By R.V. Baugus
Lisa Harrington, CEO & Founder of Abiding Strategy, kicked off IAVM’s virtual VenueConnect as the Opening Keynote speaker with a presentation titled “Leadership in a Crisis” before an engaged audience of 610.
So, just what exactly is this crisis, you ask? Tsk,
tsk, we all know that answer, and Harrington had all the right suggestions in a session that was encouraging and uplifting while at the same time dealing with the realities in which we live.
The session is best summed up with a quote Harrington gave that said it all: “We’re all in the same storm even if we’re not all in the same boat.”
This holds true even in the public assembly venue industry, where indeed while people work in the same industry (storm), no two members are likely at the same place as it regards to health, employment and more (boat) in regards to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Leaders are not immune to these issues, either, but being able to maintain leadership in these turbulent times is more critical than ever.
“Stress is important to us but we have to manage stress, particularly in a crisis,” Harrington said. “But if we didn’t have some stress in our lives, we’d be jelly. We would be too relaxed. We would never get anything done and would have not motivation.”
You might be thinking “give me the jelly,” but pause for a moment to seriously reflect on Harrington’s comment and you will see the sense that it makes. There is the notion that all stress is bad, but that too is a falsehood.
“It is important to understand the difference between good stress and bad stress,” she said., “Getting married, having children, taking a vacation, those are all good stresses. A bad is obviously a pandemic and other crisis. The key is to manage all of them to help you grow and get better. This too will pass. All are temporary, which is why they are called crisis.”
Harrington noted that stress is not a one-time event, even though there are one-time events that cause stress. There are often ongoing and relentless stresses, she said. Sometimes we don’t recognize them as sources of stress and therefore we do not take the action we need to deal with them.
“The first stage we had with the pandemic was anticipatory grief,” she said. “We anticipated but didn’t know how long it would take or be handled. We still don’t really know but have made some progress, even we’re a long way from being through it.”
Harrington said that how all of this is seen through the lens of leaders is crucial as it relates to employees and keeping them motivated and happy.
“The first is to not be an ostrich and ignore it and pretend it will go way,” she said. “Your industry is so critical to the recovery of this country. The idea of having a place to gather to see that coming in the future and being able to talk to people and hug people is going to cure us, going to heal us of what we are experiencing. You are the ones that will have those places available.
“The thing is to recognize the problem. What does it look like for you and others? Is there shock, denial, difficulty concentrating, even feeling guilty if you are continuing to work while others aren’t, which is survivor’s guilt. People can see that in you and you can see that in your employees.”
Indeed, difficulty concentrating is currently a major problem. Harrington talked about how the human brain works and the importance of knowing you are not alone. “You have your peers here at IAVM and others in the industry. We literally all are going through these phases of stress,” she said.
“You know what? Sometimes showing a little vulnerability and letting the team know that you’re feeling the stress … I don’t like this either, I’m struggling a little bit, too, is OK,” she added. “Let’s have a round-robin via Zoom or a phone call to talk to each other. As the leader you can show that stress affects everyone and that they are not alone either, but you can lead them through. It is important they understand that.”
Consider the notion, according to Harrington, that our brains have not had an opportunity to catch up to the warp speed in which we have moved since the advent of technology.
“Life moves too fast,” she said. “Just from the last 200 years vs. all time, you understand why our brains haven’t totally evolved yet and why instincts keep taking over. We used to live in tribes of 20-40 people. We weren’t going around the world with 8 billion people. The evolution in our body didn’t keep up with evolution in technology. And so … our brains couldn’t keep up with that.
“Good managers know that healthy people will perform better. We know when we are stressed, we need to keep healthy and keep moving. The No. 1 thing we are seeing is the idea of continuing to move when we are at home. People say they will just sit on the couch until this is over. That might be OK for two to four weeks, but we are now into the seventh month.”
Effective leaders don’t even have to always bear the responsibility of doing healthy and fun things for employees to keep employees healthy in mind.
“Have some structured play,” Harrington said. “Why not gather with your colleagues around some coffee 15 minutes before you begin your day. These types of things are so easy to do and help promote a good and positive environment even before you begin your tasks.”
A robust Q&A session followed with attendees starved to learn more from Harrington about several facets of leadership, stress, and pandemic-related topics.
Among those topics included the notion of hybrid teams and schedules as the future of the industry and understanding that communication is key when staff does not know what is going on and will always assume the worst.
As for what that workplace of the future will look like, Harrington said that studies have shown that 6% of companies under $20 million in revenue will not return to an office.
Attendees who missed the prerecorded opening keynote can still view it by clicking HERE. The full conference recordings, even those held live this week, will be available beginning November 3rd through the conference platform.
It is not too late to participate in VenueConnect. To get registered, click here.
