Hi, my name is Mark Mitford and I spent 20 plus years working as a high-level HR executive in corporate America with many fortune five hundreds and several middle market sized companies. If you're a small business owner, CEO, or any other professional giving the task of solving your company's HR issues, then you're in the right place today. Hey , our episode is about leading in uncertain times.
We wanted to talk about that because quite often leaders end up having to lead with an uncertainty in numerous occasions. So we wanted to spend a few minutes touching base with that and sharing some information on that topic. The key thing we wanted to talk about here, actually, several key things we wanted to talk about our first and foremost is listen to your employees during times of uncertainty, your employees need to make sure that you are in control of the situation.
One of the key things that I found over the years is that the best leaders I've ever been associated with are excellent listeners. They're the type that they go into a large meeting with their executive team and other employees. And they probably do 90% of the listening and only 10% of the talking.
And that's a great thing to do because when you think about it, the leader needs to make sure that whatever they say really matters and whatever they say is going to be a consolidation of information they've heard from their employees and their leadership team. So that's the first thing that needs to happen there. Again, it sounds very easy, but it's amazing what I've worked with. Newer leaders that quite a few new relaters feel like they need to be the expert on everything.
And that's definitely not the case. I used to work in several high-tech companies in the telecommunication companies when I started in my career. And it was always fascinated because quite a few of the feet of the people who were engineers really felt like they needed to continue to be the expert, even though they moved into a leadership role.
And the reality is in , in , in the high-tech field, things move so quickly that you can no longer be the expert in your field because the field of technology changes so fast. So at some point you need to learn how to become a good listener and listen to your employees much more than you actually need to do the talking. So that's, that's number one. Another thing you need to do with leading in uncertain times as being transparent with your employees, honesty is the best policy.
I think we, we all learn that from our parents many, many years ago. So being transparent with your employees, especially if it's going through, you're going through some level of uncertainties critical. A couple of times when I was in situations where the company was a restructuring, it's amazing how during those times that the last thing that leaders wanted to do was being transparent with our employees. And there were numerous situations.
Actually I was with two companies that actually went through bankruptcy, and it's amazing how quite often the leader did not want to actually describe the dire straits the company was in. And as we started to work with them and I started to coach with them, I really, I started to coach them. They really started to focus on being transparent around the financials about any cutbacks or pay cuts that would need to happen or layoffs that needed to happen.
And once that was actually shared sometimes on a weekly or monthly basis by the CEO or a top executive of the company, it's amazing how employees really rallied behind that person. The other key thing to do around being transparent and honest in your communications is top leaders will actually talk about how they're handling this personally, because most leaders are focused.
They love to focus on businesses that are growing, and it's really, really tough for them to focus on tearing apart the business and actually taking away from the business, restructuring, letting go of people and things like that. That's something that's very painful for any leader who has a heartbeat. And so what I would try to do with those leaders is actually let them talk about very openly about their emotions and how they're struggling through this situation.
And once they did that and started to share that they were also humans too, and they were having difficulty making these type of critical decisions. It's amazing how employees really started to their engagement went up tremendously because they could understand that the leader was also struggling with the situation that was going on. So that's number two is being transparent with your employees and talking about things very honestly and openly.
The nex thing we wanted to focus on is emphasize your culture and core values because they apply in good times and bad times as well. And it's great to talk about your culture and the great place you've created and built and your core values. And it's really so easy to talk about those during the good times, but when times are tough and times are uncertain, it's amazing how
Sometimes leaders,
They almost throw the things out. Like they throw the baby out with the bath water, and that's not the thing you need to do. You need to focus still that you're going to be rallying around your , uh, your core values during the challenging times when businesses are going through those times of turmoil.
And that's really the sign of a strong culture because strong cultures, just like if you're in a sailboat and you're sailing through choppy seas or strong winds , an experienced sailor is not going to panic or an experienced captain is not going to panic. They're going to sort their way through it.
And they have to make some changes in the way that they're actually going to move directionally, but they can still use the wind and the strong wind and the turmoil and the , the choppy to actually be able to manage tumultuous times and actually be able to turn that into something that's actually good. So that's one of the key things that I would always emphasize too, is your core values work in the best of times and also the worst of times.
And if your culture is really strong, then your culture is going to work during the best of times. And worst of times, also the last thing we wanted to do and talk about on this episode is take care of yourself and others. Because when you're going through times, especially if it's looks like it's going to be a prolonged time of uncertainty, whether it's an , uh , an economic downturn, whether it's a pandemic or a crisis that's happening, taking care of yourself is going to be critical.
You know, find a good workout routine , uh, look at getting enough sleep, making sure you eat, you eat in a healthy fashion and you're eating good things because if the leader is focused on, you know, the leaders getting no sleep or the leader is spending, you know, 10, 12, 14, 16 hours at work every day, and they're working six or seven days a week, at some point, your body is going to break down because your body's a machine.
And so you've got to make sure you find ways to have outlets, whatever those outlets are going to be, whether they are physical outlets and working out spiritual outlets, or, you know, just sitting there with good friends and openly talking about the struggles you're going through.
That's another great thing to do, because if it's going to be going through, if you're going to be going through difficult times over the long haul for several months or longer, you've got to really make sure that you take care of yourself because that's going to be critical. So that's what we wanted to talk about today. I hope you found this episode fascinating, and I shared a couple of good tips with you.
So again, during leadership leading in uncertain times, it's really critical to do some of the steps that I talked about So that about covers it for today. Thanks for listening. For more information pertaining to all things, HR, visit HRcatalystconsulting.com. And don't forget to like us subscribe to our podcast until next time. This is Mark Mitford. Thanks for listening.