“My days are full of turnabouts. I have to go back on promises, reshuffle priorities, and I second-guess too much. It’s wearing on me, and I feel like I am spending hard-earned goodwill,” a member of an executive leadership team told me in one of our sessions. “I want to pause for a moment and talk about how I can be a good leader in a bad economy.”
How to Be a Good Leader in a Bad Economy
It’s about navigating three tensions to ensure you’re getting the work done while supporting your team.
November 29, 2022
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Summary.
The potential of a recession on the heels of the Covid-19 pandemic means that the usual strategies for managing in a downturn may no longer work — and make the situation worse. To get the most out of their teams without creating a destructive spiral, leaders must understand how to balance their desire to move the business along quickly with their employees’ psychological needs. In particular, there are three balances leaders need to get right: moving closer without suffocating others; moving faster without turning frantic; and taking on or assigning a bigger workload without sacrificing relationships.