Enable Leaders: What would you do?

Imagine this...

It's the big day. Launch day.

You've worked hard for months on bringing forward a major rebrand for your organization.

You're so, so excited.

You, your colleagues and the whole team have worked hard to get this together, along with your agency.

• The press release goes out.

• Excitement continues.

• But then...

You drank a ton of (proverbial) water.

"This new brand is TERRIBLE."

"What was wrong with the old brand?""This brand has shunned everything the organization stands for."

What would you do?

Imagine this was your reality.

This really did happen, and it happens all the time, sadly.

You're the CEO of an organization that has just put in months and months of work, and the headlines and social media comments read like those above.

What would be going through your mind? How would you be dealing with this?

What went wrong?

Well... maybe nothing!

People respond negatively to change. Many people, often who do not have any given stake towards an organization. We know that opinions are ubiquitous, but they're not all useful.

In this situation, the executive leadership team did their best to publicly address the "why" of the change. Yet, that didn't seem to quell things in the midst of the storm.

How you can use this

As leaders, we all make decisions where a stakeholder is going to be impacted. In this case, the negative response to the rebrand was coming from a public that didn't necessarily have a direct stake in the organization (and even some that did).

So, what are the steps you could take to lesson potential challenges?1. Engage your key stakeholders. You need to create alignment with your new vision and get buy-in, even if you don't necessarily reveal your plans of the full new brand. You might say clearly what you are stepping away from, especially if the brand is well-known and understand, and more importantly, you would communicate WHY. Your stakeholders may push back with valid concerns: make sure you listen. You may have missed something completely.

2. Play through "what if?" Even a simple one-page exercise of mapping out "If this happens, we'll do this in response" is more effective than no plan at all. If you want to go into more sophisticated methods, war gaming and scenario planning might be right for you.

3. Prepare your talking points. You want to communicate clearly and have concise talking points, especially if this can be perceived as a negative change. Frame things in the positive light, and where appropriate, state why you arrived at where you did. Without this understanding, people may find it hard to grasp. Take them on a learning journey with you to hopefully get them to persuade. Repetition is also your friend (a good political example.)

As I recently wrote on my LinkedIn (I get many requests, so if you would like to connect, please personalize your intro, or, click "follow" to see my updates).

Thinking about persuading someone?

Consider: Where are they in their journey? Are they open to be convinced of something? Are they stressed? Tired? In a good place to receive something new?

How much do they already know about the topic? If they have been long immersed on something already, they don't need the A-Z: they just need what they need.

How far apart are you in your positions and thinking?

What's your goal? Is it aligned with theirs? If it's not aligned, and you just want someone to believe you because that's what you believe, that's probably not a great starting point. If you don't have empathy for how they got to where they are today and how they are feeling today, you're almost certain to lose.

4. Prepare your psychology. After working through the "what if?" and your responses, you have to know that there will be (likely) some negative noise. Prepare yourself and your team for this.

If you have arrived at a new brand, you did so for a reason.

Affirm that reason: "We did this because __________"

"This is the right thing, because ______________"

Use repetition ahead of the launch to prime your brain: this will make it easier to cope with the stress if someone fires back negatively. This is a bit of a process of building tough skin.

As negativity comes in, a few other things

>>> Remember to repeat the affirmations of why you did this.

>>> Consider the intent of the people saying what they are saying. Do they truly care about you? If they don't, they likely don't deserve mindshare. If they do, wait a few days, and then reach out to them to ask for a conversation. It can be easy to throw barbs at a social media post, but, for many people, having a direct human to human conversation makes this more difficult. Seek a constructive conversation (and lay out that expectation in advance): "We would love to understand your thoughts, as well as to share how we arrived here through a constructive conversation: could we connect next week?" 

>>> Give yourself time. When it comes to our emotions, fear and stress can jump past our logic center (The Prefrontal Cortex) and jump right to our amgydala (straight to emotions). Have you ever noted how you feel better when you walk away from something emotional and come back to it later? If you can, give yourself 24 hours. Turn off your email, turn off your social media, and go for a walk. Work to get perspective.

>>> Consult someone who cares for you. Tell them what's happening and how you're feeling: often, you'll notice that they can share helpful perspective so your brain can reset. You don't want to make decisions based on fear or heightened emotions.

Tools to Help You

For this edition, consider wisdom from Steven D. Cohen, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School with this article: How leaders can inspire through their words

We also have our wait list open for Advancing You: Understanding Yourself and Others to be More Successful. Whether you're a VC, Founder, team manager or someone looking to be more strategic to approach and influence others, get on the wait list now for training deliveries in 2023 of this course (dates coming soon: we'll contact you immediately with first priority if you're on the wait list!).

Sign up for the wait list now!

Go be a great leader today! See you next time.

Jonathan [email protected] CEOEnable Leaderswww.enableleaders.com