Leading Your Organisation Through Change and Uncertainty by Award-Winning Keynote Speaker Trudy Macdonald

The right kind of leadership

Some key questions asked during this webinar were what it means to be a leader, especially in the context of todays’ environment?

In the pre COVID-19 world, a democratic style of leadership was often the norm to facilitate attention, engagement and development. With autocratic leadership being considered to be the least effective approach leading to a higher staff turnover, low engagement and motivation among staff.

Never the less in an interesting paradox, currently good leaders have opted for a more autocratic sense of leadership during these times, as teams require clear direction, and a stable framework to get behind.

Yet the best leaders have gone on to increase their democratic style of leadership within the confines of a tightknit group, whose members are invited to bring innovation to the table to help make informed decisions, which are then implemented autocratically through the rest of the organisation.

Business continuity planning

In this particular environment, business continuity planning requires 3 key considerations.

Priority 01 Survival

Regardless of where your organisation is on the survival journey, it is important to be anticipatory rather than reactive, by identifying trigger points for action. It is worth taking into consideration that by paying attention to the 3 phrases of planning; preparing, sustaining and reactivation, an organisation can emerge stronger than ever before.

When it comes to people and structural changes, some will be reactive and others strategic. Currently some of the best organisations are moving towards flatter structures by pulling the right talent throughout the organisation to do what needs to be done. Many organisations have also taken steps to limit hierarchy and beaucracy that may hinder decision making.

Through a survival perspective, many companies may have been forced to make redundancies, reduction of hours and salaries. A key message here is that redundancies are not the only option for your staff, Redeploying and realign the tasks to meet what your business needs right now is a great possibility to give thought to. 

Priority 02 Reputation

Prioritizing your reputation during this period, with two key groups being the external market and stakeholders should be considered significant.

Now more than ever it is important to modify conversations with customers, stake holders, partners and suppliers to ultimately create value, so once we move to a stabilised environment, a trusted and enhanced relationship is sustained while protecting the organisations reputation. The same concept is applicable to your employees, it is important to ensure they are aware the organisation cares and interested in their well-being as opposed to being a company solely focused on organisational objectives during these truing times. 

Priority 03 Laser Focus

As a leader it is important to understand what your business needs is to not only survive and but to also set yourself up to thrive. Having a structured plan that will enable you to identify and cascade your objectives tying in clear measures of success is critical.

Most organisations during normal times have a clear vision, mission and values in place, from which stems a strategic plan and an annual business plan that traditionally covers three years.

Yet during these times of uncertainty, it is quite likely that business as usual plans might have changed. Reframing this plan as a go forward plan spanning a contained period of time can help your organisation move forward while experiencing slow and steady incremental growth. On the other hand strategic priorities often seen as a revolutionary change, helps review what your organisation’s priorities are in times of crisis as the new normal continues to evolve.