With the added uncertainty we’re all experiencing in the new world of COVID-19, business leaders have their work cut out for them. Aaron Williams, CEO and co-founder of Mindstar reflects on what leaders need most to rise to the challenges facing financial planners.

There is an old saying in mental health – if you want to give someone an anxiety disorder, give them uncertainty. In our new, constantly changing, COVID-19 world, how much uncertainty do we now have – in every single area of our lives?

The COVID-19 crisis is very different to anything we have experienced before. Unlike the other recent major upheavals and crises, such as the Royal Banking Commission, drought, or the bushfires – that many of us were still struggling with, when coronavirus hit – COVID-19 has affected every single one of us at the same time. And the hardest part is that we don’t know when it will end.

I am privileged to provide workplace wellbeing training and leadership support to organisations from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, to Woolworths Group, banks and the major life and health insurers, right through to construction companies, small businesses and not-for-profits. I can confidently say that every Australian industry is being knocked about.

But if we take a step back and look at all of the events over the last two years, no sector has had more challenges and uncertainty than the financial planning sector. As so many people have acknowledged, it has been something of a ‘perfect storm’.

For the last couple of years, I have been speaking about my belief that financial planners need to understand and step into their identity as ‘leaders’. Planners play such an important role as leaders for their clients, employees, community, and for their own families and the people they love and care about.

To deal with a crisis like COVID-19, on top of all of the other crises and uncertainty of the past two years, what is required over the next 12 months are two things:

1. Self-leadership
2. Stress-resilient leadership – strong, positive leaders at all levels of our businesses

Self-Leadership

Self-Leadership includes key traits such as: stress-resilience, authenticity, vulnerability, empathy, self-discipline and psychological flexibility. It is self-leadership, and introducing a culture of self-leadership into your organisation, that provides us all with the self-awareness and skills to meet the unprecedented challenges – and opportunities – of a new, post-COVID-19 world.

Self-leadership provides tools for you to deal with uncertainty, anxiety and constant change, to bring you success, mental fitness and wellbeing.

There are four stages of COVID-19 that I speak to organisations about:

Stage 1: Initial shock & denial – including feelings of stress, disbelief, anxiety and for some even panic!  My mother-in-law still has the 32-pack of toilet paper rolls in the cupboard to prove it…

Stage 2: Riding the wave – this is where we struggle with uncertainty and anxiety while we try and “flatten the curve”, and the daily and weekly changes to social isolation and travel guidelines.  The challenge is that no-one is sure how long this stage will last.

Stage 3: Recovery – yes, this stage will come! Importantly, we all need to remind ourselves of this.  We also need to make sure we are all focused on recovery so we can be ready to inspire, re-energise and re-unite our teams as we emerge on the other side.

Stage 4: New world of wellbeing – this is where we get to choose the things we “want to keep” from the crisis and integrate them into our post-COVID lives (e.g. more work-life balance; using technology to connect us; more flexibility in remote work-from-home guidelines)

Right now, we are all busy in ‘step 2: riding the wave’ and some of us are having more success dealing with the stress and uncertainty than others. So how do we all keep ourselves, and our teams, focused on the coming ‘recovery’, while there is so much that is outside of our control?

The perils of brainchatter

The very first step in developing ‘self-leadership’ is understanding that while our human brains are a part of the solution, they are also a major part of the problem.

Every human being on the planet – regardless of age, ethnicity, their level of success or failure – shares one common attribute. Our brains are constantly telling us stories, chattering away to us all day, every day. We all have constant ‘brainchatter’. The problem is, our brains don’t always tell us positive stories.  They often tell us negative stories.  Particularly during times of crisis.

For those of us in the financial planning industry, the stories our brains tell us might include questions like:

How long is this pandemic going to last? 

Will there be a second wave? 

What is the effect going to be on the economy?

How badly will businesses and individuals be affected financially?

What is the huge downturn in business going to mean for my organisation?

What if I lose my job?

Could I even retrain and find a different job in this environment?

How would I pay the mortgage/rent?

What about the kids’ school fees?

How would I make ends meet?

This constant negative brain chatter can lead to us feeling stressed, anxious, or always focusing on the worst case scenario. So what can you do about it? The first thing to do is to become aware of the unique story your brain tells you. Is it the “I’m not good enough” story.  Or the “I’m going to fail” story?” Or is it the “I need to worry about the future” story? What is it that you find yourself catastrophising about? Write it down. Because once you identify the story that your brain is telling you, then you can be aware that this is simply your brain telling you a story. It’s fake news!

We all have worries and concerns about how this pandemic is going to affect our life and work into the future. However, catastrophic thinking regarding future events – that may never actually happen – does not help.  Instead, we can try and focus on what we can control, and what we can do today and tomorrow and the next day.  And especially what we should be most grateful for, right now. Things like the people we love, the beautiful country we live in, and the bright future that we all share.

We all need to learn to ‘train our brain’. Because the good news is that just like you can train your heart and lungs and muscles to improve your physical health, you can also train your brain to improve your wellbeing and mental fitness. And the benefit of brain training is additional levels of resilience, which allows you to quickly bounce back from adversity.

Stress-Resilient Leadership

In times of stress, change and crisis strong, positive leadership is required, with a consistent message and philosophy across all levels of our business. However, we need to upskill our people. Often, we do not provide sufficient training for managers to manage themselves. Self-leadership and internal self-management are the source of both professional effectiveness and professional failure.

These key traits of contemporary leadership include:

• Stress-resilience
• Authenticity
• Vulnerability
• Empathy

Strong leaders at all levels of the business are critical for sustaining positivity, trust and wellbeing.  When our leaders display positive behaviours, we know that the wellbeing and productivity of the entire organisation increases.

My favourite definition of a leader is: if your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.

In the midst of change and crisis, there is tremendous benefit in focusing on concepts such as self-leadership and stress-resilient leadership. When your people – or your business – experience the inevitable little dips on the rollercoaster, as individuals and as a team, these leadership characteristics can keep you from spiralling further downwards. Instead, you simply continue onwards and upwards, to the other side.