Clear communication during times like this is absolutely critical. Liz Ritzcovan believes that there is no such thing as too much communication. But what other aspects should leaders really be focusing on today?

Learn more in this clip from the Whats Sales Can Learn From session with Liz.

Carole Mahoney:
So speaking of that, and it sounds like really what we're talking about here is when we're thinking about leading a team in these kinds of situations in crisis, that it comes down to really clear communication. It's one of those things we all know in our minds, but few of us are actually able to execute on. We assume we're being very clear.

So why is this so important?

Liz Ritzcovan:
It goes back with the example I just gave about clarifying questions. First of all, you have to be real. Everyone needs to start from a place of real. If you're not who you are, if you're not saying it in a way that is in your voice, in the way that you speak, it loses all of its all of its ability to be able to motivate someone, to drive a conversation, to drive a solution.

And so being real is important, and particularly in a crisis like we're in now that the global world is going through. And you want to make sure that you put the right things first. So I would say it's be real, but in a business landscape today, put your employees first, put your customers second. If you can't do the right thing in the employee base and communicate to them, empower them, it just derails your ability to not only have camaraderie and come together, but also have that authenticity, which I think fundamentally builds a winning team.

And aside from that, I think having a cadence of communication. So I'll share anecdotally that in this time, the things that we've been doing is over-communicating. And I'm a fan of that anyway, but because of this crisis and things are changing hourly, daily, depending on what time zone you're in, it's important to get the company together as often as possible. And we're doing it on a weekly basis.

Also doing standups, like just getting your team together and saying, "Hey, what are our priorities today? How can we help each other?" And being nimble. I pride myself and I believe my team and the people that I've had the pleasure of knowing and working with throughout my career. You've got to be flexible. I think it comes from my husband in his military days. It's Semper Gumby, always be flexible. And as long as you do those things, I think you're really setting up for success.

But also it's the personal side too. We're on video right now. You commented on my dining room, thank you. I love this wallpaper. But it's having happy hours or just getting and having a ... I don't know if it's a book review. But getting friends together, getting your team together. So it's yes, business is important, but it's also the water cooler talk that we're not getting today. And there's nothing more intimate than someone seeing inside your home. Yes, there are clever extensions and backgrounds that many people have put so that they're making it fun and making it interactive.

And I so appreciate that, but I also think when you have, if you have spouses or partners or kids or pets, and you see them come up, it's like real life happening. And I feel like while this is tough, not being together and not going out to dinner, and not being in our offices, we do spend a lot of time video chatting. But now we're all in the same place. And so I think it's really creating some intimacy and team building and more personal relationships even at work than I think was forged before.

Another thing that I will add is I'm a big proponent of strategic sessions. And I typically get my leadership team together on a quarterly basis to not only look at what happened in the past quarter, but plan for going forward. And one of the things that we're doing in the next couple of weeks is really a two-H video strategic session. And we're coming together. It's not business as usual, but the thinking is as usual. And how are we going to continue to solve things and work through this together?

Carole Mahoney:
Yeah. And I really think that that is a signal in a sign of emotional intelligence and leadership, when you can actually go to your team and collaborate, "All right, what are your thoughts here? How do you see this playing out?" And I think that we're refocusing on that now, because even leadership is like, "We need to get our team involved in this so that they feel like they're a part of it."

And it is so important because when we are working from home, one of the things that happens to all of us as we start to get this feeling of isolation. So like you said, that water cooler talk is so important because it helps us also to get out of our own heads, doesn't it? When we get isolated, all of a sudden everything seems so much worse. And now suddenly, we talked about assumptions and we started having these entire conversations in our head with people that don't even know that they're happening. So, while it seems like a simple thing, it's so absolutely critical because even in chaos, life has to go on.

Stay tuned to learn more!
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