Month: May 2022

How well do leaders perform during crisis?

My firm, Sanborn & Associates, Inc., completed a national research study to uncover lessons leaders can use during these perplexing times. Specifically, we sought to answer: How  well did leaders handle the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and what does that portend for leaders going forward?

Survey participants in the national study consisted of 1,005 consumers ages 18-90 weighted to the U.S. Census for age, gender, geography, and ethnicity. This sample composition provided a highly accurate “snapshot of America”.

1. Most employees are more anxious now but a significant percentage are more optimistic.

57% are more anxious about the future. No big surprise there.

In juxtaposition, consider:

40% Gen Z,  33% of millennials and 30% of Gen X think work life will be better (Boomers were least optimistic at 18%).

On the personal front, over one-third of Americans agreed their personal life would be better (35%), their relationships would be better (34%), and their productivity would be better (33%). Americans were more than three times more likely to say they will be better off than worse off after the crisis is over.

Whether you call it “anxious optimism” or “optimistic anxiety,” the implications are clear. Leaders need to reduce the amount of anxiety their teams face (for whatever reason) and help deliver improvements and results that prove the optimism is legitimate.

Of all my findings, such optimism in the face of uncertainty and anxiety is most important. It gives leaders an agenda for better serving both employees and customers.

2. Employees now want the flexibility and resources that crisis proved employers could provide. 

In the past when employees wanted options like remote work or different working hours, employees said those requests weren’t really feasible.

Covid proved they are.

Covid forced employers to find and offer alternative workplace solutions. It wasn’t something done for convenience or workplace improvement, but survival. Suddenly flexibility that was often not offered was now required, and new resources were provided to meet new challenges.

The door is open for reinventing work, and many want more accommodations that they know are possible.

3. Nearly half of respondents (48%) thought their organization would be the same after the crisis.

Have things returned to normal where you work? This data suggests that many thought business and life would return to normal defined as what life was life pre-pandemic.

If Covid disrupted so much, how could so many reasonably assume the company would remain the same? Many changes in the past have been temporary, and perhaps employees believed the same would be true after Covid. To date that has not been the case nor will it be.

Leaders need to create change resilient organizations where crisis is seen as an opportunity for improvement and not just disruption, and where the expectation of “back to normal” is considered unrealistic.

4. Leaders scored highest on communication but they didn’t do that particularly well.

56% of Americans working full-time say their leaders communicated well or extremely well during…

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You can read three books on riding a bicycle, but until you put your feet on the pedals you won’t start learning to ride.

You can gain knowledge about speaking from reading books and watching seminars, but you ultimately learn to present better by presenting more often.

Here are four exercises that help you improve your speaking:

1. Analyze Others

Become a student of all aspects of speaking. As you watch others present—professional or amateur—pay attention to what worked, what didn’t work and what they could have done better. Keep notes. You’ll be amazed at the terrific ideas you’ll get especially if you pick up on nuances.

Your goal isn’t to imitate their techniques but to use their performance, good or bad, to understand what works best.

2. Get Shot

Have someone record you when you speak. The quality of the recording is secondary. You want to be able to review your own performance like you have learned to do with others.

Make a list of:

Things you did best.

Things you could do better

Things you should stop doing.

Few people analyze their speaking skills. While listening to or watching yourself might make you uncomfortable, it is one of the most powerful ways you can use to get better.

3. Request Feedback

Most of us have a love/hate relationship with feedback. We know it makes us better but it can be tough to hear. Before you ask anyone for feedback, make sure you’re not looking for validation. Validation—“You were wonderful”—will make you feel good but it won’t make you better on stage.

The best way to get feedback is to assure the giver of your true desire and to accept what they say without excuse or explanation. Once they’ve finished, you might want to offer an explanation to check your thinking about what you intended to do with a particular skill and how it was perceived by the feedback provider.

4. Create Material

Keep a notebook or journal of great ideas, quotes or illustrations you find. The more you record, the more you’ll have to draw from when you write your next presentation.

I have hundreds of pages in my digital files of the ideas I’ve recorded and the material I’ve created over my career. It serves me well.

But remember what the comedian Mitch Hedberg said, “Beware a comic who writes 30 minutes of new material and then says they have thirty new minutes for their act.” They don’t. However many notes you take, not all will be usable. But the more content you have to draw from, the better you will become.

Mark Sanborn is an award winning speaker and Leadership Expert in Residence at High Point University, the Premier Life Skills University. For more information about his work, visit www.marksanborn.com. 
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Author: Mark Sanborn

Mark holds the Certified Speaking Professional designation from the National Speakers Association (NSA) and is a member of the Speaker Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the…

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