Director: Corporate-911
Often, the root cause of a company’s distress is an action – or lack thereof – that propelled a company in a specific direction. It may be a case of financial mismanagement, it may be a case of misreading a market trend, it may even be a case of mismanagement as is the case with many of our SOEs and more than one rescue that I have implemented in the past.
Much of this comes down the role that managers, and distressed business owners, play in times of crisis. Executives in distressed companies are close to burn out before a rescue begins. In my experience, the support of the management team and coaching executives on self-care and resilience is an unspoken task of a BRP.
Having hard personal experience of severe pressure of a senior manger in time of crisis, the time available for self-care is extremely limited but vital. Not addressing this issue will result in severe burnout and poor judgement. Long term health issues will also follow.
The lockdowns and social isolation caused by the Covid pandemic have also caused their very own stress. Family and close friends and colleagues who are unfortunate enough to contract the disease are simply not available to reach out to and make that essential human contact that people need. As US President Joe Biden recently put it: to let him know what I want him to know.
I recently read an article on the Harvard Business Review website which discusses the soft skills that business owners need to have in times when companies are doing well and when they are in distress.
Energy and urgency are needed
The article points out that, as a manager, leading in this era of change, urgency, and accountability requires so much. You need the energy to be fully present even as you are fretting about the 72 emails piling up in your in-box.
You need the patience to be empathetic when facing resistance from your employees. You need the wherewithal to be creative instead of defaulting to tried-and-true approaches. You need the self-control to be open and vulnerable without losing your team’s confidence. And you need the endurance to be present, patient, creative, and controlled day after day and week after week. In sum, you need tremendous fortitude.
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Key investment
The author of the article adds that, although most leaders she interacts with possess a sense of the fortitude, energy, and stamina they require to be successful, few of them make investments to bolster those things. Is that true for you too?
The article adds that you know that sufficient sleep, proper nutrition, physical exercise, human connection, and time to relax are important, but do you carve out time for them? Or, like many of the leaders the author advises, do you tell yourself, it is so busy, I cannot afford to… (spend seven hours sleeping, or stop to get lunch, or keep up with hobbies). That framing, which casts investments in your resilience as contrary to the best interests of your organization, is doing both you and your organization a great disservice.
It is time to take those hackneyed words, our people are our greatest asset, to heart. If you are an important asset, how could depriving, devaluing, and depreciating that asset by running it in harsh conditions, powering it with improper fuel, and neglecting routine maintenance possibly be good for your organization? Let us cut to the chase: It is not.
Sleep is important
The article points out that sleep is important. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that one-third of American adults do not get sufficient sleep. If you are in a stressful managerial role, I suspect you are among that group. Your reasons for forgoing sufficient sleep might seem logical: Before going to bed, you need to respond to the emails that came in while you were in meetings all day; you need to cut off an hour of sleep in the morning to read the material for your 8am meeting with your boss; you must schedule a conference call with the Hong Kong team at 11 pm. There are lots of reasons to short-change your sleep that seem very reasonable on the surface.
The article adds that we need to consider the other side of the coin. At the very least, sleep loss hinders your cognitive capacity by degrading your alertness and attention. You might argue that your expensive coffee is all you need to perk yourself up again. It depends. Research shows that stimulants are reasonably effective at reducing the effects of sleep deprivation on standard, rule-based tasks, but they are not helpful when it comes to tasks that require creativity or divergent thinking. If your organization is counting on you for more than menial, routine tasks, you might want to reconsider whether squeezing more into today is worth sacrificing what you can contribute tomorrow.
Your body is the engine room
And rest is only one of the investments you need to make to keep your machine in top form. You need to eat the kind of food that will fuel your prefrontal cortex, where much of a manager’s action happens.
If you are trying to survive by eating fast food on the go, you will not have what you need to maintain your energy and focus throughout a very long day. You also need to hydrate to stay on top of your game. Multiple studies have shown that even mild dehydration can affect both thinking (memory and attention) and mood (tension and anxiety). Add to the list exercise and some time to relax and reflect, and you will have the energy, patience, creativity, and endurance to successfully lead your team.
Call to action
The article asks, what if you need that best version of you now? What if you are sleep-deprived, hungry, and tired, but you have got an important meeting in 20 minutes? It is possible to get your energy level up in a pinch. Try one of the techniques below to boost your micro-resilience.
If that meeting in 20 minutes is a one-on-one with a colleague or a direct report, try doing a walk and talk instead of sitting down. A walking meeting is a great way to create a free-flowing conversation. It is an especially good idea if you need to have a contentious conversation, because reducing eye contact can make those difficult conversations a little easier. If your walk can be around trees or grass, all the better. That will not only make your meeting more effective but will also put some gas in the tank for the next one.
The article adds that another option if you are feeling spent and wishing someone would scoop you up and carry you to Friday is to find someone in the office whom you can help. Grab a colleague and a coffee and provide some coaching or mentoring. Recent research suggests that being empathetic to others and helping them reframe their situation aids your own emotional regulation.
Core role of business rescue
When BRPs are faced with the decision to place a company into business rescue or to liquidate the company, an assessment about whether there is a company to be saved needs to be made. Much of this decision is based on the operational side of the business and its ability to return to profitability post rescue.
If the mindset of business leaders is not optimised, there will be no clear vision about how the company will be driven forward, there will be no company to save.
The Executive managers and owners remain the most valuable resources that distressed companies can deploy to assist that company’s recovery. In distress the mantra must be I am so busy and stressed I CANNOT afford Not to take care of my physical and mental wellbeing.
Robin Nicholson is the Director of Corporate-911
