On this episode of the Navigator, Brad Malone is joined by Brad Dempsey and Joel Harris.
One of the conversations our panel has been having with integrators is, did they use the pandemic as an opportunity to increase the capabilities of their leadership team, or did they waste it?
During the pandemic, within many integration companies, Navigate saw people who emerged as leaders willing to deal with the reality that faced them, rather than what they hoped for. These leaders were willing to do the hard things for the survival of the business.
What are some of the measures of integrators that really excelled during the pandemic, versus those that did not?
“Some of my key measures are transparency, trust, and alignment of vision to the company,” says Malone. “And are we letting our leaders just accidentally happen, or are we really grooming them?”
This gets to the core of next generation leadership development; how do you grow people to give them the courage to take authority and responsibility?
This is where transparency is critical.
“It’s important to be transparent with your employees about the health of the company,” says Dempsey.
“I don’t think you can help yourself by lying to people or even by looking at things through rose colored glasses. You have to be honest and straightforward with people. If you don’t know what’s going to happen in two weeks, you tell them, ‘We don’t know what’s going to happen in two weeks, but in two weeks we’re going to reassess and we’re going to figure out where we’re going.’ If you have to do that every two weeks, fine, but you have to keep that communication going and make sure that you are honest with everybody.”
“The two ways I look at it are risk and courage,” says Malone.
“We’re in a time where we don’t know the future, and therefore we must have the courage to make a decision, which is always a risk. But I always find that people go, ‘Well, I’m not going to make any decisions because I just don’t know.’ And really, that’s the worst risk you could pick.”
The best integrators are going to come out of the pandemic way stronger because they built a strong leadership team in their company with a culture of transparency and knowledge.
Watch the video for the full discussion!
Did You Use the Pandemic to Build Your Leadership Team?
