Another international crisis … another opportunity for leaders to make a positive impact for their companies – part 2
In the last post, we discussed how leaders behave and communicate in a crisis will affect:
- Current productivity/results
- Future productivity/results via who “comes and goes”
People will make judgments about the company based on how leaders lead during the crisis. Part of that is attractiveness of the company as an employer:
- Current employees – should I stay?
- Prospective employees – should I join the company if there’s an opportunity?
A key issue is whether leaders trust employees to make decisions for themselves about well-being and employment. Withholding information creates a culture where the company effectively makes those decisions for employees.
Let’s dig a bit deeper into some general types of employee mindsets and how they might be affected by withholding information.
- “Employees”
- Intrapreneurs
- Entrepreneurs
👉🏻 Why did I put “employees” in quotes? Isn’t every “employee” an … well … employee? Yes, from a legal classification perspective. No, from a mentality perspective.
“Employees” ultimately want to
- mind their own business
- know or be told what to do and when
- stay in their assigned “lanes”
- have stability and a low/no risk environment, not growth and uncertainty that comes with it
- think about life outside the business.
👉🏻 Intrapreneurs are generally:
- proactive change agents with an inward focus (“intra”)
- want to improve their own work
- want to help the business succeed as a win-win
- know their roles but are willing to get out to help when/where needed
- a great source of growth insights
- neither repelled by risk nor seek company-wrecking risk.
👉🏻 Entrepreneurs ultimately want to:
- run their own business
- constantly think about and promote ideas for new business lines (or even businesses)
- discuss new ideas/ventures with other team members, diverting focus and productivity
- go their own way rather than collaborating
- go for bigger risks
The effects of withholding information will vary across the three groups.
Employees might be O.K. with knowing less as that can provide a façade or mirage of stability … more of the “head in the sand” approach.
Intrapreneurs likely won’t be O.K. and will be at risk of “quiet quitting” or outright quitting. Startups and any company looking to grow or innovate desperately need some intrapreneurs. Unfortunately, they will be the ones who will be turned off the most by poor communication.
Entrepreneurs are already “gone” mentally and will likely be gone physically. Sooner in the face of poor communication than otherwise. This isn’t as big an issue as with intrapreneurs, since entrepreneurs never were totally “with” the company anyway.
Future hiring will also be affected, making it harder to attract talented intrapreneurs.
How are you doing?
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