Crisis Management for Busy Leaders in Fintech — Part 1

A NodeWomen post by Emma Channing, Melanie Girton, Aya Kantorovich and Shari Noonan

Introduction

Ironically enough we found ourselves with a “crisis”; we had a single day to prepare for a panel at the HPC + AI Wall Street Women in FinServ virtual conference on “Crisis Management for Busy Leaders in Fintech”. Luckily for us we had a superpower — we are all active members of a networking group for women in Fintech, digital assets and blockchain called NodeWomen, which Emma founded a couple of years ago. Originally NodeWomen’s purpose was predominantly to organize regular dinners and events associated with the larger conferences which were part and parcel of our industry, along with a monthly Zoom call. Then 2020 happened and it became clear that we wouldn’t be going to conferences, but we did need to step up the Zoom calls to a more regular schedule. The confidential notes emailed to the group that followed these calls also grew, became more complex than personal updates, dived into the challenges that we faced and the discussions we had around those. We wrote guides for ourselves and shared strategies. The group began to talk one on one more and more, and those conversations were woven into the email notes as well. So did we have anything to say about “Crisis Management for Busy Leaders in Fintech”? Well yes, we had quite a lot to say because we had been living it, talking and writing about it, and refining our views and pivoting that strategy, all year. So we rapidly threw about 5 pages of notes together and we barely covered half the content in the hour we had for our panel. Looking at this content that was going to go to waste, we thought we could polish it up and make it our first Medium post as NodeWomen. Our “polishing” however, produced 8 pages; so we are going to divide the content into two parts, publishing Part 1 this week and Part 2 next week.

Before we dive into the material, it is worth flagging an overall theme, today’s realities have certainly changed what it means for busy leaders to manage a crisis (or many). But in the world of Fintech, where we all reside, the complexity of the business often increases the difficulty and duration of crisis. To date, Fintech is challenging, rapidly changing, but rewarding; Fintech in 2020, moreover, is undoubtedly tough. As new challenges arise, we must know not only how to handle the typical business-related crisis with a beginning, middle and end, but approach a new measure of continuing adversity of the social, political, environmental and public health order. As these metastasize over months, possibly years into a “new normal,” new profound opportunities will arise for Fintech, but getting there is going to involve more than short-term crisis management.

Our Advice Slam:

We pulled together a storehouse of thoughts and resources that we turn to during the hardest times, including over the course of this year.

1. Self-Management: The best crisis manager is good at self-management.

• One of Melanie’s favorite meditation coaches, Sam Harris, talks about the fact that part of the human condition is to continually work through problems over the course of a day, and understanding that is a key to a state of equanimity.
• It’s helpful to ask yourself: Were you really expecting to have no more problems at some point in your life and wake up with nothing on your to-do list? Do you actually want nothing on your to-do list? Life is an unending series of complications, so it doesn’t make any sense to be surprised by the arrival of the next one.

2. Cortisol is not your friend:

We check in with ourselves in the flush of a crisis. Fight or Flight is hardwired and primal and can be serially triggered during periods of crisis. Address this first so you can make good decisions.

3. 24/7/365 of the Year 2020:

Most of us are working from home, consistently tackling the dilemma of delineating boundaries in 2020. Whether in Aya’s realm of cryptocurrency, or Melanie’s view of overarching pervasive crises, the power of disconnecting is undeniably one of the most important. Stress builds, and the stress of one day leads into the stress of the next, which succumbs to a giant snowball effect billowing into a massive crater and . . . you get the point.

4. Internal and external recovery periods:

Emma references this piece from HBR in 2016 to help to develop recovery periods — internal to the day recovery strategies to getting through your days and external recovery periods over weekends (who is taking a holiday at any point in the near future?).

• “The key to resilience is trying really hard, then stopping, recovering, and then trying again.”
• As discussed in the piece, this is a good time to remember the axiom of being in a marathon, not a sprint. An analogy is to the software-style development sprint with some recovery time in between. Don’t expect to be able to muscle your way through this on all nighters; you have to maintain the pace you’re working at and juggling your life with next week, next month, next year.
• See Part 2 next week for how our “Phones Down Friday” works to ensure the team gets as good a break over the weekend as possible.

5. Reinforce good intentions:

Your health, both mental and physical, directly impact your ability to manage crises in the best possible manner.

• Emma finds the Oura ring wearable very helpful, even if it nags. At least you know it’s good data that’s nagging you, and you can see what works and what doesn’t, and it’s great for identifying and getting you out of unhealthy ruts.
• Aya uses a Garmin watch to track her stress levels throughout the day. Finding moments during the day to slow your breath, your heart rate, turn off the Telegram notifications, clear your mind, and disconnect has been something that Aya recently had the opportunity to do and allowed her to clear her mind without the constant need to consume news, work, media, and consistent distractions. It’s a daily dose of medication.

6. Good recovery strategies should ideally incorporate outdoor exercise:

Emma’s walk goes around the back yard or up the nearby mountain. As remote working becomes a more entrenched thing, thinking hard about where is best for you to live should be high up the list. Of course it is an enormous hassle to move, and involves many considerations, but ultimately it can get done and the short term inconvenience is probably going to be worth the long term gain.

7. Addressing Grief:

In this piece from HBR in March of this year, Emma references that an impactful piece of crisis management is recognizing that in the year 2020, that sabbatical, that trip, that party, that meetup with an old friend or family — or professionally, that launch, that round, that exit — is probably not going to happen. Everything you planned for yourself is torched, or at best, if it does happen it won’t be in the way that you hoped or envisioned and — and that’s particularly tough if you’re like me and these bright spots are what you bribed yourself with to get through the heavy lifts.

• What you’re feeling is grief, and it’s important to name it and process it, and understand we’re in for the long haul with this situation. Think deeply and reframe those hopes, wants and needs, and continue to find meaning.
• We have all spent time in bargaining mode before getting to acceptance — but taking time to reframe those wants and needs is really valuable as it gives you a clear new path forward, rooted in the present not the past.

8. “Stock up on compassion”:

We think that it’s more important than ever to be the person who speaks calmly and with empathy each time.

• That starts with giving time to people to talk about how they are — and doing whatever you can to help, whether it’s listen, or help research or just be clear that all options are open right now. Leading well right now involves doing your best by any requests for working adjustment of any form.
• Melanie’s team has a stand up meeting every morning with a low agenda that allows for work updates, but also, conversations about when the first video phone appeared in popular entertainment (definitely The Jetsons, not Back to the Future 2) and why Michael Jackson bothered to have a fake marriage. Emma’s team does something similar, but Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

We’ve gathered our wide-ranging conversation about our experiences, resources and thinking into these two pieces and we hope you find it useful. The upshot of all of this is to find what works for you, and not to stop trying new strategies to increase your self-awareness and connection to your team. Leaders are forged during the most difficult of times, which means that there is enormous opportunity right now for personal growth. We’re facing this shared challenge daily. In the spirit of the NodeWomen group-sourcing strategy, we’d love to hear what works for you in the comments.