Being viewed as a great leader in good times looks relatively easy.
Some leaders may just assume that it will be like this forever — when contracts are rolling in, the investors are happy, the company is hiring rapidly and positive employee engagement is abound.
It’s much more challenging to be a great leader when your employees and organization need you the most, during difficult times. These moments are tough, and there isn’t a playbook to maneuver through them because every situation is unique.
Wins and losses in basketball are not as drastic as say, mass layoffs, but the response by the No.1-ranked University of Virginia coach Tony Bennett after the historic and unexpected defeat to relatively unknown No. 16 seed University of Maryland-Baltimore County is instructive on leadership lessons.
After the loss, Bennett showed leaders the playbook for responding to loss and disappointment, by demonstrating ownership, accountability, perspective and character.
- Ownership: In his post-game interview, Bennett said, “They had a historic season” in referring to the ACC wins. He then said of the NCAA tournament, “And then we had a historic loss” by being the first No. 1 seed to lose in the first round.
Bennett referred to “they” when praising Virginia’s ACC wins, but then referred to “we” when referring to the loss.
He might not have even realized he made that distinction. For great leaders, it’s just their reflex to praise others for success, but take ownership for failure. Leaders can use this strategy daily.
- Be accountable: Bennett started his post-game interview congratulating his opponent. He didn’t blame the referees, an injured player or anyone else.
Perhaps fans wanted to hear excuses for why such a historic loss could occur. Bennett made no excuses.
Great leaders are honest and transparent about why something happened. They make no excuses, identify real consequences and plan for recovery.
- Put it into perspective: During the post-game interview, Bennett said: “That’s life” and “it’s not the worst thing that can happen.”
Working with many organizations and businesses over the last 25 years, I’ve seen companies go bankrupt, conduct mass layoffs, defend large lawsuits, and endure major business and ethics-related matters that, at the time, were life changing.
But they were not life-ending. In most cases, employees moved on, found jobs and/or the organization turned around and thrived.
Getting your team ready for disappointment will help with the fall.
- Character: Bennett won with grace and he lost with grace. And his players did the same.
They were able to do this because of values he instilled in his team. This didn’t happen overnight. Leaders should not wait until something unexpected happens in their organization before planning for these difficult moments.
Effective, positive leadership begins in when things are going well. Building on this foundation, leaders can respond effectively using the Bennett playbook on leadership.