Five Core Practices of Trusted Leaders: Provide Perspective

The COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed the world of work and life. What has not changed, however, is the need for great leadership. At GrowthPlay, we know that the most trusted leaders are focusing on five core practices to step up, lean in, and lead well:

 

Blog post: Provide Perspective

A fourth element of leadership and communication is providing perspective. Perspective gives people a sense that they are not alone, these circumstances aren’t personal, and this situation isn’t permanent – three tenets that help people embrace resiliency.

Here are two ways in which you can help provide perspective for others.

  • Ground people in what past experience shows us. As an example, one law firm partner realized that this is the 10-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a devastating environmental disaster through which she counseled many of her environmental and energy clients. She realized that there were several lessons learned from that experience to draw upon in the present COVID-19 circumstances, not the least of which is that companies, circumstances, and marketplaces eventually recover and rebound if they take the right steps to embrace what comes next.
  • A second way to provide perspective is to keep clients informed about what we see across other professional segments, whether by practice, geography, industry, or types of business. Feedback from buyers of legal services since the Coronavirus hit has revealed at least three ways in which clients want perspective from legal counsel in the midst of today’s challenges:
    1. Process improvement measures – what can be automated, what can be outsourced, and what can be streamlined
    2. Budgeting approaches – what new staffing mixes and new fee structures are others using to better align costs with revenue and cash flow forecasts
    3. Capacity re-alignment ideas – how are others shifting responsibility and focus of their teams, how are they retooling or retraining, and how can they most efficiently create the right mix of internal and external experts to respond to the next wave of needs

 

Finally, as you consider perspective, it may first require that you reflect on your own perspective and leadership mindset to determine which game you want to play.