New Podcast for CEOs and Leaders Today: Leading During the Coronavirus Crisis

Stephen Miles discuss the skills and actions required during this global shift

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Mar 27, 2020, 11:41 ET

NEW YORK, March 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- "The extraordinary challenges around the coronavirus pandemic are testing leaders as they've never been before," says Stephen Miles, CEO of The Miles Group/TMG in "Leading During the Coronavirus Crisis," a new C-Suite Intelligence podcast. "Many leaders aren't cut out to handle an event of this magnitude and complexity."

"The long bull market we've seen over the past decade has meant that a lot of executives haven't led through a real crisis before – they don't have those leadership skills, and if they do they are very rusty," says Miles. "Also, the best leaders during 'peacetime' or calm waters can sometimes be highly ineffective in 'wartime' or rough waters."

"A large subset of executives react poorly to a stress event and turn inward. They don't leverage their teams. They amplify the stress and set a tone at the top of Chicken Little – 'the sky is falling!' They focus on self-preservation and hoard information from staff."

The most effective leaders, Miles says, turn outward. "They leverage the teams and advice across the company so that they're using all available information to make decisions. They absorb stress and maintain calm, knowing that everyone is looking to them for direction."

Miles explains how the uniqueness of the pandemic creates unusual layers of complexity. "First, the global reach – the fact that this affects everybody, everywhere – is unprecedented. Also, we have the element of 'protecting our people.' Usually, we're just focusing on protecting the enterprise, but now we need to make sure that our employees are working in a safe environment and are being taken care of."

A third overlay is that leaders have to manage the severe business impact and the human element of all this while working from home. "Most people are moving their leadership of their companies from analog to now virtual as we all hunker down working from home. If you did not believe your business needed to be wired for digital before this will bring that reality home! The nature of work will change and there will be lasting effects of this crisis which will affect every company."

TMG's C-Suite Intelligence podcast series covers a range of leadership lessons from decades of working with high-performing CEOs. Other episodes in the series include:

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

For more information, please contact Davia Temin or Suzanne Oaks Brownstein of Temin and Company at 212.588.8788 or [email protected].

About the C-Suite Intelligence podcast
CEOs running the world's top companies don't start out that way – they pull ahead of their peers with behaviors and practices that make them the "best of the best." Stephen Miles and the team at TMG coach some of the world's most successful executives, helping them continuously up their game even as business conditions grow more complex every day. Through the C-Suite Intelligence podcast, learn the secrets of the highest performers, and use this intelligence to power your career.

About The Miles Group/TMG
TMG develops talent strategies for organizations, teams, and individuals – focusing on high-performance, world-class leadership. Through assessments and development, coaching, leadership transition planning, and organizational design, TMG helps clients cultivate exceptional talent from the C-suite to the next generation of leaders throughout the organization. Clients include many of the Fortune 100 as well as VC portfolio companies, firms in transition, and organizations around the globe and across industries. TMG has been featured in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes, Fortune, C-Suite, Entrepreneur, and Chief Executive. The firm is headquartered in New York City and operates globally. For more information, visit http://miles-group.com. Follow TMG on Twitter @TheMilesGroup and LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-miles-group.

SOURCE The Miles Group/TMG