4 Myths Leaders Believe in Crisis

What are the 4 myths leaders believe in crisis?

The pressure to lead when it all hits the fan is immense.  

Everyone is looking for a leader to lead. 

But it's in believing and acting on these 4 myths that leaders actually make it harder to inspire trust from their team. 

They think they are leading, but everyone around them sees them as acting out a role.

There's no fooling your team in times of crisis. It'll best serve you and them by ditching these 4 myths.

In this video, we'll explore the four myths leaders believe in crisis. 

These big four myths are easy to fall prey to and might be harming the trust your team has in your leadership.

• Which of the four might you believe in?
• In what ways might you adjust your approach to be more authentic?

Want more? Download this FREE White Paper!

The 5 Tweaks to Tap Your Next Level of Executive Presence.  Sign up now and I'll email it to you!

4 Myths Leaders Believe in Crisis

Transcript - April 9, 2020

So what are we supposed to do as leaders when we find ourselves in times of crisis?

Hi, I'm Zach.

I'm a performance and leadership coach with create purpose. I work with a lot of executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs to help them get clarity, focus, and energy around their next bold move.

Today, I want to talk a little bit more about leadership in times of crisis because so many people right now have been thrust into change.

Their businesses are literally having to change overnight, some businesses have closed their doors, some of them had to take their business online when they had no online marketing or digital strategy.

They had to create one overnight.

There are many leaders right now in times of crisis.

I want to highlight for myths that leaders believe when you know what hits the fan

The first one is, "I must act strong."

This is a myth as leaders when times of crisis come, we put it on ourselves that we must be the one that's strong. We must carry the team. We must show them the way. We must lead!

Right? And I think we get this idea from Hollywood. You watch TV, you watch Braveheart, you watch these very, very inspirational movies, and what we love about him is this strong, confident leader that knows the way and is leading his people there right?

That's how we want to be as leaders.

But what if we don't feel like that?

Implicit in I must act strong is there's this actual feeling of insecurity or fear, of the unknown, and uncertainty.

When we're in times of crisis, you're there's no way around ignoring the fact that there are some areas where you feel vulnerable.

I think it's a myth that we must act strong because I think in times of crisis, everybody around us can smell the BS. If we're not being real people know it.

That actually creates more mistrust within our team than if we just showed up and admitted where we feel weak, where we feel vulnerable and really face the realities of the crisis.

Myth number two is leaders believe that they must stay positive.

You know...they must stay optimistic and put on those rose-colored glasses and see the bright side and look for the silver lining.

I think, yes, I'm not saying you should be negative. But what I'm really proposing here is being real, because if the focus is just staying positive, the leader might show up and be like, "we're gonna be just fine."

"We can do this everyone, we can figure this out. I have, I'm sure this will all work out."

It's these positive platitudes that we throw out and our people are maybe not so sure.

They're kind of wondering how we're so sure.

I think it creates this incongruence with what reality is.

It again creates mistrust across the team and it actually makes people find it harder to follow you and fully step in line with where you're wanting to go.

They're not quite buying into the rose-colored glasses vision.

Right? I think that's a myth.

I think the myth is that we must stay positive as leaders in times of crisis, we have to be positive.

We have to be optimists and look for opportunities.

All is true. But when you do that without facing some of the negatives and facing some of the harsh realities, it comes across, like you're trying to put pig lipstick on a pig, and that just doesn't work very well with with with the people that you're leading.

So that's Myth number two.

Myth number three is as leaders in times of crisis, we must deliver the right message.

We put so much onus on us to show up with that inspirational message for our team that's going to bring them through this crisis.

We try so hard to deliver the right message that again, we end up glossing over what's really there and trying to paint this utopia vision of what we think is going to happen, but we really don't know.

And we're not kidding anybody.

Because when we're in crisis, there are oftentimes some very harsh realities that we are facing and when we try to deliver the right message, we might start focusing on the wrong things.

We might try wordsmith reality, when what we really need to be doing facing reality. What we need is to express fully that this is reality and this is what it means.

And I think it leads us right into the fourth myth...

The fourth myth is it's my job to direct the troops as the leader in this time of crisis.

I must direct the team. I must show them the way. I must have the answers.

That's a lot to carry.

And you know what? I think it's perfectly acceptable to admit that you don't have the answers.

We're literally in a time of complete uncertainty.

And so again, if you show up thinking you have the answers and coming forth with a rose-colored glasses confidence.

I'm not quite sure if people will buy into it.

I think people can smell the truth and the underlying truth oftentimes is the leader is just as scared as the team. If not more so because the leader has more at stake.

But so often, the leader tries to gloss over all that and it's not kidding anybody.

I want to introduce three things that I think might better serve you if you are a leader finding yourself in a time of crisis.

This is how can you best show up for your team so that you can put yourself in a position to lead.

The first step is to be willing to be vulnerable--to be real, not trying to sugarcoat anything.

It's literally to be real, and to be real, means you have to be vulnerable.

So if you're feeling scared, I'm suggesting it's okay to say that/

Because I think people will follow your vulnerability.

We often think that when we're weak, people aren't going to trust or follow us. We think they'll lose confidence in us.

But quite often the opposite is true.

When we're willing to be weak, when we're willing to be vulnerable, and we are the ones to go first. It changes the whole environment and allows everybody else to share what's real for them.

It gets the truth on the table and we can deal with it.

The second one is to be transparent.

I'm suggesting opening up the harsh realities. Let people know exactly what the realities are.

Don't talk doom and gloom. Don't go the opposite and start talking all doom and gloom, parroting what's going on in the media.

There's probably something in between, that's actual reality.

And just make sure that you're able to express and be transparent with, "these are the facts."

Because when you do that, it opens up a conversation.

And the last one is to stay focused on what you can control.

Get really clear on what you can control and explicitly communicate that to the team.

"This is unknown. This we really don't have any control but I can tell you this. We are control of these four things. I have complete confidence in your abilities to be resourceful and come up with great ideas. And so because of that, I like our chances."

There's a difference there when you're able to first show up, be real, be transparent, and then be focused on what you can control. Compartmentalize everything but that.

It really does free you up then to act and make the decisions you need to make for your business.

But also empower your team to carry the load and do this together.

Because as leaders, we are not in this by ourselves, it might feel like it and it's normal for it to feel like it.

But it doesn't have to be your reality.

I hope you found this helpful.

One last thing, I put together a white paper on how to level up your executive presence as a leader.

There's a link below. You can sign up for it and I will send it to you in an email and I think you'll get a lot out of it.

Because it talks about five major shifts that we make as leaders throughout our journeys that really can level up our executive presence.

So hope you enjoyed it and I will talk to you soon.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai