Leading Through Change: How to Guide Your Team Through Uncertainty

0:00Welcome to Leadership DNA, a podcast for those who aspire to be a better leader. Alongside Arturo Gomez, I'm Rob Cressy. Today's topic, strategies for leading through change and uncertainty. And Arturo, change is always going to happen and uncertainty is what we signed up for as entrepreneurs. How do you lead through change and uncertainty? Well, fortunately and unfortunately, I've had a lot of it throughout my professional career.

0:32We've had some real extraordinary highs and lows. And so, things that we've done or scenarios that I've seen where there's been some real success in getting through it is making sure that creating expectations in terms of where the, what we're anticipating or where we want to go through this process of change. So, to me it's driven through communication.

1:01So, if communication is not paramount, things are going to, I'll give you an example. So, seven, eight, almost nine months ago I guess, I came into a business as a partner and there was a dramatic culture change that was needed. Okay? And this was, I mean this is a business that had been there for 10 years. It was a big job, a big job because there was deeply rooted sentiment and behaviors that I would say were not good for the business. And so, it took a lot of conversation daily, weekly in terms of where we wanted to go and why we were making these significant changes. It took resilience on my end and staying extremely steadfast and making sure that people understood not only why I was making that specific change but what the outcome, what I was looking to achieve. And so, it was like what was the road map? And so, rather than telling people hey turn right here, I would say you're going to turn right here but here's all the other logical steps of where we're going to turn and how we're going to move to the end goal so that we can sit on top of this hill. That's the goal.

2:22And so, I think communication is extremely important as you're managing through change because nobody likes change. Nobody likes change and without any kind of dialogue it's like when your plans change when you're traveling on a plane like oh my god we're leaving the, we're not on the plane yet, we're 30 minutes late and this thing's delayed. The second you don't start hearing from somebody that's working from American Airlines or United People start freaking out like why are they not communicating? Why are they not communicating?

2:53Why aren't they telling us what's going on? And so, it's the same principle in a business. People just let me know. Just tell me what's going on and we can, everybody can calm down and so it's the responsibility of leadership to be able to bring that calm and bring that understanding and change. I think it's important to have agility and this also is part of the communication. Letting people know and I traditionally will try to go that route of the under promised kind of almost let them know that they're in for some very difficult times. We're going to get through this together but I want you to know that the expectation is X and we're going to need to work through this and it's going to be tough and I hope that you guys stick around. Those of you guys that this is not for, there's an off ramp here and so and I give everybody, not everybody wants to go through that and so again making sure that you're agile and you have this ability to be flexible but it's not just you as a leader saying hey I'm agile and I'm flexible. It's how do you get the rest of the team to buy into that concept that nothing will be okay and smooth for the moment, that there's going to be some extreme turbulence and everybody needs to hold on. Yeah there's a quote that I love from Chuck Yeager that says the cockpit shakes the most right before you're about to hit the sound barrier and I always remember that as a leader, as an entrepreneur because we've got these big goals that we have. You want to break the sound barrier and all of a sudden here comes this the airplane's shaking you're like whoa what's going on and he's sitting there being like yeah right before you're about to achieve your goal it's when it's going to shake the most and then the other analogy is the hardest thing to get is the final yard. You can go 99 yards and you're sitting there on the goal line and as entrepreneurs are we ever going to get there? Oh my god this is so hard and you even said this nobody likes change in the same thing. You're sitting there with one yard to go and it's the hardest yard and I think back to running the Clearwater Marathon in January and people are often like oh what was the hardest mile or did it get easier at the end? You know my answer is every consecutive mile got worse so mile 23 terrible, 24 even worse, 25 when you're sitting there and the mindset for me is the last mile is free because you earned that last mile it's terrible you're not a little bit better because you're only one mile away from completing a marathon no it is way worse it is excruciating because of how mentally tired you are but this is what we as champions design ourselves for so Arturo when you're saying nobody likes change not everybody likes to go through that for me I smile when I hear that because I'm built differently and that's the I want the people like you who are rowing this boat together saying hey we're going to do this and for me you nailed the thing about communication it's a as Tim Grover says in the book Relentless everything's labeled number one because it's almost important and I quote this with my clients all the time that success rises or falls to the level of communication that when I look back at my career anytime something has gone wrong the first thing I'm going to do is look at where did communication fail and then the next thing Arturo with this is commitment and for me when I look at change and uncertainty the plan may change but the commitment does not and to yes and that I also go back to core values when you're dealing with change and uncertainty what is the stability and what is the foundation we're not just throwing out everything of who we are we're just changing course of direction based on what we're seeing right now and in my world having been coaching and creating in the world of artificial intelligence for the last year and a half this is an area where I'm seeing so much resistance because here is something new that is disrupting the world and is going to for the next 10 plus years forever so there's a lot of resistance here so what is stopping leaders from learning artificial intelligence and I brought on a new client last week and something that he said really stood out to me that I'm going to use pretty much for the rest of the time that I'm creating with artificial intelligence and he's a high performer lives in the world of venture capital and things like that and he goes rob if I wait another year I'm a year behind and he is a leader was self-aware enough to understand that things are changing and even if I don't understand it I want to accelerate the rate in which this happens he's like rob the reason I want to work with you is because I want to learn faster I don't want to be behind for another year so the way that we frame change as leaders is an important thing change is inevitable uncertainty is part of the game but let's always keep our foundation of our core values our communication and the best people in the world that I know they embrace change because on the other side of change is oftentimes good stuff 100 so we we you know these are those are those are the founders I mean listen I think it's um it's just going to be a necessity for leaders to bring calm to the team in order to get through it also say that you know there's there's times where part of the part of the change or uncertainty it leads to the to the side of the equation that wasn't really the preferred one and so you know bringing this you know having a soft landing so to speak or or being able to you know bow out with some nobility takes a tremendous amount of strength and you know just confidence to be able to do that too and so it sometimes sometimes it's okay sometimes okay and you need to understand that that that's part of the equation as well I think first and foremost we got to continue to to fight if it's something that we truly feel like we we believe in it but um you know it all revolves around this communication and uh and transparency factor that I think can bring calm and confidence to the team if it's done correctly yeah and I love how you use calm and confidence because so often uh when times are the toughest for me as a leader that's when I want to shine the most because everybody's good when things are good when everything's on fire that's when I want to rise to be the best and that's why I do hard things by design because one of my mantras is prepare for what's difficult when it's easy because I know there's going to be challenging times changing uncertainty on the horizon so let's get used to being that uncomfortable the last thing Arturo for me that is a a very big foundation of this is vision that over the last I'd probably say two or three years but even specifically the last six months clarity of vision for me has become a superpower because the more clear your vision and where you know that you're going that the more that we can all row the boat in that same direction so when we're looking at change and uncertainty it's once again uh things might be changing but we have a vision of where we want to go but if you've ever been a part of something where there is a lack of clarity on where we're going or what we're doing it's oftentimes a lack of vision and for me I believe one of the superpowers of the best leaders is all around clarity of vision because when you've got the clarity of vision the commitment stays the same the core values stay the same yeah the plan for how we get there that's what might change but we know the things that are foundational they're going to keep staying the same yep it's uh it's a fact it's a it's a it's a fact and so and you know listen I think if you if you're an organization that vision and mission and mantra and all those you know foundational attributes of the company are are something that is important or stressed from the very beginning it it helps through these through this process so that it's not just something we're pulling out of our back pocket when you know when the sh*t hits the fan it's something that we're actually coaching and teaching in preparation for um in preparation for the for the times that we know are inevitable so um for sure for sure vision and an understanding of where the organization is meant to be and where to go is um and by the way I'll tell you that it that it also helps to to prevent you from getting into situations that become turbulent or prevents you from situations that could dramatically change or deviate from that from that focal point you know and so it's um it's got a tremendous gravitational pull and the organizations that really I think excel are people that have done a great job making sure that everybody in the organization is in line or understands what that what that organizational vision is well yeah because we don't oftentimes hear the stories of shiny object syndrome and the second and third level impact that happens when you change course because of this new shiny object and what that ended up doing to get the team or a person off of the vision and it's something that of course we live in a world that is non-stop shiny object syndrome of be on somebody else's agenda what about this new tool the new thing here so that's why once again these foundational things communication commitment core values vision they're so important because they're the things that are going to allow you to continue to move forward and grow so Arturo let's now get to the action item or the takeaway and as is no surprise the things that you and I talk about and share we live on a regular basis and in the way that I operate as a coach and as a creator is when there is something in my life that I've created and then somebody else says Rob can you teach me more about it I just turn it into something that I give away to other people so we're talking about vision right here go to robcressy.com backslash ignite and what I created is a thing called the vision ignition blueprint when I've been living in this world of vision I formulaically created I think there's about seven different modules of things that I do to activate and create clarity of vision in myself so as we're talking about changing uncertainty let's make sure you're clear on your vision and if you want to have mastery level of what vision looks like in your life just go to robcressy.com backslash ignite it's my gift for you what about you Arturo what's your action item or takeaway? You know it's probably going to be something that is aligned with you know we've been talking a lot about this over the last couple of pods is really just for leaders and organizations really just doing some checks and balances in terms of that vision that mission and making sure that it is clear because I think having transparency having an understanding organizational understanding of the objectives of the of the company I think can prevent a lot of heartache that you know some some is potentially unnecessary and then prepares the team for these inevitable twists and turns that do that do arise and allows them to you know just to help helps everybody stay on stay on path.

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