encourage an environment where concerns and ideas can be shared openly.
- Provide a range of developmental opportunities. Create a leadership development curriculum that focuses on building the necessary skills and capabilities for navigating uncertainty.
- Internally we use our Archetypal Preference Report to ascertain team structure and dynamics – what archetypes are we lacking within this challenge, project, team etc? Click here to investigate yours!
- Empower leaders to take control of their self-development both personal and professional.
- How are you checking in with your team – has an individual’s sense of purpose shifted? Is it still aligned to your organisation?
- How do you meet the person where they are as opposed to telling them where they should be?
- Incorporate technology-enabled learning solutions into leadership development programmes. Virtual platforms, online courses, and digital collaboration tools can facilitate learning and development, particularly in remote or distributed work environments.
- Establish metrics and evaluation methods to assess the effectiveness of leadership development initiatives. Use feedback mechanisms, surveys, and performance evaluations to gauge the impact of the programmes and adjust as needed.
- Recognise that uncertainty is an ongoing challenge. Continuously review and update leadership development programmes to align with the evolving needs of the organisation and the changing external environment.
Strategically aligning the things that matter and those within your reach is crucial to leading through uncertainty in a team environment. Before assisting the team in coping and adapting, you must take note of their situation. Your support and direction can be a powerful motivator for your team as they navigate this transition period.
The one thing we all share, in my opinion, is the need to bring humanity back to work. By investing in and developing your employees, you can better position them to become future leaders who can bring about long-lasting change.
Olivier Mythodrama has been delivering innovative and thought provoking leadership training for over 20 years. The people and organisations we have worked with describe our training as life changing. We think they’re right. We already work with some of the world’s leading businesses. Are you ready to join them?
