Jackson Hole Group Says These Six Steps Help Situational Leaders Handle Tough Problems

Businesses in nearly every industry are facing tough situations challenges they’ve never before encountered. In times like this, strong leadership is more important than ever. According to Jim Wiggett, founder and president of human capital management company Jackson Hole Group, businesses will need to develop and employ situational leaders for long-term success.

For example, at wireless carrier Sprint Nextel, the new President and CEO Dan Hesse is faced with a major challenge. Late last year, he stepped into the top leadership role of a company that is No. 3 in its industry. The No. 1 and 2 players have a lot of momentum and resources behind them. He’ll have to think and act quickly to get the kind of results he needs—and what the company’s board expects. Wiggett says Hesse might take a lesson from successful situational leaders who have come before him: You can’t do the same thing harder, faster and with more commitment, and then expect a different outcome. You have to change the rules and play a new game.

“He has to come up with something unique,” says Wiggett. “That’s why he’s in the company’s ads right now. The message is partly for the marketplace, but also for the employees. He wants them to know, ‘This is a new day and we’re going to play the game differently.’”

Situational leaders are critical in today’s business world where marketplace dynamics have accelerated from increased competition to the redefinition of distribution channels. When a key moment occurs in an organization or the marketplace, they take advantage of it by recalibrating or changing the paradigm to realize success. They:
• Are multi-dimensional
• Have a demonstrated ability to adapt
• Are inherent collaborators, focusing on “team” and empowering others to make the necessary adjustments
• Are active learners and excellent listeners
• Know how to convince without being abrupt
• Constantly evaluate and shift their business strategy

“In situations where something dramatic has happened, these are the people who are still standing,” says Wiggett. “They’ve figured out a way to play differently and successfully.”

Fortunately, for leaders today—and the organizations they work for—situational leadership can be learned. When Jackson Hole Group enters an organization to coach and advise its leadership team, it first focuses on case studies of other companies to establish a level of comfort. “It’s always a safe learning environment to brainstorm what’s going on with other businesses and what you would do,” says Wiggett. “There’s less risk and inherent emotion. Then, we bring it home to their business, so they can expand their thinking and look at more options. It’s not, how do we get there, but, where do we go from here? It’s about stepping up to create a new vision in response to the situation you are facing. Then, calibrating your key audiences to a new reality.”

For leaders faced with a significant business change, Wiggett suggests these six steps:
1) Step back with your leadership team and objectively analyze your business with a SWOT analysis
1)2) Invite new thinkers into the group to stimulate the discussion
1)3) Frame a new working model or offering
1)4) Create an implementation strategy identifying all impacted audiences, activities or organizational capabilities
1)5) Make necessary adjustments as you test it
1)6) Communicate, communicate, and communicate: Both your employees and external market need to understand the new vision and its implications with clarity, and be “called to action” as a result.

“Situational leadership is the response to an opportunity,” says Wiggett. “It allows you to reinvent your business—if you want to.”

About Jim Wiggett
Jim Wiggett knows about situational leadership. He himself has put it to work in executive roles for companies like Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), Sephora.com, and Charles Schwab before founding Jackson Hole Group in 2002. In fact, when he first came into Charles Schwab, to head up human resources, he looked at the demographics—a majority of the brokers in their mid-20s—and immediately shifted his communication strategy. The focus moved away from retirement plans to things that would attract and keep these brokers engaged. He communicated who the company was as an employer and its value system. This approach worked when the stock market crashed in 1989 and the company lost a tremendous amount of business overnight. While many of Charles Schwab’s competitors immediately began downsizing, Wiggett and his colleagues did the opposite. They reduced staff by just 5 percent and encouraged those who stayed to continue their education and get licensed in the company’s products and services. They also introduced voluntary cost-savings programs that encouraged employees to take vacations, and sabbaticals and even switch to a four-day workweek. As a result, the company reduced its operating expenses by $6 million in just nine months, and when the market turned around, it was positioned to capture more market share while its competitors scrambled to rehire brokers.
About Jackson Hole Group

Based in San Francisco, CA, Jackson Hole Group is a leader in human capital management. It coaches and advises these leadersexecutives to higher levels of performance through practice areas that include Executive Effectiveness, Organizational Transitions and Strategic HR Solutions—positioning them to solve their toughest people and organizational problems and achieve desired, sustainable business outcomes. Jackson Hole Group can be reached at (415) 546-2200 or online at www.jacksonholegroup.com.