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Dr. Josh Lange: How Global Business Leaders Are Adapting to the Current Crisis (Ep. #18)

The BetterManager Team
Building Better Managers Podcast Episode 18 - Dr. Josh Lange

Building Better Managers Podcast Episode #18: How Global Business Leaders Are Adapting to the Current Crisis

How are global business leaders coping with the current challenges? The successful ones are embracing communication, listening, choosing the right leadership style for the situation, as well as doing everything they can to support these traits in their leaders and managers: grit, empathy, and getting to your roots.

In this episode:

Meet Dr. Josh Lange

  • Bio & Background

The Importance of Communication, Language & Empathy

  • The importance of communication and language.
  • It's important at the management and executive levels knowing how to communicate with employees. Effective communication is crucial dealing with contracts, provisions, employment provisions in contracts.
  • Dealing with managers, CEOs, law firm partners, high level people, it is inspiring to see how they now their humanity has come out during this crisis. Normally these may no be the types of people you think are empathetic and caring, they have to be strong and objective, so it has been a pleasant surprise.
  • A large bank in Japan, coming directly from the CEO, decided to give their employees the time at home and flexible hours, so that they could spend the time with their children and their families.
  • Banks obviously deal with markets and market openings, market closings, so time is very important to them. So opening the flexible schedule shows the understanding of the family life, and the fact that the kids are staying home and that the parents need to take care of the kids, shows a lot of leadership. Especially that Affiliative style of leadership that requires that real empathy and understanding for people and situations that you might not have yourself.

The Power of Listening and Face-to-Face vs Remote Issues

  • Well, about half of my time is dealing with people situations, and you lose a lot of time, but it's so important to keep people motivated and encouraged now. Especially by listening - listening to what's going on with them. A good manager never expects for the focus to be on themselves.
  • Transitioning to doing business online, even when your company does a lot of online learning.
  • When you think about employee training, this is exactly the time where people need those type of skills. This is exactly the time where people need to think about the 360 degree reflection. This is exactly the time when people need to upskill and not be afraid.
  • But you have to have the experts there to coach them along and say, "Do not be afraid. But let's look at how to brainstorm for solutions to go into the future."

Different Leadership Styles

  • The Democratic leadership style of, "Hey, what's your opinion and what's your opinion, let's get everybody's opinion and go to a council, and go to another council before we make any decisions."
  • The Affiliative style, which is more feelings-based.
  • The Autocratic style, where the leader dictates you do.
  • Then there's the Authoritative leader, the Steve Jobs type, where they say, "I see a way forward. I'm going to explain to you what that way forward is. And let's go, you want to go? Come with me." This is the type of leadership we need right now.

The 4 Personality Types Dealing with an Unexpected Challenge

  • If there's a big rock in the road, it's how you respond to that big rock:
  • You could sit there and be melancholic and say, "Oh, there's a rock on the road."
  • You could see the rock and say, "There's no way around the rock I'm going to turn around."
  • You could try and push the rock out of the way.
  • The 4th type is the one who goes above or around the rock!

3 Takeaways for Breakthrough Results

  1. Everyday resilience and grit.
  2. The importance of genuine empathy.
  3. Getting back to your roots of who you and your team is, and what your values are.

Downloads & Resources

Follow Dr. Lange's on LinkedIn here.

Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast platform!

Check out our blog articles on Leadership here.

Dr. Josh Lange

Dr. Josh Lange is a serial entrepreneur from Miami, Florida.  In a former life he was a assistant professor at one of England’s top universities, and before that a Fortune 500 manager in the US by the age of 21. His current company, Advanced Language Institute, is a world-leading specialist language training services company that he has expanded to eight different countries in two years. When he is not raising his daughter as a single dad in Vienna, Austria, you might find him flying around the world learning about different cultures by doing business with them.

Episode Transcript
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