Leading Challenging Situations To Successful Outcomes

As a leader, you have a lot of responsibilities, including planning, developing relationships, persuading others, and achieving goals. But what does your team need from you in trying times?

Resilient leadership enables you to do more than simply survive in the short term; it positions you and your team for success so that they can eventually thrive.

Whatever your position or sector, one thing is certain: Your team or organization will eventually encounter difficulty. The secret to surviving these inescapable storms is you.

‍Consider Your Options

Because humans dislike change, we frequently place a higher value on inaction than on actual action. It is within your power as a leader to change how you and your team react, regardless of whether it’s a company-wide crisis or a problem unique to your team.

What steps are you contemplating to take to address the challenging situation you are currently dealing with? To carry out a plan, use a weighted pros and cons model. List the advantages of both action and inaction. Next, list the expenses of both taking action and not. We must be aware of the difference between action and inaction when facing difficult situations.

Assess and Reframe Your Expectations

It’s simple for a leader to begin solving problems without first attending to their own emotional needs. However, we frequently react emotionally when our ingrained beliefs about how the world ought to function are shattered. This makes it challenging to reason clearly and keeps us fixated on issues rather than potential solutions. Reset your standards realistically and choose progress over perfection to get around your beliefs.

Evaluate Your Team

According to research, mentoring and empathy in the workplace decline during difficult times. As a result, productivity and engagement decline and frustration and anxiety start to grow.

Prioritizing your efforts is the first step. Who needs your assistance? The team members who most likely require your support are those who exhibit limiting behaviors over the coming days, such as withdrawing from the group, complaining, excessive worrying, and procrastination, all of which can be brought on by negative emotions.

Share Bad News

Delivering bad news is a common part of communication during difficult times. Leaders should first acknowledge the difficulty and emotions present before attempting to cheerlead their team through it.

You must identify the needs of your audience in order to communicate more effectively. Start by imagining the worries and concerns of your team, then acknowledge the challenges you face together as a team. Get feedback, pay attention, and express your concerns. Then introduce some optimistic statements, such as, "Even though things may be difficult, I’ll be there with you every step of the way." Finally, go over the specifics and what will be needed to address this change or challenge.

Be Positive

It is crucial to foster positivity in the workplace during difficult times. Employees actually demonstrate that they value meaningful work and a connection to purpose more than pay and benefits in poll after poll.

When we’re asked to do more with less or going through a transformational change, it’s crucial to take positive actions because it’s in these situations that our brains tend to become especially negative.

Spend a short time recognizing the accomplishments of others and the progress your team has made. It is very effective and inexpensive.

If you find yourself at a loss on how to bring these ideas to your team, taking a leadership course or a leadership coach can greatly help you through a challenging situation. The goal of leadership coaching is to increase a professional’s personal drive for success in everything they do, not just to help them become better managers. 

Real human connections and accepting responsibility for the success of those around you are key components of true leadership. But before a future leader can be counted on to succeed, they must learn how to properly self-lead, set objectives, and create the foundation they’ll need to keep improving throughout their careers.