How the Best Leaders Slow Down When Faced with Challenges

Everyone faces challenges and changes. Even the best leaders and CEOs that we work with face crazy challenges and all sorts of unpredictable changes. In our work, we have found the best leaders face challenges with action and accountability. In short, action means taking steps to address the challenge or change and accountability means holding yourself accountable for those actions as well as others.

In this episode, Dr. Linda and Brian Schubring and I explore how the best leaders and CEOs leverage action and accountability to face challenges and change head-on. We share a few stories from real leaders that we’ve worked with about our role as consultants and coaches in this process and give a few tips for how to slow down before you make any sort of decision when you’re facing your own challenges or changes. Enjoy.

Facing Challenges with Action and Accountability

Change is constant and challenges will always abound. In our work with leaders of all types, one of the things we’ve learned from successful executives is they know how to get things done. They know how to take action, and they’re accountable for that action, especially when challenges and change arise.

For example, one person’s action and accountability could be purely tactical to navigate through the challenge and change. For other people it could be organizational, where they know how to create the right strategy, they take action on the strategy, and they’re held accountable for that. On the other end of the spectrum, there may be people that take action within their team. They immediately disperse the work and the team hold each other accountable.

The overarching theme is that when challenges and change arise, action and accountability are some of the first steps executives take to navigate them.

Why the Best Leaders Slow Down When Faced with Challenges

Effective action comes from slowing things down. It’s being able to get curious and wonder what’s happening before making a decision and taking action. There are many things that can happen in one extreme where urgency and immediacy arise. Even in those situations, there is the need to zoom back, survey the landscape, and ask for help on how to move forward.

It’s important to note the actions of the leadership team set the cultural tone for the rest of the organization. It sets the tempo of work. If the leadership team transfers immediacy or urgency onto others, it can have a ripple effect where the stress of the team increases and productivity decreases. This is why the best leaders are the ones who slow down.

One of the best things a leader can do is give their team an opportunity to raise their voices, discuss what strategies are working or not working, and what’s happening within their team so that executives are aware of the impact.

How to Slow Down When Faced with Challenges

If your organization or team is encountering a rough patch or other challenges, here are three action steps to help slow down:

Find Direction

What’s the direction of the executive team as we’re facing these challenges? What action are you actually planning on taking?

Use Data

What do you know? What’s happening in your culture? What’s happening on your team? How are people feeling? What are you doing? What’s the pressure? What’s the challenge?

Explore Drive

What are you driving towards? What do you think that you’re imagining is down the road so we can help you get there? Do you have the capacity to actually do this right now?

In short, ask the following questions: What direction are you headed? What’s the data to support it? And what’s your level of drive?

Navigating Your Challenges

How do you handle challenges and change? How can slowing things down help you make better decisions for your team or organization? We would love to hear from you – connect with me at nathan@leadershipvisionconsulting.com.