Your Instincts are Wrong: Leading Through the Crisis
Peter Sellers was a favorite in my family when I was a kid. Google isn’t helping me source the film, but there’s a scene in one of the Pink Panther movies where Clouseau is telling the room, “Now ezz not the time to panic.” A second later, a cartoon-ish bomb is handed to him. Clouseau, wide-eyed, screams, “NOW ezz ze time to panic!”
Reading all the news and predictions — 20% unemployment, millions dead, endless quarantine — how could one not think that now is the time to panic?
Like a cherry on top, I just received an email from a business consultant, someone who professes to be an expert in my field. He insists that 30% of our businesses are going to fail — but he does have tips on how to conduct mass firings.
Terrific.
I wish I could jump through the Internet and engage in some Inspector Clouseau-esque antics with this guy because his advice is not helpful.
We are roughly two weeks into this crisis and we don’t know what lies ahead. So, let’s not jump until we are pushed.
In fact, I think leaning away from your first instincts might not be a bad thing.
The instinct to panic. Fight it. It won’t accomplish anything. Actually, it could send your team into a morale death spiral from which the company may not recover.
I read an article by two former Navy Seals which provided some perspective. (After all, when one is fast-roping into Osama Bin Laden’s compound, one had better control one’s nerves.) Our greatest leaders, the authors say, emerge from the darkest moments. Waiting it out is not an option — business leaders create solutions.
Try to put things into perspective: this isn’t England in May of 1940. All of Europe hasn’t fallen to a lunatic who now has the bulk of your army surrounded at Dunkirk. The enemy has the troops, the momentum, the materiel, and hasn’t been slowed by anything or anyone. You can understand why many people in England wanted to fold the tent and sue for peace. Even Churchill wavered, privately.
Or fast forward to 2001. Mohamed Atta, OBL’s foreman in America, wanted to buy a crop-duster to distribute VX nerve gas. VX nerve gas.
We aren’t facing a human adversary here, someone consumed by hate, able to think creatively to breach our collective defenses. We’re battling a virus that’s like many we’ve experienced (and beaten) before. We know the science. We know the best practices. Thousands of scientists are working on a solution.
We also know that these outbreaks tend to be of short duration. As I write this, China has literally no new native cases (I’m excluding a few travelers, who are getting treated.) That’s, what, 90 days?
Compare that with any point in time between 2008 and 2011. Nobody knew how long the Great Recession, or the malaise from the GR, would last.
Yes, there are models that show this bug affecting us for the next 12 to 18 months. But you can also see models, like this one in Medium, which show that a strong suppression phase — exactly what we are doing now — can return us to a degree of normalcy. This will provide enough time to develop better treatments and ultimately an approved vaccine, while obviously allowing economic recovery.
So my point is, while this is a significant challenge, it’s also almost certain to be predictable and short term. Which means, we can weather it.
The instinct to pause everything at work.
The economy is going over a cliff in large part because companies everywhere are curling up in a fetal position. This can only exacerbate our woes.
It’s as if business leaders everywhere are channeling Hudson (Bill Paxton) in Aliens: “Game over, Man!”
Again, while understandable, we can’t grind to a halt. As General McChrystal said in his article, “Today’s leaders can’t give in to this instinct.”
Now is the time for leadership and resolve. The dominoes are falling, one by one. What can you do, personally and professionally, to stand up, breaking the chain and sparing everyone behind you?
The personal items are simpler. The dog walker can be paid, regardless of dog walking. Local restaurants can get a lot of takeout business. We can all be more patient.
At work, the same principles apply. Our small creative agency has contractors and vendors who are working for us regularly. We had a call with one vendor who assumed that we’d immediately put our projects on hold. I decided to continue because a) I thought it would help our business, and b) I thought about the ripple effect any pause would have on them, and their vendors.
Let’s transpose this model back to the larger economy. Take trade shows and conferences, for example. They are all getting canceled, and many businesses are taking a wait and see approach.
Here’s the contrarian approach: What’s to see? The trade show is going away. But your business needs and objectives are not.
Rather than doing nothing, why not fill the void with some topical, much-needed thought leadership? Throw together a topical, empathetic webinar. Ship out some funny reads to your best clients. There are a slew of ways to communicate to your prospects — and it’s easier when the market is relatively quiet, which it is, right now.
Look at the silver lining. Trade shows are expensive and exhausting — it’s you vs 1,500 other companies, all vying for attention with the same 20 x 20 booths.
Another plus: given the relative quiet, those leaders and brands who show resolve can actually gain share of voice, if they take the mantle. Of course, I’m talking about communications that are thoughtful and grounded in empathy. Even better: use your platform and brand to build and celebrate community — we all could use a little more of that these days.
Here’s another example: create an internal communications campaign to rally the troops. We did this for some Fortune 500 clients during the last recession, with incredible results.
This crisis is going to end, sooner than you probably think. The companies that lead (and communicate) through this crisis are unquestionably going to come out ahead, with teams that are more resilient (and more encouraged) than their competitors.
So let’s do our parts to fight our lesser instincts. Action matters. We all have an opportunity to be Churchill here.
The dominoes must not continue to fall.
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School of Thought is a creative agency located in the San Francisco Bay Area. We specialize in marketing and branding that builds on sustainable practices and challenges the Status Quo. With laugh-out-loud humor and emotional storytelling that gets to the heart of a company, we’re redefining the way we look at advertising.
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