I heard from a DBA student this week who said they were having struggles focusing on their work in the midst of the racial unrest in America. Most all of us are deeply troubled by what we have seen and heard this week.
I wanted to write something to all of you because these tough issues affect almost every enterprise leader. Across the years, I have dealt with student deaths, deeply disturbing employee behavior, etc. The challenge in dealing with these very upsetting events is in some ways unique for enterprise and c-suite leaders. Our employees are looking to their leaders to be authentic, steady, and forward-thinking. Let’s look briefly at each of these in more detail.
Authentic: When bad things happen, people will immediately look to you to see if you have a heart, you care, and if you are human. I can’t tell you how to do this well, but it is important that you communicate your heart and soul with those around you. Today, my pastoral son on the west coast and I talked about these tragic racial issues. He is not looking to me to solve all these issues, but he is looking to me to know I care.
Steady: While we need to be authentic, we also need to be steady. Some of the worst days of my senior leadership life were the ones when I was in tears or wanted to yell and needed to provide a steady voice for 200 people who were also struggling emotionally as they went about their work. You really see this with children and teens. They are looking to us to let them know that it is going to be okay going forward.
Forward-thinking: Leaders deal with change. Change for the better must come from leaders. As we deal with so many tough issues in Nashville this year, we hope our leaders are figuring out how all this will work going forward. Leaders are responsible for wrestling with the complexities and difficulties around us and synthesis solutions from the available trade-offs.
My hope is that our DBA program will help you to prepare for your leadership days ahead. I want to say early and often that much of leadership is more emotional than tactical. Our DBA program is about theory, principles, research, and best practices. I also hope we do not miss opportunities to equip you holistically to deal with the human side of leadership as well as the strategic side.
As I close, my prayer for you is that in the midst of Nashville’s tornados, COVID response, power outages, racial demonstrations, and beyond, God will be equipping you to bless those around you. As you earn your DBA degree, it may provide you with a more strategic platform to be the change agent that is needed. If you would like to talk with me about any of these issues, please let me know as I am available.