Hey Guys- It was the depth of winter, December 2008, and things were not good. The Labor Department had reported that more than 500,000 jobs were lost in November, a number not seen since 1974, and unemployment was rising. Investment banks had collapsed, the house bubble had popped, and people in every corner of the world were worried about their future. As you might suspect, Wall Street was not an especially happy place to work. As a leadership consultant and CEO coach, I felt a bit like an ER doctor in the midst of an epidemic. There was so much pain out there and in so many different industries. It was an extraordinary time for leaders, not only because of the difficulties most industries were facing, but also because of the heroics and transcendent moments many leaders were responsible for. I saw it time and time again: good leaders rising to the challenges before them. This particular morning I was meeting with one of those good leaders, the CEO of a division of one of the biggest Wall Street firms. He handed me a sheet of paper and said, Take a look at this. It was a letter he had sent to clients describing measures his firm was taking to steady the ship. Intended to reassure clients, the letter detailed how the firm was going above and beyond what other firms were doing to help their clients. It was very sincere, as was the CEO. But this particular copy of the letter was an ugly mess. One very unhappy client had taken a red pen to it, scrawling obscenities and accusations all over it before sending it back to the CEO. You people would all go to prison, it said, along with other statements such as, You are all thieves, etc. This is what our people are getting every day, he said, referring to the more than eight thousand brokers in his firm. They are some of the best, most caring, client-oriented men and women in the industry, and yet many of their clients are blaming them for the market crash. Its understandable that people are upset, but the brokers didnt cause the situation. Yet they are the ones getting hammered every day. I know it is affecting them... I can see it. Can you do anything? he asked. Yes, I said, Im sure I can. But I am also interested in that client, not just the brokers. The client has had his life flash before his eyes, and probably has lost a lot of his retirement money - maybe the college fund for his kids, and who knows what else. That is why he is so mad and not thinking very rationally either. Just look at the writing. The CEO gave me a quizzical look. By taking time to understand both side, I explained, I could be in a better position to help the brokers help their clients and bring them back as allies sitting on the same side of the table. He nodded. This CEOs strongest value was to serve clients in the best way possible, and I knew we were on the same page. With all the negative press Wall Street was getting, it was heartening to see leaders like him who actually cared deeply for people. And he was not the only one by any measure. We put together focus groups of the highest-performing financial advisers in about twenty cities across the United States. I flew to visit them and asked two simple questions; Whats its like for you? and Whats it like for your clients? The conversations started slowly but picked up stream pretty quickly. Many admitted that they were experiencing significant symptoms of stress, including depression and anxiety. I remember one meeting where one man said, I wake up every morning at 2:43. Immediately the guy sitting next to him said, Mine is 3:47. Then a woman across the circle said, Im 4:15. Everyone laughed, and those three were really surprised to find that others were experiencing the same worried sleeplessness. Others shared different examples of how the stress was taking its toll. One man revealed that sometimes his wife would come into his study late at night and just turn off CNBC, which hed been staring at in a zombielike state, not even realizing how long he had been sitting there. Even more unsettling to these groups- some of the biggest performers in the industry - was how their work performance was being affected. They werent just getting weaker results; their actual functioning was going down as a result of being in crisis for almost a year at this point. I dont mean just results, but functioning itself. I remember one man saying, I have been in this industry for twenty-five years and have always been on top. I have won every award this industry has. I have never had a problem with self-confidence. This is weird, but not I have trouble picking up the phone. I just sit there at times and stare at my computer screen. I have never felt like this. Its very strange. The pain I heard expressed in these focus groups was greater than anyone had expected. But during those meetings, in city after city, something very powerful was beginning to happen within the group: THEY WERE CONNECTING. Just getting together and sharing stories about how the downturn was affecting them was changing them, and more to our point here, it was changing their capacity for performance. To be sure, they felt better and more supported and connected to their senior leaders. Likewise, they began to feel supported and connected to one another. But I am talking about more than feeling good. I am talking about the ways that their brains actually began to work again. The power of connection is so important in all aspects of life - really excited to delve a bit deeper into this in the months to come!! Cheers, Henry *Pages 77-80 from my book Boundaries For Leaders
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 23:18:19 +0000
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