Micromanagement is seductive. Ambiguity is everywhere. There are no easy answers. Despite these realities, everyone is looking to you to point the way forward. What's a leader to do?
In Leading in Challenging Times, a virtual seminar held this past Friday, four experts on navigating crises at the helm shared their hard-won advice: Doreen Harper, Ph.D., dean of the School of Nursing; Lt. Col. Emory Hayes, professor of military science and leader of UAB's Reserve Officer Training Corps program; Christy Lemak, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Health Services Administration; and Eric Jack, Ph.D., dean of the Collat School of Business.
The event, organized by UAB Learning and Development, was originally scheduled as a capstone for the graduating class in UAB's Blaze Leadership Academy, said Organizational Development Manager Gerriann Fagan, but the current COVID-19 crisis led organizers to believe it would be helpful campuswide. They were right: 85 members of the campus community registered for the event.
We've highlighted some of the discussion below. You can watch the entire event here (BlazerID required).
Show what you are thinking
Transparent communication is essential in a crisis, Harper said. So is transparent decision-making, "so people understand why the decisions are being made."
"In times of crisis, leaders need to make their thinking visible," Lemak agreed. "Sometimes the thought with leaders is, Let's keep it in our heads or in this room because we don't know how it's going to turn out." But "silence becomes a vacuum, and people put more fear and anxiety into that vacuum," she said. Even if you don't always have the answers people want, if people can understand what you are thinking, that vulnerability and courage will make a big difference."
"In times of crisis, leaders need to make their thinking visible. Sometimes the thought with leaders is, Let's keep it in our heads or in this room because we don't know how it's going to turn out. [But] silence becomes a vacuum, and people put more fear and anxiety into that vacuum."
— Christy Lemak, Ph.D., chair, Department of Health Services AdministrationSet your anchor
"A lot of companies in the last downturn talked about how they were successful when they created what they called 'pockets of safety,'" Lemak said. No one knows "what the budget will be or how many students will enroll," but focus on what you do know and anchor yourself and your team in that, she said. In her department, Lemak emphasizes that "we are great at teaching, we are amazingly committed to our students and to each other," she said. "Whatever we do we are going to do it really well.... Every day, ask 'Where is the pocket of safety that I as a leader can create?'"
Part of that safety is making sure that your behavior reflects your words, Lemak said. "The people in your sphere are looking to you. They look at you on a Zoom call to see, are they upbeat, do they have a sense of calm, a sense of hope?"
That is a lot of pressure, so "we need to have our own ABCs in a crisis," Lemak said. A is for awareness. Many of us are experiencing fears: "the unknowns, furloughs, will things change," Lemak said. "Name what you are experiencing and that will help you." B is for breathing, the deep breaths before reacting that "can change your whole persona." C, for choice, "is the most important part," Lemak said. "Winston Churchill in World War 2 said 'fear is a reaction and courage is a choice.' Sometimes we forget we have lots of choices. We choose how we respond."
[With each new decision in the School of Nursing] "we go back to the core values every single time.... As a leader that helps keep me focused on where we go every day. It's even more important in a crisis to continually remind everyone of the core values."
— Doreen Harper, Ph.D., dean, School of NursingLive your core values
One of the chief ways the U.S. Army prepares for difficult situations, Hayes said, is its focus on professional norms — such as the values summarized in the acronym LDRSHIP: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage. But "these are just altruistic garbage unless they are invested in," Hayes noted. "People have to have pride in what they do, the sense that they chose this and that's what they are paid for."
| Learn and live by UAB’s Shared Values. |
"Creating a shared vision is not an easy thing," said Jack. "It's not your vision. You have a part in it, but you want others to support something that is bigger than themselves." Jack, who spent 21 years in the U.S. Air Force, now has been in academia for two decades. "In the military you can give an order and get things done.... In higher ed if you give an order, people look at you as if you are crazy." In higher education, it all comes down to "the strength and power of your ideas. It's very difficult to get consensus, but when you get it there is nothing more beautiful."
With each new decision in the School of Nursing, Harper said, "we go back to the core values every single time.... As a leader that helps keep me focused on where we go every day." And "it's even more important in a crisis to continually remind everyone of the core values."
"Creating a shared vision is not an easy thing. It's not your vision. You have a part in it, but you want others to support something that is bigger than themselves. In the military you can give an order and get things done.... In higher ed if you give an order, people look at you as if you are crazy. [In higher education, it all comes down to] "the strength and power of your ideas. It's very difficult to get consensus, but when you get it there is nothing more beautiful."
— Eric Jack, Ph.D., dean, Collat School of BusinessShared decision-making is stronger decision-making
"Micromanagement will always be the seductive enemy" of leaders, Hayes said. "Is your team prepared to be adaptive to the point you can ride on its shoulders? Does your team generate better ideas than you? Does your team trust you enough to provide early bad news, early developing problems, future problems and personal mistakes?"
“You do enter the crisis with the team and culture” that was created in pre-crisis times, Lemak said. But “you can continue to work on that culture.” The attitude of leaders must be that "we are the least smart people in the room," Lemak said. "I'm involving my team in how we deal with our budget. We don't know how to create the fall [if it becomes necessary to continue to teach remotely]. I have invited students in by Zoom to help us think about how to do that."
"Every decision that engages more people in that decision, where voices are heard, is a more powerful decision," Harper said. Early in her career, some of Harper's students gave her a poster with a quote from the anthropologist Margaret Mead: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. "Nobody can do it alone," Harper said. "If you are in a crisis, the more you can get the support and engagement of your team, the more that will transfer to the people you are working with: patients, students, faculty, staff."
"Micromanagement will always be the seductive enemy. Is your team prepared to be adaptive to the point you can ride on its shoulders? Does your team generate better ideas than you? Does your team trust you enough to provide early bad news, early developing problems, future problems and personal mistakes?"
— Lt. Col. Emory Hayes, professor, Military Science and Leadership
