Leading in Tough Times

1. See Tough Times as an Invitation to Opportunity

Once we accept the fact that life is hard, we begin to grow.

Embrace reality. Life, and leadership, is inherently difficult; expecting an easy path is unrealistic and sets you up for failure. Accepting this truth is the first step towards growth and resilience. Adversity isn't a roadblock but a catalyst for self-discovery and learning.

Adversity's advantages. Challenges introduce you to your true self, revealing your character under pressure. They serve as powerful teachers, often more effective than success, showing you what you didn't know. Tough times also open doors to new opportunities, much like the "mistake" that led to Ivory soap.

Write your story. How you respond to adversity determines the narrative of your leadership journey. You can see challenges as stepping-stones or tombstones; the choice is yours. Good leaders embrace the role of the hero, leading the charge and inspiring others to rise to the occasion.

2. Lead Yourself First Through Self-Evaluation

Self-knowledge is foundational to effective leading.

Know your starting point. Before leading others through tough times, you must prepare yourself by understanding where you are. This requires deep self-evaluation, including knowing your strengths, weaknesses, temperament, and energy levels. This ongoing process, though not always easy, is essential for steady leadership.

Define your values. Your values are the core of your character and leadership, driving your behavior and determining who follows you. Crucial leadership values include servanthood (leading by serving others), purpose (letting your 'why' direct your 'what'), integrity (living your values before leading others), and relationships (walking slowly through the crowd to connect). Consistently living out your values, regardless of feelings, builds credibility.

Commit to growth. Tough times demand that leaders keep growing and developing self-discipline. Rededicate yourself to making necessary behavioral changes. Focus on your responsibilities rather than your rights, shifting from enjoying authority to using it to serve others, avoiding the trap of entitlement.

3. Become an Effective Agent of Change

Leaders who succeed in leading their people through change have a unique perspective on the process.

Change is necessary. Improvement, innovation, and seizing opportunities all require change, yet people naturally resist it. As a leader in tough times, you must become a change agent, helping others embrace positive change even outside their comfort zones. Effective change agents manage to make change happen despite obstacles.

Find common ground. Start by building relationships and finding similarities with your team in areas like vision, values, relationships, attitude, and communication. Once common ground is established, you can introduce necessary changes, focusing on what truly needs changing, not just what's easy. Let go of outdated practices and help your team move towards tomorrow.

Lead the process. Communicate the vision for change simply and powerfully, offering multiple reasons, including "What's in it for me?" Activate belief in people by showing your confidence in them. Remove barriers like outdated systems or difficult people, and lead with speed to gain early victories and build momentum. Push past obstacles like failure and negativity by reframing them as learning opportunities.

4. Build and Strengthen Your Team Relationships

Appreciate your people as your greatest assets, and they will continually increase in value.

People are your greatest asset. Organizations succeed or fail based on their people. Unlike other assets, people have the potential to increase in value if they are valued, challenged, and developed. As a leader, you are responsible for having the right people in the right places, doing the right things together.

Connect intentionally. Don't just build relationships with people you like; be intentional about connecting with everyone, leveraging differences for the team's benefit. Place a high value on team members, understand each person's needs and desires, give respect freely while earning it, prioritize their agendas, and commit to their growth by helping them discover and develop their abilities.

Foster unity and growth. Build a stronger team by positioning people where their strengths add the greatest value. Encourage individuals to reach their potential by showing them a vision for their future, treating them as they could be, and setting them up for wins to build confidence. Create a culture of unity through full commitment, encouragement, support, reframing adversity as character development, focusing on the team's needs, and holding members accountable with care and candor.

5. Inspire Motivation by Modeling and Building Trust

The most essential quality for leadership is not perfection but credibility.

Motivation matters. Tough times can be discouraging, leading to lost confidence. Leaders must create energy and inspire others to excel despite obstacles. This starts with checking your motives daily, ensuring your advantage is used for the team's benefit, not personal gain.

Model motivation. Leaders must lead themselves first, keeping their internal fire burning. People do what they see, so model the dedication, motivation, and productivity you desire in your team. Stay energized by tapping into your passion, staying true to your principles, and practicing daily disciplines like maintaining a positive attitude and prioritizing growth.

Build trust and culture. Trust is the foundation of effective leadership, providing a shelter in difficult times and a launching pad for opportunity. Build trust by practicing the Golden Rule, valuing people enough to give them your trust, and taking responsibility for your actions. Create a culture of motivation by starting with motivated people, sharing your passion, painting a picture of a better future, showing how each role makes a difference, giving people a reputation to uphold, rewarding desired actions, and challenging them to keep growing.

6. Develop and Pursue Winning Strategies

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created them.

Face challenges head-on. Tough times require finding new ways to win, as old thinking won't solve new problems. Don't underestimate or overestimate the challenge, and never wait for it to solve itself – problems left alone worsen. Instead, face, understand, evaluate, and appreciate the challenge, recognizing that challenges and opportunities go hand-in-hand.

Be willing to take risks. Developing new strategies involves taking risks; you must have the courage to lose sight of the shore to find new horizons. Reality is your friend during high-risk times, so ask tough questions to evaluate the risk. Get comfortable being outside your comfort zone, as fear is always present but shouldn't paralyze action.

Pursue winning. Good leadership increases the chance of success during risk. The bigger the risk, the more help you need from others – seek out people who like challenges, play big, and are honest with themselves. Pursue a winning strategy by visualizing the perfect outcome, starting work before you know exactly how to achieve it, being willing to fail fast and often, focusing on what you're great at, tuning in to your team daily, making decisions every day to move forward, and continually reevaluating for improvement.

7. Communicate Clearly and Candidly

Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person they are almost indistinguishable.

Communication is key. Beyond vision casting, communication in tough times is about engaging with people, countering feelings of dehumanization. Listen to understand, not just to reply, demonstrating that you value people and gaining influence. Listening helps you gather information, confirm intuition, and assess others' judgment.

Foster questions and honesty. Create an environment where questions are welcome, showing you value each team member's perspective and potential. Ask the right questions, such as "What do you think?" to gather information and assess judgment, and "What do you need?" to understand how to serve your team. When you speak, be honest and helpful, lifting others up while still providing necessary correction.

Balance care and candor. Effective leaders balance caring for the person with being candid about their potential and performance. Caring establishes the relationship, while candor expands and directs it. Use a caring candor checklist before tough conversations to ensure your motives are right and you're prepared to help the person grow. Make complex ideas clear by starting with a simple, compelling vision that defines success, describes each person's part, and shares how success will be measured and celebrated.

8. Make Ethical and Courageous Decisions

Ethics is ethics.

Decisions define leadership. Leading through tough times requires making difficult decisions that affect others. These include courageous decisions about what must be done, priority decisions about what comes first, change decisions about doing things differently, creative decisions about what's possible, and people decisions about who should be involved. Regularly making decisions, even imperfect ones, develops judgment.

Resist pressure. Pressure is inevitable in leadership, especially during tough times, and it tempts you to compromise. Be prepared for pressures like making rash emotional decisions, denying the truth, taking shortcuts, abandoning commitments, bowing to others' opinions, and making promises you can't keep. Recognize these pressures and their potential negative impacts on progress and credibility.

Uphold integrity. To make decisions that benefit the team and long-term goals, remember what's at stake, including your leadership credibility and integrity. Integrity is based on a standard to follow and the will to follow it. The Golden Rule, found across cultures, provides a universal guideline. Ethical choices are personal, requiring the will to do what's right even when it's hard or unpopular, building trust and ensuring long-term success.

Last updated: May 20, 2025