What do I tell my team?

Photo by Bruno Cantuária.

“We just laid off half the company. And I want to say that will be the end of it. But I…”

“We have runway. Well, at least we had runway. But that was only as long as we had customers. And we did until…”

“My team keeps calling me. For meetings but also for random stuff. Just to get on the phone. They need me to lead. But I don’t know where we’re going. Hell, I don’t even know the situation for my own family. What am I supposed to tell them?”

—

We’ve been talking to bosses again. It’s our thing that we do. And before all of this, it was our thing that we did all day every day. And we loved every fucking minute of it. How strange these last few weeks have felt. Logging on after the kids have gone to bed, talking to Brady Bunch heads of bosses, spread out across time zones.

All wondering, “What do I tell my team?” And tucked in it, another question. “What should someone be telling me? Cause no one is and I’m not comfortable winging something this big. I am way out of my depth.”

First, don’t bluff. We start there. It’s a thing we actually tell bosses all the time. Not just during crises. But the rest of the time they nod. Like of course I won’t bluff. Who would? Why would they? But they all do. And the reason is simple.

As a boss you bluff when you think you ought to know. You bluff because your people are asking you for an answer. And if you don’t have the answer, what does that say about your ability to lead? You felt like an imposter when they handed you the new business card in the first place. And isn’t there that whole thing about everyone just making it up as they go along anyway?

We say don’t bluff because when you bluff people get hurt. The biggest fuck ups are the ones where a leader's bluff gets called. And it will get called. We said it on last week's call with the bosses. People want certainty. And you can't give them that and they sort of already know it. But the thing they absolutely cannot handle right now is fuckery.

So don't bluff. That means saying what you know. And being honest about the parts you don’t. You may not know if people’s jobs are safe. Even when there’s a lot of pressure to tell them they’ll be fine.

Second, figure out what you do know. The stuff you knew last month might not be real any more. What is our real runway now? What is our real business model now? Sometimes figuring things out means asking very uncomfortable questions. Your own bosses may not have figured those things out yet, either.

The truth is that a lot of companies, maybe including yours, are not going to be able to make it through this level of global shutdown. And those that do are still facing down some scary math. So everything is already on the table. The question is whether the people in charge are seeing that clearly, or being dragged to it, kicking and screaming. Your team isn't invited to some of the meetings that you are. And your voice carries more weight in some conversations. Ask until you hit something you believe.

Third, take care of you. Back when we flew on airplanes, the line was "always apply your own mask before assisting someone else." But as leaders, you are the glue. You are the connective tissue in your organization. And the level of coordination needed to go from in office to fully remote/distributed means your calendar is positively fuuuuucked. So we get that you might be having trouble with masks right now.

So many leaders are coming into this pandemic on the heels of years of manufactured crises. They were tired before they reached the starting line for this particular race. And now their tanks are empty.

You are no good to nobody running on empty.

You need rest. You need food. We know you feel like you need to be there for your team no matter the hour, no matter how many of these unscheduled calls you've already taken. But this will take resilience. Breathe fresh air before you log on. Try to sign off before it gets dark. Figure out what helps you to refill the tank. And do those things. There's a long road ahead.

Fourth, lead. We know, it's an impossible ask. G-d. Lead? To where? And for what? We get it. No one can see the future right now, and it feels like from that place we're all guessing.

So okay. So we finally gave in this weekend and sat down with our kids to watch Frozen 2. After a week of home-schooling while doomscrolling, we let the weekend take more than its fair share of screens.

Anyway there's this scene pretty early on (no spoils!) where the elder troll is talking to Anna and Elsa about the future. And he can't see it. He's a pretty magical fella but he can't get this one clear. And he says, "When one can see no future, all one can do is the Next Right Thing."

Can you believe that line is just sitting there in that movie, waiting for you?

Take care of yourselves. Take care of your teams. Don't try to get ahead of a global pandemic - that's not a thing that's helpful to reach for right now. Just find the next right thing for your people. And then do that. And then wake up and do it again tomorrow.

- Melissa and Johnathan