Executive Leadership In The Time of Corona Virus
We know there is a lot more to be discussed. If you are interested in learning more about any of the topics we covered or...You want a strategy call with our guests or host, go to customentor.com/podcast. Leadership Results Podcast Episode #1 Jordan: Welcome to the Leadership Results podcast. Learn proven formulas from reputable executives and industry consultants. All of our guests will help you become the best leader possible. We promise to bring you key insights that impact trust, morale, and alignment. These are the keys for productivity and the bottom line. We invite you to listen weekly. You'll benefit from the up-to-date formulas that our listeners demand. Become a world class leader. Subscribe to the Leadership Results podcast. Hi, I'm your host, Jordan Goldrich. Today's episode is called executive leadership in the time of coronavirus. We have 2 honored guests today, Ed Sherman and Tom Erickson. First, let me introduce you to Ed. Ed is an organization consultant for both private and public sector organizations. He provides executive coaching, training group, and team development, outcome assessment, and process improvement for executives, boards of directors, and managers. Ed has been performing workplace risk assessments and consultations for more than 25 years. And he coordinated the risk assessment activities for the county of San Diego. He received his doctorate in clinical psychology from Alliant International University and has over 40 years of experience in public safety. Ed was trained in critical incident stress management, and has served on the San Diego critical incident stress management team. So, let me welcome Ed. Ed: Hello, Jordan. Jordan: Great to be talking with you again, Ed. This is certainly some interesting times. Ed: I certainly agree with that, Jordan. Yes. Jordan: The world is dealing with a very, very difficult crisis right now. Is there some precedent from the past that helps inform your thoughts regarding… regarding the handle handling of such a situation? Ed: There is, Jordan. Probably the most significant event that I have dealt with during my lifetime and in my career where the events of 9/11, 2001. And in much the same way of the corona virus, although in a different time span, we have been as a nation presented with a issue a crisis, a concern that has overwhelmed the resources that are typically available to deal with situations. On 9/11, I was both personally and professionally involved, because I was working in law enforcement at that time, but my brother was working in Manhattan. And I did not know about his welfare regarding the incident that occurred in New York. And it wasn't until later in that day that I I was able to find out that he was okay, but I still had to carry on my job duties in the face of personal concern and anxiety. Jordan: Wow, wow. That's… that's really what's facing a lot of people as well. A lot of our executives out there have had to leave their offices, take care of their kids, take care of their families, take care of their parents, their aging parents, and still focus on what it is that they're doing. Ed: Absolutely true, Jordan. And, you know this… as you say, leaders need to conduct their business, they need to make sure that the organization continues to function as best as possible under the circumstances. But of course, they have concern about their family, they have concerned about their friends and neighbors and such. And so, it really calls upon somebody in a leadership position to be able to do both of those things simultaneously. Jordan: Yeah, understood. How did you manage it when you were in that situation with 911? Ed: I focused on the duties that I needed to perform, and I recognized that that was important. And so, I, in some sense, compartmentalized my attention, so that I was able to perform the duties that I needed to. And in some part of my mind, I still was concerned about my brother's welfare. I wanted to make sure that he was safe and he was okay. But I was able to keep those things both in my mind, but separate. Jordan: So, that really is one of the key pieces. It's not necessarily that some of our more driven leaders or our more focused leaders aren't human, it's just that they're able to function under stress. Ed: Absolutely, absolutely. And… and… and it would be nice if we could say we only take care of business when we're in the workplace and we only take care of our personal life when we're in line home domain or with our family. But we know realistically, both of those areas enter over into the other. So, we have to kind of develop a skill to manage that, and recognize when we most need to take action in one domain or the other. Jordan: Great, thank you. So, let me introduce our other guest, Tom Erickson, who has quite a story. Tom is a VP of human resources with over 40 years of experience, including 24 years at Elgar Electronics, Solar Turbines. And, Tom, I can never pronounce this name. What was the third one? Tom: It's called Allis-Chalmers, a manufacturing company in Milwaukee. Jordan: Well, thanks. So, Tom is an executive consultant who maximizes human potential by focusing on leadership effectiveness, management and organization development, and strategic human resources management. He knows that leadership effectiveness occurs within the context of key processes that drive a business. So, he works with companies to improve their systems, their structures, and their disciplines. He has a unique skill set, and that allows him to help align teams to a common direction. Tom's holistic approach to leadership efficacy, organization development and HR sets him apart from his colleagues. Tom, welcome aboard. Tom: Thank you. Glad to be here. Jordan: Yeah. So, I know that when you were at Elgar, there was a shooting. And in fact, back in those days, I think our companies had some contact with each other, but maybe not. What… what was that all about? What happened and what was the reaction that you had? And talk about some of the things that that were done. Tom: Okay. Well, it was a… it was a typical day, early afternoon. All of a sudden, there were a number of explosions and smoke everywhere and a little fire. And as we have trained all of our employees, we got them out of the building. We had about 400 employees at Elgar, got them out of the building in the locations are supposed to be from a fire problem. And come to find out, what had happened is we had a past employee who came in and was terminated. That past employee came in and set off some diversionary kind of bombs, worked his way up to the executive area. And he shot the… 2 of our executives. He was looking for 4 people that he wanted to… to shoot, and he ended up getting 2. And by that time, the smoke can fill the building and everybody exited, went to their proper locations in our fire strategy. Well, obviously that… that was very frightening. And he ended up after he couldn't find out the others, he got on a bicycle and rode away. The main thing for us was trying to get our act together and get control. And so, we had all of our employees outside of the facility in their designated areas and we… once we were able to secure things and assure that they were safe, we brought everybody together and told them that we will be closing the facility for the rest of the day, and the near future and we'll get back to them. And we didn't allow them to take their cars because the individual had placed some bombs under a number of cars. And so, we made arrangements to send everybody home via some other manner. So, then, you know, after that crisis, you know, the first thing to do is this to deal with the crisis. After that, we need to pull all the pieces together which… which included cleaning up the area. And the advice we were given was try to remove all the signs of the tragedy, the blood and things of that sort. We needed to get organized to bring the workforce back. We met as a management team and communicated to all of our managers, had the managers call all of the employees personally and invite them back to work a day later. And when they came back, we had a meeting and we were very open and forthright. What I learned is that that's a key first step is don't sugarcoat it, just lay out the facts of what happened and what we're doing about it. And unfortunately, the individual was still not apprehended, and so we had some concerns. And one of the strategies we did is we brought in armed guards who would police our facility while everybody was there to assure people that it was safe. Jordan: Wow. Tom: And in the mean… in the meantime, the police were trying to locate him. Jordan: Yeah. So, as I'm listening to you, I've been, for the last week or 2, sort of scanning the literature on what people are saying to executives who are now having to function in, you know, crazy times like you're describing. And I hear a lot of what I'm reading in that. One of the things I hear is you need to connect with people. Tom: Absolutely. Jordan: And it sounds like you really did that. And then… Tom: Well, we actually made a concerted effort to encourage all of the managers, the executive team and their direct reports to… to spend a lot of time just being with the employees in their area and… and asking them how their families are and how they're doing. And of course, we put together a strategy where we offered counseling at our facility, but also personal counseling if they wished and counseling for their families. Jordan: Yeah. Tom: And so, I think communications, showing visible support is a big part of what we did. Jordan: So, thank you. That's… that's really, really helpful. Let me go back to Ed. And as you're listening to this, Ed, what are you thinking? Any thought… any thoughts come to mind about what people need to do now? Ed: Well, certainly the communication piece is… is really central. And what I mean by that is both it's important to communicate procedurally what's going on, where does the organization stand, what is available in terms
