Ensure Good Decision Making During the COVID-19 Crisis

What is the predominant atmosphere you experience at the office at the moment? With COVID-19 affecting the globe in multiple ways, it’s normal to feel overwhelmed and lose your decision making sense. Even if you’re one of the lucky ones that are able to continue running your business, you probably have a vague feeling that “somewhere, something is wrong”. If your productivity or revenue is affected by lockdowns, supply chains disruptions, and other challenges, your stress levels are probably sky high.

During a large-scale crisis such as COVID-19 that evolved so quickly, you’re forced to face many big-bet decisions.

To help you manage the current crisis, we compiled a list of pointers that can help you manage decision making processes to the best of your abilities. Take a moment to refocus and reap the fruits in the long run.

Can You Stop and Think for a Minute?

Perhaps you’ve been going at full speed since the first COVID-19 story broke because you don’t want your team to lose confidence in you. Yes, as a leader, your attitude will impact others. But you may need to take some time for yourself, assess the situation and then start making important decisions.

A few minutes of reflection in private can restore your ability to think objectively.

Can You Declutter Your Desk?

Under normal circumstances you may be able to handle most decision making scenarios yourself, or at least be involved: attending meetings and advising your managers.

When crises loom, this needs to change because you need to focus your attention on vital aspects that affect long term outcomes. You’re benefiting the long-term goal if you reserve your energy and time for bigger decisions & intricate discussions. So, delegate responsibilities and learn to trust your team so your to do list becomes shorter.

One practical approach is to create a hub of people responsible for various aspects of your business. You can create guidelines for decision making, so you know everything still happens in an orderly manner. Now, instead of one person or the board members handling everything, other role players assist with coordinating.

You can involve role players that are knowledgeable on topics such as supply chain, customer service and HR to ensure all important sectors are taken care of, without you doing everything.

Are You Willing to be Flexible?

It’s time for a different approach to how you’ve been leading your team. An ever-changing crisis requires flexibility.

Firstly, you can’t do this alone. The following can be the key to finding creative ways to circumvent challenges in the current crisis:

Talking to experts
Debating with stakeholders and your team
Asking for suggestions from role players
Getting feedback on your plan from team members, industry leaders or business advisors

Only follow through with plans after collaborating.

You can also consider alternative decision making processes than the ones you’re used to:

Instead of only trusting your own gut, imitate leaders in your field
If you’re always taking chances, the current crisis requires you to experiment before bringing about huge changes in the business
You may also have to be more dependent on data to determine the best way forward.

Can you adapt to what the situation requires, rather than what you’re comfortable with?

Another reality you’ll have to face is that the situation may change continuously—and quickly. The leaders who will perform the best will be agile and responsive to situations as & when they develop. For example, don’t cling to irrelevant policies or procedures if they prevent you from taking swift action.

A key factor to staying flexible is being creative so you can make decisions on the spot. To be this kind of leader, find ways to deal with the stress a crisis is bound to cause. Perhaps you need to exercise more or read a book over the weekend? Lowering stress can help you become more creative about solutions when new challenges arise.

Can You Break Down the Problem?

Here’s a classic problem in times of crisis: the problem seems insurmountable. You can’t seem to find a solution at all! So, here’s your challenge: it’s up to you to break it down into manageable chunks of work your team can help you with.

A quick fix that will solve all aspects of the situation is highly unlikely. If there was a magic answer, it would be shared on every newspaper’s business page. So, you and your team must realize that your solutions lie in thinking out of the box.

Rather than expecting your team to come up with one encompassing solution, the way forward is to break down the problem into separate components. You won’t have an overnight victory, but you can reach various milestones during the time ahead. For example, instead of only stressing about maintaining high productivity and revenue, which milestones will benefit you in the long run?

Solving supplier challenges
Finding multiple delivery methods if existing ones aren’t reliable anymore
Setting up remote working spaces at employees’ homes
Improving financial reporting to make decisions based on real time stats
Implementing software solutions such as a board portal or video conferencing apps

Your team will find these goals more manageable to handle, they’ll help the business move forward one step at a time and this will keep everyone encouraged in the long run.

Also, psychologically, you’ will all feel less overwhelmed if the problem seems less complex. This will help you manage morale.

Yes, COVID-19 is a challenge. But know this: while you can’t control the world out there, with each decision you do have some control over where your business will be a few months from now. So, become an expert at making decisions in tough situations and it will be a skill that will benefit you in the years to come.

Governance