By Steve Moran

I don’t think that any of these are actually only applicable to leading in a pandemic. But margins are tight or nonexistent and people are scared. Adopting one, two, or six of these hacks will turn you into a better leader, make your team trust you more, and lead to higher margins.

  1. Take care of yourself. If you don’t know how, you need to figure it out.
  2. Manage priorities.
  3. Figure out what your customers want most at this moment in time and deliver it.
  4. Leverage your core competencies.
  5. Figure out what your team members need most and provide it.
  6. Have the courage to pivot, and then pivot again.
  7. Act with speed.
  8. Invest in helping your people grow.
  9. Think strategically.
  10. Use partners, peers, and external experts as resources.
  11. Look forward – not back.
  12. Stay calm but not comatose.
  13. Look for people to hire in non-traditional places.
  14. Give feedback that is effective and growth-oriented.
  15. When faced with making hard choices be completely transparent.
  16. If you have poor performing team members address the problem with a people-first approach.
  17. Be flexible.
  18. Leverage video for everything.
  19. Use the crisis to form new habits and new relationships.
  20. Create new strategic relationships.
  21. Over communicate.
  22. Dream big about what is possible for your organization and your team.
  23. Remind your team about how the organization is changing the world together.
  24. Collect and tell hero stories about team members (but never yourself).
  25. Be real, talk about your fears and what you don’t know.
  26. Setting an example is better than telling people what to do.
  27. Give credit to others.
  28. Experiment, try new things.
  29. Make tough decisions fast and communicate the why.
  30. Look for opportunities to make small improvements or adjustments.
  31. Find and talk about the silver linings.
  32. Make sure your team members have enough food to eat, gas in the tank, and lunch money for their kids.
  33. Have a sense of humor.
  34. Hold open leader forums with those you lead. Let them ask anything. Start with the CEO.
  35. Provide company status reports that are true.
  36. Be playful.
  37. Ask good questions.

Do you have anything you would add to this list?

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