It's not rocket science, but it's still easy to forget: Pause, breathe, and focus on the fundamentals.

By Garrick Isert

Even business leaders and companies with great track records of planning and preparing are flying blind right now—no one has a playbook for what’s happening. The leaders I’ve been interacting with are under tremendous stress, both from the powerful business challenges that uncertainty creates and from their personal concerns about keeping themselves and their loved ones safe.

You’ve already seen a slew of articles on how to stay safe and how to virtually manage your team. Here are some thoughts about how to get back to the basics of management and leadership in highly challenging times.

Focus on what you can control – Remember Stephen Covey’s circles of concern and influence. The circle of concern is everything you’re worried about in work and life, including the things you can control and the things you can’t. The circle of influence is just those things within the circle of concern that you can actually do something about—which is what great leaders focus on. We may all be worried about the broader economy, for example, but what can we really do about it? I’ve found it can be helpful to take both leaders and teams through a “circles” exercise as a reminder on where to focus their attention.

Ask yourself

• What am I worrying about? What about it is important to me?

• Which of the things I'm worrying about are within my influence or control?

• What am I focused on? What is my team focused on?

Leaders bring the weather – What energy are you bringing to your team, your organization and your family? Like a pebble in a pond, whatever a leader says or does has ripple effects throughout the organization. That’s why leaders have such a disproportionate impact on morale and culture. You can’t allow yourself to be cloudy—a voice of doom and gloom—or you’ll incapacitate your team. Nor can you be all sunshine and rainbows in a time like this, if you hope to be credible. You set the tone, and now is the time to be calm, compassionate and confident that you will get through this. How you react is a choice. 

Ask yourself

• How am I showing up?

• What energy am I bringing to the conversations?

• What choices am I making in how I show up?

Be visible and communicate – In times of uncertainty, when there is a lack of communication from leadership, people fill the void with speculation and rumor. You don’t have to know all the answers—especially in a situation where no one does. But you do have to listen—really listen—and answer the questions when you can; promise to pursue answers when you can’t (and follow through); and be honest about what you don’t know. Even when there is no new news, it still makes sense to communicate, to demonstrate that you’re both attentive to the issues and available to listen. Be open to what others are experiencing, even if it may not seem rational to you. Remember that we never truly know what’s going on in others’ lives and what they’re dealing with it in the moment.

If you’re working remotely, communicating means more than just conference calls and e-mails. One-on-one calls are needed to replace the conversations you’d normally have just by walking around, which are more important than ever.

Ask yourself

• How am I communicating?

• How can I be more visible, even in a remote-work situation?

• What do I want my team to be thinking, feeling, doing?

Know yourself – The first building block of emotional intelligence is self-awareness/self-knowledge. In order to lead and be there for others, you need to be highly aware of what’s going on within you. Whatever you’re concerned about—the numbers, making payroll, loved ones at risk, staying sane with children at home for weeks—is totally appropriate and justified. You just need to be aware of how it’s impacting you, because that impacts how you’re showing up, which impacts those around you.

Ask yourself

• How am I really feeling about all of this?

• How am I taking care of myself?

• What can I do to show up at my best?  

Slow down – this may be counterintuitive, as speed is critical in times of crisis. But the best decisions and interactions come when we are clearheaded, balanced, and relaxed. Take a breath, feel your feet, turn off the news, find some space—block it in your calendar!—to process, reflect, and think. You cannot “react” or back-to-back-meeting your way out of a crisis. You need to create time.  

Ask yourself

• What am I doing to create time to think?

• What do I need to make the best decisions?

Learn from what’s happening – Nothing like this has happened at this scale in recent times. Sadly, though, it’s not unreasonable to think there may be other global events of this nature in the future. The best leaders I’ve met are lifelong learners, constantly mining their and others’ experiences for lessons that could help down the road. There is something to be learned in every situation. 

Ask yourself

• What are you learning from this?

• What is your organization learning?

• How are you capturing the lessons being learned?

Have faith – You’ve been through challenges before. Maybe not a pandemic, but in business there has been 2008, 2001, 1987. And many if not most of us have dealt with personal loss, serious health problems, jobs ending, and other extreme stressors. We get through it. Human beings are amazingly resilient. We may not yet know how, but we find a way through.      

Ask yourself

• What big challenges in the past have I made it through?

• What did I learn from those previous challenges?

• What helped me get through those big challenges in the past and what can I start doing now?

Be grateful – If you’re reading this, you’re likely in a part of the population that is going to be OK, by and large. Think about the hourly employees in the retail, service, and hospitality industries. Think about the frontline healthcare workers and first responders. Think of those who rely on schools and community food banks for their daily meals. We all have blessings, and now is a good time to remind yourself of all you have to be grateful for.

Ask yourself

• What can I be thankful for?

• Who haven’t I appreciated that I need to thank?

Clearly, this is not rocket science: It’s just a reminder to think back to the basics of leadership and management. The more uncertain, complicated and complex things are, the more important it is to execute the basics of leadership well. Best of luck and be well! 

Garrick Isert is an executive coach and founder of the Executas Group, which helps individuals, teams, and organizations perform at a higher level through executive coaching, customized trainings, and consulting.  Garrick is also an advisor to the Vanguard Forum for Leadership.