103 - How To Lead In Difficult Situations

I’m often asked leadership questions that follow the form, “how would you lead in a situation where ________?” And they fill in that blank with whatever difficult situation they are facing at the time - where you need to fire a team member, you have a team member destroying the morale of the team, you have to reprimand a team member for bad behavior, and the list of difficult situations could go on forever.

I know it’s frustrating initially to the person asking me this sincere question, but I always answer that question with a question. “How would you want to be led if you were that person?”

As the person considers my question and we talk through it, the knowledge and courage to lead through their stated difficult situation become apparent.

It’s simply the golden rule applied to leadership. Taking some creative liberties with the rule, I’ve changed it up to address leadership specifically.

I’ll further explain the golden rule and its value to you as a leader in this podcast episode.

The Leadership Calculator

The Leadership Accelerator