I remember my early days as customer support engineer. A product that we had launched with a lot of fanfare, positioned as one of the best in the market, had some inherent technical problems. We sold it in large numbers; all the new products were failing in the customer sites. No one could identify the root cause or fix them.
Angry calls from customers became the norm! Some of them cancelled pending orders. Bad word started to spread…
Our Region Head was at a crossroad: a) spread the message of doom, blame the manufacturing or b) focus on what we can do to solve it
He chose the latter, he:
- Focused on what he could do, the actions he could take. He flew in specialists who designed the product in US.
- Communicated transparently with the customers and his team. He was honest about the challenges and emphasized on the steps being taken to address them. He took every single customer call, irrespective of how upset the customer was or what time of the day.
- Provided support to the teams. He stood by them, assuring them, cheering them up. And ensured people had necessary resources and tools. During the all-nighters that teams pulled through, he was with the team, taking care of small and big needs.
- Remained the pillar of strength – calm, reassuring…. He had absolute confidence that we will get over the challenge and his optimism was contagious.
And we indeed got over the challenge.
A leader can make a big difference on how a team faces adversity.
What has been your experience of working with leaders in tough times?
Perspectives 