Bonus Episode 2: Not Business As Usual

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Hi, this is Steven McClane. I host the finance leader Podcast, and this is bonus episode number two for these bonus episodes. I'm gonna talk about leadership concepts to prompt you while I am preparing season number two, which is gonna debut on April 28th And this week, I want to talk about something that I've been thinking about for the last few weeks. Right now, we are anything but business as usual. Our current global challenge requires creative thinking, creative leadership and thinking beyond what you were doing about a month ago. Now, if anyone says that we're business as usual, I want you to challenge that. I want you to think about what they're saying because we are not business as usual. Things have changed. We are in one of the greatest challenges of our lives. So if someone says businesses usual, I wonder what they have not changed or what they failed to adapt to or what they're failing or what they are not accounting for. In this great situation that we're in now, things have changed and they're going to continue to change over the next few weeks, so that requires great leadership that requires leaders who are continually thinking ahead of what's going on. So as we come out of this crisis in whatever long it takes, if it's weeks or months or even a year businesses, they're gonna have to think about crisis in a different way. And I sort of identified four things that I wanted to talk about today, but really gonna focus on three of them because my 4th 1 I'm going to dedicate another episode, too. But these are things that I've been thinking about and things that future employees are gonna question and think about before joining your organization. So Number one, what is your process for initializing a crisis plan? Do you have a crisis plan? Do you have something in place? Have you thought about what happens when we get into this kind of event of this kind of challenge? Some organizations delayed, some organizations were more prepared, and some organizations initiated their crisis plan very quickly and were able to adapt very quickly. I believe those are all conditions on leadership, and the type of leadership and organization has a number to how did the organization care for its employees? Caring for the employees is job one. Now, what are you doing to support your team during this time? And I believe that this is definitely gonna be a question that is gonna come up in every job interview going forward once we get out of this situation. Employees, they're gonna want to know what happened during this crisis, how the organization supported them, where they quick to lay off. Do we have the ability to hold on to their employees a little longer where they set up to go work from home quicker. Did businesses get creative and how they changed their lines of business so they could still generate revenue? It's all sorts of things that future job applicants are gonna ask and would be interested in how the organization adapted to a crisis. And I'm sure that this is gonna be continued discussions in the job search employees. They're gonna probably do their research and see how organizations reacted or acted or able to overcome this challenge. Number three is about I t infrastructure improvements again. Some of the organizations who were quick to adapt probably already had a good, solid infrastructure in place. Those who delayed probably because they didn't have a robust I t infrastructure, or they never considered that everyone would have to work from home at some point. But they never made the investment. Are never even considered the thought that we would put more people at home than in the office. So again, this is going to be a question that's gonna come up in the job search and in the job interviews going forward. This is something that organizations they're gonna have to consider and think about as they come out of this crisis. Continue to invest in an I T infrastructure. That provides an opportunity for them to continue business seamlessly as the transition from the office to an alternate location or to home. And the fourth thing is probably the most important that I'm going to dedicate to another bonus episode in about two weeks. And I believe that is, business owners need to recession proof their business. How long can a business operate when the global or national economy is in crisis? That's gonna be something that business owners and leaders are going to think about. How long can you operate as the economy has had a downturn and the same opportunities are not there again. It's the same thing. When I started this episode, Are you still thinking yourself? Is business as usual or are you getting creative, defined, different lines of business? Are you adapting your business to then meet a different market, a different segment, something different that you can generate revenue during a crisis? These are things that business owners they're gonna have to think about, leaders they're gonna have to think about. They're gonna have to figure out and build it into their crisis plan that we're gonna find new ways to serve our customers or find a whole new customer base in case something like this happens again. So these air four things again that I want to challenge leaders out there, especially business owners. Number one. What's your process for initiating a crisis plan? Did you act right away, or did you delay number two? How did you care for your employees? Number three. What's your I T infrastructure improvements that you're gonna make going forward so you can adapt to such a crisis? And number four, which, of course, I'm going to talk in more depth in a couple of weeks, and that is how are you gonna recession, proof your business and be able to still operate when the global and national economy has had a significant downturn, Just like we are facing today again, I am working on season number two of the podcast, and it's gonna debut on April 28th. I'm really looking forward, bringing to you some additional great content so you can apply it to your leadership again. I appreciate all your feedback. I want to ask you to please join my free Facebook group. The link is in the description of this episode and I'm asking you to please continue to grow and to grow others around. You take care of your team. Take care of your employees out there during this crisis. I am encouraging you. And I'm expecting you to look out after them. Now, go to great things and set a great example in this tough time. And I'll see you next week. Thank you.