How do you deal with bad news in your business? An employee misses a project deadline, a customer comes in screaming because your counter person sent them home with the wrong part. Twice.
What do you do? How do you receive that information and what is your response?
If your answer is to get angry, Jim Burns says that’s OK. It’s a natural emotional reaction. The problem comes when that anger fuels your response. Being angry about bad news is one thing; being angry while addressing said news is a different disaster entirely.
Last month I had the good fortune of attending VIPAR Heavy Duty’s Annual Business Conference in Orlando. As many of you know I go to my fair share of conferences so I get the chance to hear a lot of business management experts and motivational speakers. VIPAR had several of those speakers last month in the energetic Donald Cooper, the thoughtful Frank Morgan and movie Brad Pitt himself, Oakland Athletics’ executive Billy Beane.
But in addition to that great trio, the group also welcomed Burns, vice president and managing director at Grande Lakes Orlando, where the convention was being held. Burns is a longtime professional speaker in addition to his duties at the property, and thanks to his career in the hospitality industry, he’s uniquely qualified to speak on another vital aspect of leadership: resiliency.
Burns says you can read a lot of books and go to a lot of meetings to learn how to run a business, but when bad news falls in your lap, it’s how you react, not what you know, that has the largest impact on how that issue is resolved.
“Leadership is 20 percent the leadership role, and 80 percent is leadership presence,” he says.
