Leading through COVID-19: Results from the FMG Leading C-Suite Survey
Methodology
BACKGROUND
As the COVID-19 virus began to take hold in the U.S., and with states implementing “Shelter in Place” orders, businesses had to adapt their operations, planning, and workforce to the changing conditions. Clients of FMG Leading frequently asked how other businesses were impacted and how others were responding to the health and economic crises.
DATA COLLECTION
FMG Leading designed and administered an online survey to get a better understanding about the ways in which businesses were impacted by the crisis and how they were responding to the crisis. The “Leading Through COVID” survey was sent to FMG Leading C-suite contacts. To be eligible for inclusion, participant’s titles or roles contained “Chief Officer”. The survey was sent on May 20th and a reminder was sent on May 27th. The survey was closed on June 1st.
SAMPLE
27 organizations participated in the survey. More than half of the respondents were in the CEO role. Other roles include: Chief Operating Officers, Chief Financial Officers, and Chief Medical Officers Because of FMG Leading’s depth of clientele in the healthcare industry, 63% of the responding organizations came from healthcare.
Survey Results
Finding 1: The outlook on recovery remains split
THE DATA
Overall, leaders are still defining and adapting to their new normal; half are optimistic, half are pessimistic about their organization’s economic recovery. 70% of organizations are in the process of “establishing a new normal”; 15% are just “getting oriented”, while the remaining 15% are “fully adapted.” Approximately half the respondents (48%) are somewhat or very optimistic. Among the optimistic respondents, 15% are very optimistic. Two-thirds of all organizations that participated in the survey have completed a re-forecast exercise.
IMPLICATIONS
Leader quality is a key conundrum:
49% of respondents are pessimistic, suggesting there’s an opportunity to further help leaders clarify and act on recovery opportunities (near and mid-term) they may not be taking advantage of.
Improving on this while there is a degree of market forgiveness with customers will be critical.
Those who identify the right decisions and take action on the things they can impact today will likely emerge stronger, with tighter customer relationships that provide more opportunity for faster recovery and revenue growth.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Build lean leadership muscle, starting with you…
Rapid self-assessments are crucial (how am I showing up against my decisions/actions v. intending to show up).
Identify key decisions, risks, opportunities against short-term time horizon (for yourself and your executive team).
Refresh leadership team operating models to drive clarity, focus, and accountability on priorities.
Finding 2: Growing Revenues is a top priority
THE DATA
Most leaders are focused on driving recovery by accelerating revenue growth, however, most don’t foresee major changes to their go-to-market strategies and product/service lines.
Revenue growth is the top priority for the majority of organizations (48%).
An overwhelming majority of organizations don’t foresee any lines, products, or functions ending (85%).
78% foresee expansion during this crisis. Telehealth is the primary area of expansion and focus.
IMPLICATIONS
Ensure growth aspirations match customer needs and new realities.
The need for a rapid strategy refresh is more important than ever. Key questions to explore include:
How have our markets and industry landscape shifted?
Are we focused on serving the right customers in the right way?
Do we have the capabilities to win with our customers going forward?
What if anything do we need to invest in now to help us win in the next quarter and/or half year?
RECOMMENDATIONS
Mitigate risk of strategic misalignment and potential missed market opportunities.
Most leaders are focused on driving organizational recovery through accelerated growth, however “refreshing our firm’s strategy” was the second lowest priority among leaders.
This presents a fundamental question, or worse, a dangerous assumption that customer behaviors will remain largely the same – which could be a vital mistake.
All strategies should begin and end with clarifying how your organization will meet and/or exceed customer needs in a differentiated and profitable way.
Staying the course and focusing on creating value with pre-COVID-19 strategies could unintentionally create customer churn or brand risk.
Finding 3: Right Leaders, Right Teams, Right Priorities
THE DATA
Leaders are reasonably confident they have the right teams in place; to a large degree most believe the current crisis has strengthened organization and leader purpose.
Most respondents (78%) have a somewhat greater sense of mission/purpose; only 8% have a lesser sense of purpose.
74% Of organizations are somewhat or very confident in their leadership team’s ability to successfully navigate the coming months.
IMPLICATIONS
Potential mission-market misalignment risk with your customers.
While most leaders have a stronger sense of organization and individual purpose, the question becomes, do your customers share the same perception?
Given the focus on revenue growth, with a low perceived need to adjust products or services, organizations will need to quickly revisit their go-to-market strategies to ensure they are still focused on meeting the right needs, at the right time, at the right place with their customers.
Customer buying behaviors and economic levels have shifted dramatically.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Ensure mission, vision, & values are aligned with market demands.
Take this opportunity to evolve your organization’s operating principles if necessary (how we talk, how we work, how we evaluate wins/loses).
Start with the customer in mind.
Quickly gather, incorporate, and act on internal feedback to realign organizational focus with customer realities.
Finding 4: Agility and flexibility will determine the pace of recovery.
THE DATA
Across the board, leaders strongly believe that now more than ever, there is a mission-critical need to improve their organization’s ability to execute rapid planning and delivery on recovery priorities. Capacities important to thrive include (in order of frequency):
Agility/Flexibility
Communication
Resource Management
Operational Readiness & Performance
Grit
Leadership
41% Of organizations feel comfortable making plans with a 4-week time horizon, and 30% with a 3-month horizon.
IMPLICATIONS
Balance the seeing and doing of leadership at a faster pace.
Agility and flexibility were already established as mission critical organizational / leader capabilities well before COVID-19. However, the consequences of not being able to anticipate and take action on future risks and opportunities has likely increased 5 to 10-fold. Leaders and teams throughout organizations will be required to translate smart decisions into focused action at a much faster pace… a pace that could either build new organizational muscle, or a pace that could accelerate leader/organizational burnout. Creating organizational disciplines around rapid team decision making and execution is, now more than ever, a mission critical leadership requirement.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Double down on team execution and rapid decision quality.
Quickly assess the decision making ability of critical teams.
Start with teams that have disproportionate impact on growth and recovery.
Form and deploy taskforces to intervene with high risk teams (slow decisions, burnout risk, high turnover).
If necessary, re-deploy top talent into at-risk teams to improve the quality of decision making and execution on key priorities.