Tough times call for strong leadership. Susie Kennedy presents her 10 top tips for commanders
When sailing in stormy seas, you want your skipper to stay calm, be confident and show leadership.And with the hurricane of cuts, freezes and redundancies currently raging across local government, good leadership has become more vital than ever.
So, what should you do as a leader in tough times to navigate the tempest, and come through with a motivated and productive team? Here are my top 10 suggestions:
give direction by focusing on what you can do – not on what you cannot do.
Your staff need you to be confident and strong, they want to reduce uncertainty and feel their work has meaning.
You may not be able to give clear direction, but you can take short-term control over the daily work. Be clear about what you want your people to do and let them get on with it. And encourage them not to worry about the things they cannot control l encourage greater productivity and inspire high performance.
In the short term, ‘more for less’ may mean ‘less with less’, while people cope with change. Yet, improving productivity need not be complicated – motivated, capable people who are well led are more productive. Prioritise high impact work, use praise, recognition and small unexpected rewards to boost morale. Spotlight productivity improvements using simple measures, such as reduced absenteeism as Stratford DC has successfully done
stay visible and communicate to capture hearts and minds.
Don’t hide in your office, or someone else’s, tempting as it may be. Employees feel good if they believe executive management genuinely care about them, so walk the floor – show you care.
They need to talk, so create the opportunity, even if there’s nothing new to talk about. A head of service at Durham CC realised the motivational effect of talking face-to-face, even though she had no information to give.
Before communicating, ask yourself how you can help your staff stay focused and productive, rather than worrying about things they can’t influence l build resilience by generating options and developing flexible political and managerial teams.
Challenge yourself and others to think the unthinkable about future options and possibilities for technical and professional roles. And invest in planning and preparation. In South Gloucestershire Council, managers have been trained in managing change successfully.
Develop flexible cross-functional teams which can quickly form and perform within and between other functions and partner organisations. The skill of building high-performing teams is a ‘must have’ for successful leaders
develop leadership capability at all levels.
Senior managers and members need strategic thinking, change leadership and personal influence skills to make and execute the right decisions for the future.
Line managers must know how to manage themselves and their people through change, while maintaining productivity. Both need skills in building teams. Encourage your staff to recognise and leverage their own personal influence, take more responsibility and develop themselves
be fair and transparent, especially if you are making redundancy decisions or changing structures and processes.
Fair process is as important as outcome. Increased engagement and involvement in the decision-making process, coupled with regular communications helps this.
Research shows that when staff are involved in defining the future, they are up to five times more committed to that vision than those who are not. It’s worth investing in this – it makes your life much easier
look after the ‘leavers’ and the ‘stayers’.
The stayers witness how redundancies are handled or mishandled. Managers who support leavers with finding new work or honour training to build transferrable skills and confidence will accrue trust.
After a redundancy period, your ‘new’ team will feel energised and ready to move on if its members judge the process fair. A senior head of service in Sefton Council described the post-redundancy phase as ‘rebirth’ – he and his people were motivated to get on with reshaping their service
look after yourself. If you fail, the whole organisation suffers.
For many chief executives and senior managers, this is a stressful period. Your people need to see you looking confident, strong and positive, so it’s important to look after yourself. Action learning groups can be a powerful tool for challenging ideas and strengthening decisions. Freshen established groups with new members or invite leaders from different sectors to observe.
Audit your leadership strengths – know how you can contribute in innovative ways. Push yourself out of your comfort zone
ask your people to think, challenge and take risks.
In tough times, you need everyone to contribute, to think about implications, to challenge assumptions and demonstrate initiative without being told.
Put every brain to work. Reduce time spent ‘talking at’ your staff and invite more suggestions, challenges and solutions. Act on the ideas that will yield greatest benefit, and reward contributors.
Staff who believe they cannot make a difference will need persuading that their contribution is genuinely sought
lighten up and energise your team.
Find ways to lighten the mood. Create opportunities for you and your team to relax outside of work and find ways to stay positive while in work – a strong team finds support in each of its member.
Be aware of the depressing impact of pessimistic rhetoric such as ‘slash and burn’.
Keep your team meetings focused and upbeat, and celebrate small successes. While navigating this storm and dealing with the relentless leadership challenges remember, storms blow through.
Susie Kennedy is senior partner at KBA Solutions
