We’d like to extend a special thanks to Kip Tindell, co-chair of Conscious Capitalism, Inc. and former CEO of The Container Store, for sharing on How to Lead Through Crisis. Kip drew upon his personal experiences leading as a CEO through economic crises in the past, and provided a number of key insights that may benefit leaders challenged by the current social and economic crisis. 

These are the key takeaways from the webinar:

Trust your instincts.

Some say that intuition is the sum total of your life’s experiences. If that’s so, then your intuition may have good advice on how to stay true to your values in the midst of crisis situations. Kip encourages leaders to stay true to their values while listening to their intuition, encouraging them to trust their instincts, “trust your heart and soul”, and let them guide you.

Empower your whole team to find creative solutions.

No one knows your business better than everyone on your team. In times of crisis, CEOs and other business leaders can benefit from recognizing that they may not have access to all the possible solutions; leaders on the floor, in the distribution centers, and at the cash registers may identify creative, cost-saving solutions that executive leadership can’t possibly know, and they might be more willing to accept difficult circumstances if it means helping the business to thrive again.

There’s no such thing as over-communication.

This one is pretty straightforward: Keep communicating throughout the crisis. And, if there is any chance that you are not communicating enough, then communicate some more. Especially with vendors. According to Kip, “Vendors are more starved for communication than ever before in a time like this… Conscious Capitalism is all about win-win-win relationships, you can’t achieve win-win-win relationships in times of crisis unless you increase communication.”

Research what other organizations are doing.

If you don’t know where to begin, don’t despair. Here are a few sites to help you get some great ideas:

• Just Capital
• Imperative 21
• B-Lab 
• #StopTheSpread  
• Project N95 
• The B-Team 
• Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism
• CECP (Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose) 

Be mindful of your wake.

Everything you do has a bigger impact than you think it does. Being mindful of your wake, understanding the impact of your actions, is very important during this time. The actions you take now will have greater impact than they have perhaps at any other point in your life. Take care that the impact is aligned with your good intentions.

In closing, Kip reminds us that you won’t be able to please everybody, but if you know you are leading in this way and doing everything in your power to make your stakeholders thrive, you can remind yourself that you’re on the right path, and there’s peace in that. He concludes, “There’s peace in justice. There’s peace in goodness. There’s peace in being a leader of people.”