Ep# 072: Leading Through Tough Times

In real time as this is being recorded, the world is continuing to navigate it’s “new normal” with countries literally being shut down, businesses being put on pause or shutting down, schools and churches are closed and there is a virus spreading across the globe like wildfire. There is very little predictability right now.

So today, we're not focusing on the virus. The world is doing enough of that right now. But we are, however, focusing on something that rings true every single day, across every generation and within every industry, no matter what is happening in the world: leadership.

Leadership is the way through every single battle. It is how you're going to come out on top no matter what you are facing, what the circumstances are, whether you lead a team, an organization, your family, your church or your community. How you rise to this challenge and any other challenge that you face is going to determine how you come out on the other side.

I want to make this topic tangible for you. So this episode is going to break down the different categories that I find most important during really tough times. Listen to this one with your notebook in hand because it's applicable stuff that's going to make a world of difference in this particular moment in history and in the many moments to follow.

In this episode, we chat about...

The level of leadership that you choose to step into will determine your future

“When you choose leadership, you have clarity on the marketing strategy. When you embody leadership, you know how to juggle your kids’ difficult math homework and your business at the same time. When you embrace leadership, you have the tact and grace and perspective to launch or not launch based on what you know the right thing to do is.”

How to grow through your challenges, despite your circumstances:

1. Change your perspective

“When you are presented with a challenge, part of leadership is how you face it. What do you do? How do you handle it? How quickly do you pop back up if you fall? But even more than that, a true indicator of your level of capacity for handling adversity is how you perceive what you're about to handle.”

“This is not something people are born with. You were not born with a perspective. It is crafted over years of experiences, traumas, implementation, study, hard work and effort. You can actually craft your perspective.”

“We don't want to discredit strife either, right? There is opportunity there if you can bang your head up against something seemingly impossible and feel the hurt and the pain or the uncertainty that comes with it because that's real. I'm not asking you to discredit that or belittle it. If you can still find yourself asking, ‘Where's the opportunity for growth here? What can I do better? How can I grow through this?’ You've embraced leadership and you've opened the door to new possibilities that other people who don't think that way will not have.”

“I believe there's a dichotomy in life where you can be suffering and experiencing pain and facing the biggest battle of your life, but still have a perspective that allows you to choose joy and to choose to grow through it and to find opportunity in it.”

“We have the gift and the blessing of the freaking internet where we can show up. [Before the internet] if we had to go into isolation, it was true isolation. We didn't get the opportunity to connect with the world and keep our businesses thriving and to keep showing up for our people and be present...What a gift.”

“Without a perspective that can see through the weeds, there is no leadership. And without leadership there is no opportunity to grow through the battle.”

2. Love

“Yes, you have your quarterly plan and you have your goals and your ambitions and you want to rally the troops and keep moving and show them how to work through this crisis. But as a leader, what you want, especially in a moment of such great challenge, gets trumped by what your people need.”

“Managers can take time to do that, but leaders don’t take a vacation from their vocation.”

“Even if you had to close your doors or furlough your employees or cancel your speaking engagements, the opportunity is in how you can show up and serve the people who need you. Not because it will serve you, but conveniently, ultimately, if you do the right thing, it will.”

“This is where your prospects, your customers, your clients and the people on your team need to feel your love for them through leadership by hearing their concerns, relating to their concerns and not belittling them. When they say they're hurting, it's not the time to reply, ‘Oh, well look for the silver lining.’ It's the time to say, ‘Tell me more. I feel you. I'm with you.’ And then help them see the silver lining through your actions and how you show up for them.”

3. Up your level of -ility [Agility, Adaptability, and Stability]

“You have to be agile. You’ve got to move, so quick. Changing plans, making it all come together on a dime--this is one of the major differentiators between the entrepreneurs and businesses that are going to be battered and broken come the end of this thing, needing assistance and hoping that they can reopen their doors some day, and those who are strengthened, who come together, who see the opportunity, who show up in the crisis and and build that trust and connection with their people. No matter how tough the circumstances are, it's a choice.”

4. Be conscious of your energy

“We are freaking tired, right? We are exhausted. We're doing all the things and now we're doing all the things with our kids home, while homeschooling, while navigating being trapped at home. There are so many factors and sometimes we're feeling beat up and worn down, not to mention discouraged. Maybe we're seeing the bottom line shift to a not so good zone.”

“So that might mean in the morning when you wake up to a long, scary, uncertain day ahead, feeling all of the emotional weight of what you have to face, you get your mind right before you step in front of your people. You pray, you meditate, you seek counsel from the people you trust who can help you be the leader you need to be. You feel your emotions, you face your emotions, you do what you need to do to break through the negative emotions, but you can't afford to pollute your space.”

5. Have a vision

“Remember, as a leader, you always have to have your eyes up just enough to keep sight of the vision, the mission, the greater picture, bigger than you, and bigger than this battle.”

“Leaders are visionaries. So if you're losing sight of your vision and you're feeling like you're getting pretty deep in the weeds, you feel like you're forgetting why you signed up for this life as a leader in the first place, take a minute, okay? Take a beat, manage yourself, reconnect, recraft, recommit to your vision. And I want you to picture a world on the other side of the crisis, the chaos, the fear and believe that this challenge has been brought to you to lead you to that vision. And maybe the gift in all of this chaos is the perspective that breathes life into an even better vision.”

We are not crafted into the people we are called to be in the easy moments. Do you get that? In the choppy waters where we are being tested and beat up, that is where we are crafted into the human beings, into the leaders, into the entrepreneurs that can go to the next levels.