Leadership and What Happened In Vancouver

I am sure many of you have already read or heard the news about the riot in Vancouver yesterday. After reading posts from some business owners whose business premises were badly damaged and/or looted last night it led me to think about how the leaders or managers in these organizations will help employees deal with the effects at work. Also, how the business owners and managers deal with their own feelings about seeing all the hard work and effort that went into building an attractive and successful business treated with such violence and disrespect.

There are several points to consider in this:

Some of the businesses were open and employees were trapped in the buildings while the rioters broke windows, trashed the interiors and fittings and looted products. They likely experienced emotions ranging from fear to anger. Their families and friends may have been at home worrying about their safety.

Other employees may have been watching from home and wondering what this meant for the upcoming shifts, their income and what kind of damage they would have to face when they returned to work. The potential loss of income because their workplace was severely damaged may cause serious problems for employees that rely on each paycheque to manage. The uncertainty as to when they will again be scheduled to work, what might be asked of them in repairing and rebuilding the business and what the business leadership will do in response will be part of their thoughts in the coming days.

What Business Leaders and Managers Can Do

First acknowledge your own feelings regarding this and share this calmly with employees. If it is possible to hold an in person meeting with employees-do so and allow people to talk about their concerns. Answer questions that you have answers to and let them know approximately when you will be able to answer questions that you may not have answers to right away.

Include employees in the repair and rebuild process in any way possible-taking action to get back on track is encouraging and allows people to replace negative emotions with a sense of purpose and pride.

In circumstance where it isn't possible to meet in person with employees set up an online presence to post information and encourage and respond to questions and concerns.

Provide a clear and concise information sheet for employees detailing accurate information that they can share with others and to respond to customer inquiries.

What suggestions do you have for business leaders and managers? What have you done that has helped?

Is It Leadership?

Google ‘leadership’ and in six seconds 199,000,000 links appear on your screen. Lately, I have found myself asking the question-has the word leadership lost its meaning? Do we apply the label of leader too readily today?

Leader used to be the term applied to the few who consistently displayed competencies that motivated others to follow their vision. Gandhi and Mother Theresa still evoke appreciation from people who have only read or watched videos that told the stories that best modeled their leadership skills. It is a rare day that I don’t read an article in which someone has quoted Gandhi-what he said resonates with many even today.

So Where Did All This Leadership Come From?

Over the past decade many organizations began to send their managers and “high potential” employees to leadership training courses and many universities developed leadership specialties within various disciplines and some as a specialty in and of itself. High schools have leadership programs. Volunteer organizations recruit leaders.

Gradually the roles of CEO, vice-president, manager, director and supervisor were referred to as leadership teams.

A significant percentage of those 1999,000,000 articles advise us that there are 5, 10, 20, 30, 50…things leaders must do, competencies they must have, character traits they must exhibit; there are many articles that debate whether leadership is innate or can be developed. To my question as to whether a ‘bad or evil’ person should be referred to as a leader, one pundit firmly replied that “if a person has followers, they are a leader”; a stance that sits uneasily in my mind.

Identifying Leadership in the Hiring Process

Job advertisements sometimes include the requirement to “be able to prove demonstrated leadership skills”; candidates endeavour to convince interviewers that they should be hired because they have strong leadership skills. Identifying those leadership skills often proves to be difficult and the final assessment may be a little fuzzy at best.

What leadership skills are transferable to different situations? Does the leadership style that works at Apple also work at TD Canada Trust? Are managers really leaders?