Leadership through Change and Adversity with Oscar Gregory

We were joined for another in our series of Leadership Talks by Oscar Gregory, to discuss 'Leadership  Through Change and Adversity'.

This is a topic that is of immediate concern to many of our emerging leaders, and Oscar was the obvious choice to grill on the subject. Oscar has a long and storied career in the Illawarra steel industry, which has seen its fair share of ups and downs over the last 40 years. He compared what we are going through we now, with the coronavirus crisis, to the recession in the 1980s, and the GFC of 2009, when he was an executive at Bluescope Steel.

Throughout our discussion with Oscar, for which LIP members we encouraged to prepare 'searching' questions, the themes that stood out were his humility and his respect for the people he managed. Memorably, he reminded us that in a crisis "There are no bad ideas" - that sometimes the most effective strategies can come from unexpected quarters and for this reason it is crucial that the whole workforce is engaged in finding solutions.  On a practical level Oscar gave us lots of great advice about cost saving, and smart reallocation of resources both human and material. But he acknowledges that it is your people that will get you through it - be transparent, be honest, be visible and nurture a culture of respect.

What were the critical items you had to made relatively quick decisions on? (Production rate, inventory, acceptable losses, etc.)?

• Stay safe – mental and physical safety are paramount
• Stay solvent – make sure there is enough cash on hand to get through this
• Unity – keep people informed and participating in the solutions and opportunities
• Accelerate your cost reduction projects – redundancy is not an option

What strategies did you use to maintain morale during this period?

• Keep a diary – for legal recourse post-crisis
• Keep calm, believe that you can get through this and communicate that to your people
• Demand their participation in solving the problem – diplomatically
   

What process did you use to determine how you would minimise losses during this period?

• No bad ideas – never scoff at cost saving ideas
• Stop all external activity
• Permanently shut down your worst performing sections
• Annual leave and long service leave are liabilities – avoid redundancies
   

What worked well and what didn’t work well?

• Cost saving
• Moving around 'idle' employees to replace contractors
• Cut overtime
• Stop annualised salaries

In hindsight what would you have done differently?

• People are always too late to act on what was, in hindsight, inevitable

How can leaders effectively engage their teams and staff in making difficult business decisions, and get their buy in to safely and effectively take action even when it may see them out of a job?

• Nurture a culture of engagement – ‘safety culture’
• Be visible and available to your teams
• People are smarter than we give them credit for – listen to everyone and be on a level – respect

What do you see as being a major change to business operations that is required (now or later) as a result of Covid, and do you have any tips for helping us lead our teams through instituting such a change?

• Be on a level with your employees – transparency, and ask for their engagement

Posted by Beth