Essential Employees: Leadership Stories from the Front Lines of COVID-19 (Part I)

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During the shelter-in-place happening in cities around the United States, we are asking our essential employees to bravely step up and serve to allow our communities to keep running.  Over the next few weeks, The Leadership Laboratory will be publishing

 stories of leadership from the front lines of COVID-19 to showcase the characteristics that keep these teams engaged, supported, and feeling safe.

This week, we’ll be focusing on leadership lessons from Jeremy Klaben, Founder & CEO of Brightwok Kitchen in Chicago.  Klaben’s foresight, optimism, and strong culture of trust have supported his team to effectively navigate the situation at hand.  Check out some of the key takeaways below:

Concept 1. Reframe Challenges as Opportunities:

While COVID-19 has presented challenges to Brightwok, Klaben and his leadership team have found opportunities for learning as well.  For the time being, Brightwok has moved to a skeleton crew, leveraging only the five full-time salaried employees at the leadership level to run all elements of day-to-day operations, from food prep and plating to customer interaction.

On an average day before COVID-19, this crew of five focused primarily on the big-picture strategy of the business to think of unique and cutting-edge solutions to make the restaurant even more efficient.  “Thinking big is important,” Klaben said, “and sometimes so is thinking smaller.”  For the next few weeks, these strategists are engaging in the critical first-hand experiences that will help them to rethink operations moving forward.  Reframing this as a research opportunity has provided the team with a totally new perspective.

Key Reflection: How does your team currently respond to challenges?  Tip: Check out the research on Positive Psychology to support successful reframing during sticky situations.

Concept 2. Build a Strong Culture EARLY:

Building a culture of trust and mutual respect has been an important tenant of Brightwok’s employee strategy.  At a time when the restaurant industry’s turnover / attrition rate is at an average of 74.9% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019), Brightwok has an incredibly high retention rate.  In fact, 80% of their team members have been with Brightwok for 1+ years.  Klaben and the leadership team have always placed special emphasis on building a strong and supportive culture.  Still, when the decision was made to furlough all hourly members of the team, the last reaction Klaben expected was gratitude.

After the news was officially disseminated, the leadership team called many of the employees directly to check in, and ensure they had seen the information provided on detailed unemployment application processes and additional financial resources available for the team.  “One employee texted me saying ‘I feel safe and good working here’,” Klaben said.  As a leader, maintaining a personal connection with employees resulted in a positive reaction, despite the circumstances.  “I was surprised by how many people said thank you.”

Key Reflection: What are you doing TODAY to support the culture of TOMORROW?  Tip: Strong cultures take time to build.  Think through the current state and future state of your team, and start to develop a step-by-step plan to achieve your ideal team culture.

Concept 3. Enhance Change Agility for Forward Progression:

Openness to change is a key success factor to working in most industries, and Brightwok is no different.  “In order to be sustainable, we’re shifting people’s schedules and hours practically every day,” Klaben said.  Even though the most recent changes were unpredictable, their current resilience is directly related to the change agility instilled early on.

Klaben and the leadership team had been forecasting potential changes to their business for several weeks before COVID-19.  Looking at other parts of the country gave the team some time to predict what might happen, and develop potential plans early.  For a team already designed to embrace change, having this foresight gave time to anticipate potential needs.  One of their first changes was to create Brightwok at Home Meal Kits.  “A new product is a pretty hands on process – kits have to be photographed, priced, and sold,” Klaben said.  The team’s readiness to act quickly resulted in a nice-to-have-someday idea becoming a reality in a matter of just a few days.

Key Reflection: How does your team currently react to change + transition?  Tip: Check out the research from William Bridges’ “Managing Transitions” to ensure a people-based transition management strategy.

Concept 4. Maintain a Culture of Giving

As teams and organizations are looking for ways to support those on the front-lines of COVID-19, Brightwok too wanted to do their part.  One of the first decisions they made was to offer free meals for hospital workers.  On the very first day, 100 individuals had taken advantage of coupons, and a few hundred in total to date.

“Having been in business for five years, we’ve been able to respond to needs pretty quickly, but we’re responding even faster now,” Klaben said.  To the Brightwok team, while they are on the front lines as essential employees themselves, maintaining that culture of giving to support those directly responding to Coronavirus is a move completely consistent with their values.

Key Reflection: How can you instill a culture of giving? Tip: Take advantage of excellent resources written by Adam Grant on the concept of giving vs. taking to design a giving-based team.