Beyond an inspiring speech. For all leaders whose confidence has gone shaky in the midst of our current global pandemic and other uncertainties, I recommend investing an hour in this recent Webinar with Simon Sinek, the bestselling author of The Infinite Game. This webinar goes beyond his well-known inspiring talks. It is a hands-on Q&A session for leaders to get ideas on how to practically deal with staying an inspiring leader in today’s pandemic-shaken reality. He concludes, perhaps to the disappointment of some, that:
New leadership is not required. We simply need more of what we know already as good leadership: to bring forth humanity, transparency and vulnerability and maintain optimism when facing the unknown future.
Although this sounds familiar, there is a “too much of a good thing” in all of this. Transparency and vulnerability do not mean to constantly leave all my worries and helplessness as a leader on the table. It’s more about “I don’t know what the future brings and what the way forward looks like. But I am sure we can best find it out together. Tell me what your thoughts are.”
Accordingly, transparency and vulnerability always need to be bound to optimism, which does not mean to simply neglect uncomfortable realities nor lack compassion towards current sufferings. Optimism always expresses that we think bright about a future to come. In this sense it’s related to an unshakeable belief in the human power to cope with difficult situations, a key element for resilience.
Staying an inspired leader in times of crisis is about taking yourself out of the equation. Instead, give others the center stage and step into greater acknowledgement of their personal power. How does all this display in the shaky day-to-day arena of the pandemic? He opts for actively checking-in with your clients and employees and creating human-to-human experiences. Asking how they feel and what they need, listening to them and acting upon it - not simply reacting. He advises to do this via phone calls than video calls or emails, to be forced to really discuss and listen to each other.
Overall, Simon Sinek provides some enlightening concrete impulses and examples on how to deal with clients, complaints, or how to market, etc., based on quite interesting questions from the audience. Sharing openly his own stories, he embodies what he preaches: transparency, vulnerability and optimism – it’s simply not possible to be left uninspired after this Webinar.
