Now is the time to prepare for future problems
The financial journalist Martin Lewis (AKA “The Money Saving Expert”) talks about the three Ds - divorce, death and dementia. Three things we don’t like to think about, but if (or, in the case of death, when) they do happen, they will generally go much better if we have made some plans in advance (eg by making a will). Waiting until the problem is happening is leaving it too late.
The same is true in business. There are scenarios that are possible but undesirable (eg ‘we have to close the company’, ‘we have to fire someone’, ‘someone needs six months off for a major health issue’). Often we prefer not to think about them. But a bit of advanced preparation will really help if they do occur.
Situations like these, handled well, will be a time you can be proud of your leadership. Handled badly, it can become the defining experience of your tenure, something that will taint your relationship with your team, and come back to nag at you on sleepless nights. Being prepared will give you the best chance of handling things well. The right time to start thinking about what you would do if you had a big problem to deal with is now.
This does not have to be a big exercise. It can be as simple as sitting down and thinking of the top four problem scenarios that you might face, and then sketching out very briefly how you want to handle them (bullet points is fine!). If any of them ever do happen, you will be under a lot of pressure from all sides - and what will happen then to your stated company values? They can easily get compromised - not out of malice, but out of a desire to make the emergency go away as fast as possible. Having set down in advance the things you definitely want to do will help you do them in a way that reinforces your values, and actually strengthens your organisation as a result.
You can do it on a single sheet of A4. Even better, publish those commitments as a policy. Let people know what they can rely on. Use the fact you have thought about “the least worst” way to handle bad situations as a way to build trust.
