how openness helps a manager overcome a crisis and make the team stronger
In the life of every leader and entrepreneur, sooner or later there comes a moment when he feels that he is unable to cope with the pressure and flow of tasks on his own. The problem turns out to be too big, impossible to manage, and sometimes even to understand its causes, and a difficult choice arises – tell the team about everything and try to solve the problem together, or try to continue to figure everything out on your own.
Using one case from practice as an example, I want to show why it is important for a manager to find strength in himself at a time of crisis and honestly tell the team: “Guys, I’m not letting you down.”
Several years ago, as an organizational consultant, I was invited by the head of a regional logistics company to help set up interaction processes within the team and with clients. The company was actively growing, people could not stand the chaos, burned out and quit, and the manager needed support to rebuild processes.
We held a strategic session with the team, where they identified the main problem areas and began systematic work to eliminate them – once a week we met with the manager and the team and discussed how the change process was going and what else needed attention.
At first, everything went well, the employees were inspired by the changes, the first results were visible, but during one of the individual sessions with the manager, I noticed that she looked incredibly tired.
I asked what the reason was, and the manager admitted that she could not cope with the pace that the team had taken:
“We are already growing by 70% per year and a lot of things are happening at the same time, and we also started this transformation program – this is all good and necessary, what we are discussing, but I’m just torn – I don’t have enough energy and time for development issues, because I’m busy with operational tasks around the clock”
I asked what options she sees for reducing the load. “Slow down the pace of change, take on fewer tasks, reduce the number of meetings; or even abandon some development projects for now,” she began, “But I wouldn’t want to do this, because the issues that we are discussing seem important, and I want to try to reach a new level in three months and gain a foothold on it.” .
I asked if she saw any other options – maybe some ideas had come to mind. “Yes, I thought that I could probably try to talk to the team and honestly admit to them that I’m not working out and I need their help, but I don’t know how they will react – will they turn away from me? Will they volunteer to help me? And again, will they pull it, will they be able to replace me?” the manager doubted.
“Can you describe how you feel during these reflections?” I asked.
She was silent for a while and answered: “I feel like I am being torn apart by contradiction from within. On the one hand, I strive to, as they say, “not lose face” in front of the team, but I feel that I won’t last long. I can’t even sit down and clearly describe what I actually want to change and how – too many things are happening at the same time and seem equally important. On the other hand, I feel like it’s worth talking to the team, but it’s so scary, strange, unusual… I’m used to coping with everything on my own.”
“I understand you,” I replied, “What you are describing is called a “key conflict” – when there are two options and each of them is not optimal, carries risks, and it is difficult to make a choice. This state is incredibly exhausting psychologically in itself, but deciding to make a choice is scary.”
“Yes, everything is as you describe,” the manager answered sadly.
I paused for a moment and asked, “Which of the two options do you think is more viable in the long run—talking to the team or keeping things to yourself and trying to cope on your own?”
“Talk to the team,” she answered without hesitation.
“I’m glad to hear such determination,” I responded, “I suggest you, as they say, “sleep” with this decision and we will return to it at our next meeting.”
“Okay,” the manager agreed.
At this point we parted.
“A manager doesn’t have days with a good agenda,” said Roman Maresov, head of the e-com department at Yandex. interview Setters Media, “The role of a top manager, especially a CEO, differs from just a job in that at any given hour everything is bad because someone came to you with some problem. There is no point in pulling you to tell you that everything is fine here. Of course, there is an upper metaphysical feeling that we are doing well, growing and everything is fine. But you have to get yourself there.”
Indeed, the work of a manager is directly associated with stress and uncertainty. A leader, like a tourist on a track, always walks “under load”, under a backpack – and for many this includes a certain drive to overcome, work in a large flow and with complex systems.
Stress is a source of adrenaline, and achievements help you experience long-lasting dopamine and satisfaction
But in the life of every leader and entrepreneur, sooner or later there comes a moment when he feels that he is unable to cope with the pressure and flow of tasks on his own – the problem turns out to be too big, cannot be controlled, and sometimes it cannot even be fully understood and comprehended, which happens, why and why.
A crisis can be caused by a sharp growth of the company, a problematic project, a cash gap, entry into a new region, or the launch of a business vertical or set of services.
Something happens (according to plan or not) that radically changes the landscape, the organizational environment, and it’s impossible to take everything out “the old fashioned way” – existing management practices fail, and a feeling of anxiety and confusion arises.
This means something needs to change. Intuition suggests that you need to talk about the situation or problem with your employees, share this “burden” with them and find a solution together.
But at the same time, many fears arise: “what if they consider me weak and stop respecting me?”; “if people find out about the scale of the cash gap, they will run away from the company as if from a sinking ship”; “and no one can cope with this problem client except me…” – approximately such a stream of fears arises in the manager’s head, which prevent him from taking the first step.
The automatic reaction in such a situation for most managers is to close themselves off and continue to try to solve the problem themselves: through overwork, perseverance and “just a little more now.”
I often hear managers complain that employees won’t understand anything anyway or won’t be able to solve the problem, so there’s no point in talking to them. In personal conversations with owners, there is often a reproach against hired managers just because they are not responsible with their money for the decisions they make: “If things go badly, everyone can leave. Everyone but me”.
As a result, the burden of problems remains “hanging” on the manager, he tries his best to exude confidence and steadfastness in the office, but does not sleep at night, drinks sedatives, antidepressants or alcohol to cope with stress that never goes away, because its cause has not been eliminated.
A crisis arises at the moment when a problem turns out to be beyond the control of the manager, but he is not ready to admit it – neither to himself, nor especially to his employees.
Sometimes stress comes out like steam from a kettle, and the manager lashes out at employees over any minor issue that is not particularly important – simply because he is annoyed that people can make mistakes and inaccuracies, but he does not.
Over time, an invisible barrier arises between the leader and the team, a distance—“I” and “they”—and the so-called leader loneliness syndrome: “no one can understand my problems.”
At the same time, people often know or guess about problems in the company, but are afraid to talk about them with the manager, because who would want to expose themselves to a hot hand and put pressure on the manager’s sore spot.
As a result, the crisis paralyzes the company – the manager himself is unable to cope with the problem, and the team is afraid to talk about it, although they understand everything perfectly
But if nothing is done about it, the situation gradually “spirals”, conflicts become more and more, the manager is gloomy all the time, it becomes psychologically difficult to be with him, and a self-fulfilling prophecy sets in – people actually begin to leave the company.
But this vicious circle can be broken – a crisis, no matter how strong it is, can be used to benefit the company – by talking about everything with the team.
We met with the manager a few days later and I asked if she still intended to talk to the team. She replied that yes, it was worth a try – by that month we had already been working for a month and a half and it seemed to her that the team had managed to create an atmosphere of trust and openness sufficient to take the next step.
Another couple of weeks passed, and at one of the meetings with the team, the manager chose a moment and said:
“Guys, it seems like I can’t do this anymore – I have too much on me and I simply don’t have time to deal with the tasks of our development. We are discussing really important things, but I am so overwhelmed with operational tasks that I have no energy left for anything.”
There was silence in the room. People nodded quietly – everyone knew that the leader was literally in the office from morning to night, and was completely devoted to her work. After about fifteen seconds, one of the team members took a deep breath and said, “Let’s try to help.”
I asked the team where they would like to start. Someone suggested writing down a list of all the managerial responsibilities that she had, so that she could understand the scale of the problems.
We deployed a flip chart and I asked the manager to list all the blocks of work that she is involved in.
She began to list, and I wrote down after her: “Attracting clients, sales, planning meetings, financial reporting, consulting, meetings with partners, control of payments and accounts receivable…” – she continued to list, but the list did not end. When she finished, I counted the points – there were 28 areas of work. Twenty eight!
I must say, everyone was in shock – me, the manager, the team – it really was a lot. Very.
I asked the team if they had any ideas on what could be done about it. They began to clarify with the manager the details of some blocks and discuss who could help with what – what tasks to take on under their own responsibility. People said “I'll take it upon myself” and wrote their name on the sheet, and others confirmed their willingness to support them.
This was not any “ritual” or “exercise” in team building – everything happened very naturally. People did this on their own initiative – without “financial motivation” and objections “it’s not my job”, “I’m not paid for this”
Despite the manager’s fears that the team would turn away from her, people showed respect and took on some of the tasks, because for them it was also a personal challenge – to do something they had never done before, to grow as a professional.
Also, the team understood that this would help the common cause – thanks to the fact that the manager would have free time, she would be able to deal with development tasks: attracting large clients and interesting projects, developing the company’s brand, systematizing knowledge, training.
As a result of the discussion, the manager’s tasks were divided into four groups:
The team distributed some of the tasks among themselves: some were taken by experienced, leading specialists, some by novice managers;
In some tasks, the role of a “mentor” appeared – the employee took on the issue, although he did not yet have experience in it and was interested in understanding it, and the manager acted as a mentor, helped with advice, shared experience (there were also questions in which the manager had no experience, then one of the leading managers was called in as a mentor);
Some of the problems were “closed” right during the discussion. For example, the team discussed and decided that it was not worth going to tenders right now – this is a separate type of “sport” that would require a person with experience – so they decided to return to it later;
And about a third remained with the manager – issues were mainly development, key contracts, attracting partners, budgeting.
We worked with this team for another two months, but we never returned to the issue of the manager’s workload – the new agreements did not require support, because the team made all the decisions for itself and took on this responsibility. And the manager was able to switch to development tasks and, in particular, carry out the complex process of increasing prices for current and new clients.
Crises happen in any organization, whether we like it or not. But the manager has a choice of how to respond to emerging challenges – try to cope on his own or trust the team and try to find a way out together. And the development of an organization is the development of trust and openness in the team.
The team is a huge resource and support for the leader. A resource that he himself created. These are people who are ready to help – you just have to ask
And it’s not scary that the team may not have the right answer or solution at the moment. The first step to getting out of a state of confusion is to allow it to manifest itself in its most unsightly and unstructured form. Voicing a problem, admitting it, trying to formulate a “given” together is already a big deal.
It is the separation of functions – ownership and management, management and execution, execution in different areas of knowledge – that helps distribute the “load” between all participants, see the situation in full and pull the company out of the crisis.
At the same time, openness strengthens the team's trust in the leader. Research show that a leader’s ability to show empathy and humanity, admitting his mistakes and the fact that he is difficult to cope with the burden that has fallen on him, is the most effective way to build trust in the team.
And most importantly, openness makes the company and team stronger. ****In moments of crisis, the manager delegates not what he knows, but what he does not know or can no longer control, to delve into all the details. There is a kind of “tearing of the fabric” of control, a complication of the management system, the formation of a stronger, cohesive team – a transition from “me and them” to “we” – this is what allows the organization to rise to a new stage of development.
That’s why it’s so important in a moment of crisis to find the strength within yourself and honestly tell the team: “Guys, I’m not letting you down.”
If you feel that you cannot cope with the burden of problems that have piled up, but are not yet ready to share problems with your team, talk to those you trust and can open up to: “old guys” in the team, familiar managers and entrepreneurs, your consultant or mentor. The main thing is not to keep problems to yourself.
If you need similar support in solving your own management problems – I will be happy to help. I help managers and teams establish interaction, build systematic work, optimize business processes, resolve strategic issues – in format consultations, support and strategic sessions. Write meto discuss your situation and request.
And I recommend taking a look at my telegram channel — I write about management, strategy, thinking — you might be interested.
Good luck and take care of yourself!
