Over my 40-year career in various businesses around the world (including my current one at Thomvest Ventures in the venture capital category), I’ve been fortunate to have worked with some outstanding bosses who taught me a lot about managing teams, including how to deal with a crisis. Given what we’re all collectively facing in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, I wanted to share three time-tested principles I’ve learned from these extraordinary leaders. Their practical, real-world knowledge enabled me to face enormous challenges and crises in my own career, and now it’s my honor to share their wisdom with you:
1.) Define Reality But Be Sure To Include A “Dose of Hope” — No matter how bad the current situation is, the very first thing a leader must has to do is to define what reality is for the team. Until and unless you do that, you do not deserve and will not receive the trust of your team. If you are frank and objective in assessing what you are dealing with, no matter how grim it looks, this will instantly signal to everyone they need to be equally objective in accepting what the team is up against and what it will take to overcome it.
While defining reality is key in starting to turn a crisis situation around, you also need to make sure your team keeps their “eyes on the prize”. What does success look like once you get past the current crisis? The clearer the vision of the future from their leader, the greater the motivation of the team will be to get there with you faster.
I saw this kind of leadership in action when I worked for Peter Hearl in the UK. He was named the Managing Director of the KFC business which PepsiCo had just bought back from a weak joint venture partner. I was head of marketing and had just moved my family to England. Peter’s new team, which I was joining along with others from around the world, wanted to help him turn around a failing business.
But once I learned just how weak of a state the current business was in, I started wondering if I had made the right career decision. The KFC brand in the UK was the laughing stock of the country — ( nicknamed “Kentucky Fried Rat”). It was the butt of too many British comedians that would declare that “Nobody but drunks go to KFC, and that bucket they give you is a just convenient device to throw up in.”). Yikes….imagine trying to market a brand like that.
Peter and I sat in a McDonald’s in London soon after I arrived to talk about what we needed to do to turn the KFC business around. He was very aware of just how damaged the current business and brand were, but as he looked around the restaurant we were in, he confidently declared we could give McDonald’s a run for its the money by focusing on high quality food, families and premium sandwiches. We had the talent on our team to turn this situation around and that’s what he needed us all to do. We were going to amaze the critics and make this a growing, profitable business in just a few years.
And that’s what we did. Three years later, KFC was #2 in the UK market, right behind McDonald’s. It turned out to be one of the best investments PepsiCo ever made. I personally saw the power of a leader “telling it like it is” while at the same time inspiring an entire team to achieve what many thought would be impossible. To be on a team like that — which wins despite overwhelming odds — is a feeling you cherish the rest of your career.
2.) Disagree and Commit, Then Stay In Your Lane — I was lucky enough to work for the same boss (Bill Cobb) at in three different companies (PepsiCo, eBay and H&R Block). Bill and I faced a number of business challenges and crises over the years. Bill was a great listener and always wanted every member of his management team to vigorously debate all sides of a challenging issue, especially if it was a crisis. Every time we had to make a tough decision, he wanted to hear what the options were, along with the pros and cons of each, before moving ahead.
But once the internal debate was over, Bill would remind everyone business is not a democracy. He made it clear that he was the ultimate decider on tough decisions that we could not agree on as a management team. If you didn’t like his decision, he would respect your point of view, but he expected everyone to get behind what he had decided. No Monday morning quarterbacking was ever allowed — “disagree and commit” meant just that — 100% commitment to the decision and no looking back or second guessing.
The other critical part of his philosophy was for each member of the team to focus on what was individually expected of them to do next — Bill made that expectation crystal clear with what he would refer to as “stay in your lane”.
That meant that if you were in charge of operations, don’t go telling the marketing team you didn’t like the latest ads. Or if you were in finance, don’t blame operations for not running the offices the way you would run them. Instead, trust that the other members of your team will do a great job while you are doing outstanding work in your specialty area at the same time.
When everyone focuses on giving their best efforts to achieve what they were hired to do, the odds of that team winning goes up dramatically.
Based on Bill’s numerous successes at PepsiCo, eBay and H&R Block, his “disagree and commit” and “stay in your lane” philosophy were spot on. That sort of thinking enabled his leadership teams to overcome a number of challenging situations and crises, and ultimately built the business and rewarded his shareholders.
3.) “We” Is More Important Than “Me” — Putting the needs of others ahead of your own needs is the mark of a true “servant” leader. In the “Wrath of Khan” (in my humble opinion, the best of the Star Trek movies), Mr. Spock declared “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” before he sacrificed himself to save the rest of the Starship Enterprise.
I saw this type of personal sacrifice first-hand in real life when I was in New York City on a day none of us will ever forget: September 11, 2001. I was attending a seminar just five blocks away from the World Trade Center when the first plane hit the towers. In a matter of minutes, a beautiful fall day turned into something straight out of a horror movie.
What I remember most is how selfless so many New Yorkers were that on that fateful day and in the weeks that followed. Firefighters and police officers did whatever it took to help the public they pledged to serve, and in too many cases, made the ultimate personal sacrifice for the greater good.
We are seeing a similar selfless spirit right now with all of the medical professionals who are dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. Every day, they are going into work and risking everything to be able to save others. They are the real heroes of this tragic pandemic and will forever deserve our eternal gratitude and appreciation.
Summary — Winston Churchill had a number of great quotes about on how to deal with adversity and crises, but my favorite one is: “When you are going through Hell, keep going!”.
When you are the leader of a team, such as a start-up or non-profit, the emotional and physical toll it can take on you at times may seem overwhelming. But as their leader, you’ve just got to keep going, no matter what challenges are in front of you.
Keep in mind that using proven leadership principles can unite your team and help everyone power through whatever crisis your team is facing. Defining reality with a dose of hope gets them off on the right start. Allowing your team to disagree and commit (and stay in their lane) will help each team member do their individual and collective best to help the team win. Putting the needs of the “we” ahead of the “me” sets the right standard for everyone to rise to the occasion and do whatever needs to be done for the sake of the entire team, no matter what personal sacrifices may be required.
And remember, there’s just one thing all crises have in common — they eventually end. The critical difference is how you as their leader deal with them. Deploying key leadership principles such as these with your team can help determine if you look back on these crises (which you will undoubtedly encounter) as disappointing fiascos you would rather forget, or as some of the most emotionally satisfying moments of your life.
As the fearless leader of your own team, that’s now totally up for you to decide.