Your 6-Point guide to COVID Leadership Excellence

Years ago, I wrote about three key leadership tactics essential to ensure survival in a recession.

But this recession is more challenging, weirder, and basically just more fucked-up, in a wide variety of ways.

So here is my 6-point COVID Crisis leadership guide. How do I know it will work? Well, I don’t really, but I have some ideas because I have been a leader through many recessions, I sit on the Board of 12 recruitment and HR tech companies dealing with this right now, and I talk to recruiters about their fears and misgivings every day.

So, be you the CEO of a big company, or a Team Leader of one junior person, here is your mantra. There is plenty more you need to do, but you must do these.

1. Authenticity and transparency

No one wants to be ‘finessed’. Have the reality ‘sugar-coated’ by a condescending boss. Tell your people what is really happening. If you cut staff numbers, tell them why. Not with vague euphemisms, but with facts. ‘Our Gross Profit dropped 60% in 3 months, and we don’t see it recovering for a year’. Your team will not love that news, but they suspected it anyway, and it helps them understand why four of their mates got fired. Of course, you prepare what you say. It needs to be considered and respectful. Of course, panic is never good. But showing your emotion is human. Tell the unvarnished truth. Sprinkle it with hope and vision. But no one values a leader who is full of BS. And trust me on one thing. If you BS your team, they will know, and you will never recover from it.

2. You are the CEO! (Chief Empathy Officer)

People are struggling. Often the ones you don’t think are struggling, are. Everyone is on their own journey through this shitstorm. They are scared of many things. Exhausted. Worried. Your role is to be caring about their mental state, their energy, their fears, their health and their careers. And you need to be sincere. You can’t solve it all. But you can ask. You can listen. You can compromise. You can be generous in many ways. But…

3. Balance empathy with outcomes

The worst bit of advice I heard given by a recruitment leader recently? “I know it’s tough team. Just do your best’. WTF does that even mean? Of course, we are going to do our best!  But what does ‘good’ even look like in COVID? What is a productive day? What are my action steps? How do I engage with clients? What should I actually do? The leader is empathetic. Yes. But we are running a business. And if our GP does not exceed our expenses, none of us will have a job and where will empathy alone get us then? So, empathetic yes, but focusing on actions and outcomes too. Caring, but also redefining productivity and setting achievable micro- activity goals. That’s COVID leadership.

4. You are the CEO. (Chief Energy Officer)

And this is where it gets really tough. Because you are depleted too. You hare having tough days as well. You sometimes run out of ideas. You have family challenges and financial worries, as well. But you have to lead the charge. Energy up every day. Fresh ideas. Positive conversations.

5. Build your ‘chat’

You need a persuasive point of view. One for clients. One for candidates. One for staff.

You need a powerful narrative.

A narrative about how clients and candidates can respond to short-term challenges. And a clear, persuasive point-of-view about this ‘future that’s happening much faster.’ We need clear, smart ideas and thinking about what our clients and candidates are facing, and what they need to do.

As a recruitment leader, you have to set the tone from now on. With a clear positive ‘story’ about how we will get through this, and thrive the other side. Do not misinterpret me, please. I am not talking about ‘spin’. Or some superficial flim-flam. Definitely no BS. I am talking about an authentic point of view that points the way.

6. Reiterate ‘the purpose.’

Recruiter belief in themselves and our industry has been smashed. Some are hanging on by their toenails. You need to show them a future that makes sense and has appeal. You need them to see that what they do now, every day, has value. Even if it’s not making many placements and getting much tangible return. You have to spell out how they still have a career with your company and in the industry. Essentially, every recruiter in your team must believe that the sun will shine on recruitment again

Access the library of my Crisis advice here 

(50+ Blogs, podcasts, webinars)

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Now is a good time to read ‘The Savage Truth’. Full of lessons about surviving recessions, but also on how to take advantage of the recovery. Get it here

(All proceeds of my book sales in 2020 go to the Australian Bushfire Relief Fund)

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