The Leading in a Crisis Podcast
Interviews, stories and lessons learned from experienced crisis leaders. Email the show at Tom@leadinginacrisis.com.
Being an effective leader in a corporate or public crisis situation requires knowledge, tenacity, and influencing skills. Unfortunately, most of us don't get much training or real experience dealing with crisis situations. On this podcast, we will talk with people who have lived through major crisis events and we will tap their experience and stories from the front lines of crisis management.
Your host, Tom Mueller, is a veteran crisis manager and trainer with more than 30 years in the corporate communications and crisis fields. Tom currently works as an executive coach and crisis trainer with WPNT Communications, and as a contract public information officer and trainer through his personal company, Tom Mueller Communications LLC.
Your co-host, Marc Mullen, has over 20 years of experience as a communication strategist. He provides subject matter expertise in a number of communication specializations, including crisis communication plan development, response and recovery communications, emergency notifications and communications, organizational reviews, and after-action reports. He blogs at Blog | Marc Mullen
Our goal is to help you grow your knowledge and awareness so you can be better prepared to lead should a major crisis threaten your organization.
Music credit: Special thanks to Nick Longoria from Austin, Texas for creating the theme music for the podcast.
The Leading in a Crisis Podcast
EP 62 Puzzle Solvers Wanted: How Crisis Management Becomes a Superpower
What does it take to lead through chaos? Tracy Nolan knows firsthand. This remarkable Fortune 100 executive has repeatedly stepped into roles most would consider overwhelming - from transforming struggling retail operations to merging telecom giants during a global pandemic. She also likes to solve puzzles.
Tracy's journey from retail buyer to telecom executive to healthcare leader reveals a unique talent: she thrives in crisis. "Give me a job that needs transformation," she explains, likening crisis management to solving a complex puzzle. Her approach centers on genuine human connection - creating space for people to be heard when uncertainty reigns.
When tasked with merging Sprint and T-Mobile while simultaneously navigating COVID restrictions, Tracy faced an unprecedented challenge. With 14,000 employees looking to her for direction, she implemented creative solutions like shift-based staffing and drive-through wireless services. Throughout the process, she maintained open communication channels, hosting weekly calls where she simply listened to employee concerns. "During crisis times, I slow down and take time to listen," she reveals, countering the common executive instinct to act quickly without gathering input.
Tracy also shares profound insights about leadership sustainability. She acknowledges the importance of scheduled downtime and maintaining boundaries, noting how her team appreciates when she's not sending weekend emails. Her philosophy on team development stems from a powerful personal experience when a boss believed in her more than she believed in herself - a gift she now pays forward by creating growth opportunities for her team members.
For executives facing seemingly insurmountable challenges, Tracy offers wisdom earned through decades of crisis navigation: "Realize that nothing is done in a day. Take a deep breath, figure out what's the most critical item you need to address today." This incremental approach, combined with honest communication and self-compassion, creates a sustainable path through even the most turbulent circumstances.
Find our more about Tracy on LinkedIn or at tracynolan.com.
Email the podcast via tom@leadinginacrisis.com
We'd love to hear from you. Email the show at Tom@leadinginacrisis.com.
Hi everyone and welcome back to the Leading in a Crisis podcast. We're happy to have you with us again today. On this podcast we talk all things crisis management and we talk to people who have been on the front lines of crisis management to share their stories and real-life experiences. I'm Tom Mueller. With me today is special guest Tracy Nolan. Tracy is a highly experienced Fortune 100 executive who's worked her way through a number of major corporations, helping those corporations build business and develop leaders. Tracy, welcome to the podcast.
Tracy Nolan:Tom, thank you for having me here today. I'm excited to spend a little time talking about crisis management with you.
Tom Mueller:Well, you've had a very interesting career run so far. Give us just a quick thumbnail of the highlights from your career and what's gotten you to this point.
Tracy Nolan:Tom, the real funny thing is I never thought I'd be doing what I'm doing today, but I absolutely love it. You know, out of college I started retailing and I did everything from run retail stores to design stores and actually even, you know, be a clothing buyer in New York and gifts and things like that. And then I got a call one day to go work in telecom and it was at a time when, you probably remember, cell phones were a lot larger than they are today. You didn't have the coverage. You did, and you know we still, everybody still had landline phones, but they needed someone who knew retail, who could come in and make it consumer friendly. And so my, my role was to how do you bring consumer experience and set up stores and do all that into wireless? That kind of catapulted my next years in telecommunications and going through a lot of transition and change from Frontier Cellular to Bell Lab Mobile to Verizon, and I did some startups, turnarounds.
Tracy Nolan:I got into the buyback trading phone business and I think you might remember the days when you used to get a cell phone and go to get a new one and you'd stick the old one in a drawer. Well, there was a time when we didn't trade in our phones and I actually started up the trade in business for Verizon and ran that for a while and then got an opportunity to go transform Sprint. It was at a time when, you know, they were in some trouble and it was either turn it around or it could go bankrupt. And so I worked for Sprint. We turned it around, sold it to T-Mobile and that was and took that through transition and change during COVID.
Tracy Nolan:And then I ended up getting a call by a headhunter one day and that headhunter said hey, there's this thing in in healthcare called Humana. Will you come work at Humana and do run all of sales? And I was like I don't think at this point that I want to do that. They called me again about three months later and said, hey, we really want you.
Tracy Nolan:And I said, okay, well, I really want to talk to the hiring manager and if we can make that work and I don't have to go through all the steps you normally do to make a job change and do all that, and actually fell in love with the idea of getting back to something that really is very meaningful for me but allows me to use my expertise of what I you know my professional career is getting back and helping people who you know find the right health care needs and the right right company to go with to be able to, you know, have better health outcomes. So love what I'm doing, love the fact that I can hopefully make a difference in the way people shop for their health care insurance, and that's kind of where I've been. Again, I never thought I'd be doing what I'm doing today, but I just absolutely love it.
Tom Mueller:You know it's one of the core tenets of being good at crisis management is you've got to be calm under pressure and you have to be willing to work in a semi-chaotic environment. Right, and so it sounds like just with the jobs you've taken, the challenges you've taken on, you're not somebody who shies away from new and different environments and challenges.
Tracy Nolan:I always say it gives me a job that is like a role that is going well and doesn't need a transformation. Now it couldn't be going really well, but I really thrive in environments where there is significant amount of change or crisis management. Or it's just something within me that I love to help people through a difficult period of time and come out stronger on the other end.
Tom Mueller:Well, as I said, that's a sort of a unique managerial talent there, or at least the people who are good at that, you know, rise to the top here and are able to lead organizations effectively. But not all of us are cut out to do that. And in your leadership role, you know, I'm curious. You know, when you've been working through some of the organizational changes that you've had, you've had younger executives working for you who maybe weren't as comfortable in those types of environments and maybe struggle with that. What's your advice for people who may struggle in a time of crisis like that to be able to be effective, as you are in your career?
Tracy Nolan:I think, tom, how I got super comfortable was in a crisis situation. I was fairly young, I was working in retail and, as I call it, the big bad may company came in and bought out a local you know retailer and I was the you know, the last standing operator. I would say you know of this, of all of the stores, and this was, you know, a company who had been in existence for over 50 years. Family owned company, 27 stores in upstate New York. People's grandparents had worked at the store. I mean, this was an icon. And when May came in, they didn't just, you know, take over the stores and buy them out, they actually wanted to shut them all down and we had to let all the employees go and my job at that time I think I was maybe 28.
Tracy Nolan:My job was to crisis manage through that process of, you know, letting people go but also closing down the store. So I still needed them to work and we still needed to get through this. And you know I my advice is exactly what I learned real quickly was I was so task oriented that I was about you know what hours are we keeping open? How are we scheduling? You know what are we? You know how much inventory do we have left to sell through? And all that.
Tracy Nolan:And I realized quickly that I couldn't get through it without the people and without real communication and slowing down during a crisis to take time to listen to people, especially when you're a type A like I am, and one that also people may not. Say, tom that I'm normally calm I don't think calm is usually a word they use to describe me but during crisis times I slow down and I take time to listen. Another example I use is we were going through time to listen, you know. Another example I use is we were going through you know, a another buyout when, when Bellinic Mobile bought Frontier Cellular and you know we were going through name changes and department changes and everything. And I just decided one day like, hey, we're going to go through this and we're going to go through it together and hopefully a lot of us will stay together, but some of us may not want to make it through the change and all that.
Tracy Nolan:But I set up just a bridge once a week where I got on and instead of being the voice that was talking to everybody, I said I'll give you 10 minutes or 15 minutes of update. Then I'm just leaving the bridge open for the next 45 minutes just to listen, and I want you to ask me anything. There's nothing off the table, even if it comes down to hey, are you going to do? You know, if there's other layoffs, I will tell you everything I humanly possibly can, unless legal has told me I can't or I'm under some sort of something. I can't and I've got to tell you.
Tracy Nolan:The first time I did it, we stood there and my direct team was with me and they're like Tracy, nobody's asking questions. And I said that's fine, we'll just sit here. And by the third or fourth week I was getting all sorts of questions right and people started getting more comfortable. So as you go through crisis, one of the biggest pieces people miss is it really is about the people, and you're not going to get any work done, you're not going to be able to manage through it, if people don't feel like they're being heard and that you're not providing them as much feedback and time. And as leaders, we get super busy and it's really hard to always say you need to give time, but it's one of the most important lessons I've learned in crisis management.
Tom Mueller:Yeah, what a fantastic story and experience to share there. As you were telling that story, I was just thinking back to some of my longer wavelength crisis response situations where you know the leader who was managing this entire incident and just I don't know how they did it. They kept going every day, just quiet, plotting, consistent every day. But, as you've said, you know to be with people, to be present in the moment and to make each of them feel like they're important because, in reality, they are to your process, because in reality, they are to your process. So that's it's. It's a fascinating skill set. Not all of us have that, so kudos to you for taking that, leveraging that.
Tracy Nolan:It was.
Tracy Nolan:It was.
Tracy Nolan:I've had to learn it because I, you know also, I had at one point I thought I was a great listener, but I'm also a talker and what I realized was that really true communication is more listening and less talking.
Tracy Nolan:And it's so easy to get in the habit, if you're the leader, to do all the talking, and I literally have to schedule it even to this day, like to do listening sessions with you know roundtables of people, because a lot of times we also, as leaders, think we know everything, and I guarantee you we don't. The people who know everything are the ones that are actually working with the customers or you know, in that and even simple things. Like you know, I realized that all these people aren't going to have jobs, and this was before LinkedIn, when this, you know, we were, you know in other ways of recruiting. So I got creative and said let me go find you know another retailer who might need people and let's figure out how to get you know some people interviews and just by helping them with what's next. You know, just that little extra time that I took for that meant a lot to people and I have carried that with me throughout my career.
Tom Mueller:Well, I know you've worked. Clearly. You know the big merger type situations. Here In particular, I was reading about the merger between Sprint and T-Mobile and you were right in the middle of that and of course, that's another sort of longer wavelength business situation, but in very many ways, it's a crisis that has to be managed through, because you're trying to preserve the value of the business, you're trying to maintain your employees, you're trying to keep people motivated and yet move forward every day with this response that's happening. So talk us through a little bit about your role in managing that merger to be managed, you know, from if we look at it through the crisis lens of delivering every day and trying to get things better and bring this to a conclusion.
Tracy Nolan:Yeah, so this one was, it was. It was a long time coming. So I look at it not like on the day of merger, but I look at it from the day that there was an announcement that there might be a merger. Because as soon as you say the words merger, people are worried about their jobs, right, and your partners are worried whether they're going to be partner of this new new co in the long time and this it was a three year stint from the time that they announced that there would be a merger, with a 50-50, sometimes 70-40, sometimes 30-70 type of opportunity, whether it would even be approved to go through or not. So I look at kind of crisis management starting from that point. And then also people not knowing who was going to be chosen to be part of the go forward, the new co, and was it going to be? Was Tracy going to be part of it going forward, or is my leader not going to be there? And how do I do it?
Tracy Nolan:So I started with painting a vision of what the future could be and the reasons for the merger and, again, a lot of communication about you know, hey, it may be bumpy, we don't know where the plane's going to land, but I can tell you that you know, when you put the two assets together, it's going to be an incredible thing is going to be, you know, a company that has more spectrum than any other wireless carrier. There's so many, you know, possibilities. So it's kind of helping people know what the future is, or what the future could be, so that they can get super comfortable with where we are and where we're going. And I never once, you know, I didn't know exactly, but if I knew, if I knew that the ultimate goal was going to be something good, so it was really keeping that on the forefront, but also keeping people focused on what we were doing and what our responsibility was on a day-to-day basis to take care of our customers. And I will tell you that I had 14,000 people reporting to me at the time of this. And finally, in January of 2020, we get yes, this is going to happen and we're going to get this, you know merger through, super excited about it, but it would take, you know, another four or five months.
Tracy Nolan:And I'll never forget the call in February when I heard got a call about something called COVID and I was like COVID, what is this? And, if you remember, it started up in Seattle, which is the headquarters of where you know T-Mobile is, and we were supposed to go up on a trip and they said, no, no, no, there's some sort of disease or something up there, we can't go. And then we get told hey, we're all going to start to work from home. And now you're talking about, you know, I'm responsible for all the stores across the country and I'm trying to think of how do I keep people safe in working in shifts, because we were, you know, deemed, you know, a organization that needed to stay open because of, you know, wireless services being very important to everyone and keeping our employees safe. And then trying to do this during COVID and on April 1, we get the announcement of a merger.
Tracy Nolan:So now I'm merging people, two companies, in the middle of a pandemic, when we're trying to manage how to take care of our customers and our employees and having to get highly creative.
Tracy Nolan:And this is where, you know, processes have to be thrown out and you have to be comfortable as a leader to say, okay, if it's 70% baked, it's not 100% that it's going to work, perfect, but it's better to do that than to do the way that we've always done it, because if you don't do it and like, just an example was like we decided to work people in shifts, so I would have, you know, five to eight employees who were, you know, shift one, and they would work in the store for three days in a row and then I deep clean the store the night while they left, and I mean really deep clean it, industrial strength, deep clean it, and then a next group would come in and then that group would, you know, quarantine, because if anybody got it, then that one group went down and not you know a mixture of people.
Tracy Nolan:You had to be kind of creative on how you had to reinvent you know different ways. We also did things we didn't have. We didn't have a system that was like a drive up, you know, talk to someone on the phone while they're in their car and then go out and deliver, like we were. We were literally like you know, kind of doing a drive through wireless kind of scenario, so so you know, customers didn't have to come into their store. Like you had to recreate every sort of way.
Tom Mueller:Oh really. Oh yeah, I was going to say that's a face-to-face kind of business, right, that retail interface, so you were able to work it out there where people could just sort of drive up and pick up a phone, basically.
Tracy Nolan:Either that or we would say, hey, stay in your car, we'll call you when there's no one else in, or we can have, you know, nine feet in between. Right, and so it had. But all that had to be done super fast and with 14000 people. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, now we're merging together, so now signs are changing on buildings and the way policies are, and we're doing it all virtually. So again, through that, through crisis management, it's to your point, you said being, you know, calm. It's really. The other part is, is I like puzzles and I think of a crisis is almost a puzzle and I have to take it out from being personal, kind of putting it on the table. What's the problem on the table? I kind of putting it on the table, what's the problem on the table? I kind of treat it as a puzzle and then I try to figure out, like, how best to do it and asking people and communicating again all along with it.
Tom Mueller:Yeah, that's a fascinating example and there's so many places to go with that. But you know, oftentimes I'm going to throw the lawyer angle in at you for just a second right, because you know we work closely with the legal teams in most instances in our businesses, but particularly in crisis, because we don't want to make things worse by doing or saying something that you know that further harms the company. So I'm curious did you have to navigate any of those kind of you know landmines as you were developing this strategy? You know the sort of 70% solution. Was everybody on board with you or did you really have to arm wrestle people to get there?
Tracy Nolan:Well, I think there's like my, my, have two. I have a left and right arm, one's usually HR and the other one's legal Right. But I need them to be business focused and I need them to spell out what the risk profile is of whatever decisions we're making, not not really tell me yes or no unless it's something absolutely like I'm really going to do something that's going to be highly disruptive to the organization long term. But we didn't really know what the legal ramifications were going to be on a lot of the decisions that we had to make. But I needed a great business partner who could help me figure out, like, okay, is it? You know in that 70-30, what is my risk profile? So I always kind of go on a risk profile, look of, how much risk am I willing to take.
Tracy Nolan:And we as a leadership team had made the determination that like, hey, we're going to have to take some risk here, probably a heavier dose of risk than we normally do, but ultimately if it's in the best interest of the customer.
Tracy Nolan:And you know this is a sad COVID was super sad, and for many reasons, to me because we had people in hospitals who couldn't even go visit their spouses and it weighed heavy on me that some of the only communication that they could have is they couldn't even call, you know, the nurse's desk to get information because the nurses were so busy they didn't have time like they were, hospitals were overrun. The only communication some people had with spouses who were very, very sick, and some that didn't make it was via, you know, wireless connection. You know internet wireless connection. So you know there was more risk taken in those situations. But yes, you have to look at the risk. But I think in a crisis situation you take on a little more risk if it's in the betterment for people think about leadership, particularly incidents like this, where you're dealing with COVID and or any merger type situation.
Tom Mueller:Now your challenge is to maintain your edge for months and months, and months at a time and to keep your people motivated throughout that. And I know you've talked about listening here a little bit as a way to help people stay engaged. But you know, I'm curious kind of what's your secret sauce for keeping yourself engaged, motivated, when you know you're going to be slogging through this for six months or eight months or whatever it is, and keeping your team going as well? How do you see that challenge?
Tracy Nolan:It's, this whole capacity and ability is something that makes me smile, because I have worked for bosses who I've said, oh my gosh, I don't even know how they do it or how they keep up. And it wasn't until probably two years ago I actually had some person who works for me say to me Trace, I need a break, like I have got to go to walk around, I don't know how you're keeping going on this topic, and it's like I can't. I can't, like I can't. And it did make me laugh because I thought, oh my gosh, I now know what that felt like years ago when I had a boss who I just didn't know how they kept going.
Tracy Nolan:First of all, I do think there is, as you know, getting highly. Getting comfortable in those uncomfort zones, as I call them, is something that you do build up resilience and ability to do it the more that you've endured it, um. But I also think that my passion for um helping others. You know, I had somebody once say to me hey, trace, like you know, you probably shouldn't be in in, you know business, you're probably should be. You know, a nurse, a doctor. Or you know, uh, you know business, you're probably should be, you know, a nurse, a doctor, you know you know work in some other business because you care too much for people.
Tracy Nolan:But I honestly think that's kind of a superpower for me, because when crisis hits, it's usually how do I help people out, and that that that energizes me and I'm willing to go a long time without it. But I will tell you that I need my downtime and I do need like and when I'm talking downtime, tom, I'm like no TV, like husband, stop talking to me, I just need my space and I may be doing, I may be just playing a computer game, I may be doing some craft or playing with my dog, but like, just I need, I need to like. I do know when I need to recharge and I make sure that I do that.
Tom Mueller:Yeah, does that for you personally? Is that something that every day you take that time? Or it's just you know, after a prolonged period of high energy exertion you're like, okay, I'm hitting the wall, it's time to step away.
Tracy Nolan:I would say Saturday morning, saturday. I try to get one day on the weekend where I really step away and I've also learned that you know the days of feeling like you have to be on 24 by seven to be an effective leader is really not great. I and I have been one that has been known to work, work, work. But I find that if I can take time away and it's interesting getting into working for Humana, I remember, like people not always like because we're a healthcare company it's a little different. We all work super hard but people do, you know, they do respect downtime and vacation and doing it. So I take two weeks, definitely at least a week at a time off twice a year because that helps me. And then I definitely take, you know, longer weekends because I just need that time. It's super important for your mental health and your physical health, but it's.
Tracy Nolan:I have to plan For me, I have to plan it, and I usually plan Saturday mornings to do something. It may not be anything, but it's something for me, like it may be just downtime and that's great.
Tom Mueller:Do you think your team appreciates when you go away for a week or two as well, so they get a break?
Tracy Nolan:encourage my team to take what I call we don't do fake time off, which is a word that people have used for a long time fake time off that I do encourage them to take time off and I get for them. And then when I go away, I've gotten a lot better at not checking in and allowing them to run, because I think it's important. If you're checking in all the time then I question you have the right people right and you need to give people their space so that they can step up and do it and develop. I mean, that's what it's all about. So I, if you look at it as a great time for others to be developed and take the time.
Tracy Nolan:I think my team has gotten me to also not do emails as much on the weekends, like I know that bothers them, so I've learned not to do it. Okay, I also have learned how in Outlook I can put it so nothing gets delivered till 8am on Monday morning. But I do think when I heard Kate's man, they're like this girl's, a little bit of a nut. She does a lot of emails on the weekends, so I've had to adapt.
Tom Mueller:And kudos to you for recognizing that and doing that. I think that's your type A challenge, right? It's because you're always on. There's always things going on in your brain, you're firing on. There's always things going on in your brain, you're firing out emails. But if you want your team to be able to stand down, then you have to give them some space to do that as well.
Tracy Nolan:And that's important as a good leader, to allow your team to have that.
Tom Mueller:Yeah, how do you get comfortable with you know stepping away? How do you get comfortable with you know stepping away and you know how do you know when you've got team members who are ready to lead, or do you just have to sort of take a chance on that a little bit? I I that that feels weird saying that but you got to give people the opportunity to step up and lead right.
Tracy Nolan:You do and you know. I go back to Ron Boylett, who was one of my, the leader who actually got me into wireless, and I'll remember. The story I love to tell about him is he I had just gotten promoted to director of all of sales and literally 10 days later he wanted me to present to the CEO my strategic plan. And I was like I knew I had run three of the sales channels but I hadn't run all of them and this was a step up for me. So I was a bit uncomfortable and I wanted to put together my. You know, I put together a presentation of a high level strategy only 10 days in and I said, hey, ron, let's go review it. And he's like I'm not reviewing anything that you're saying. I go, well, let me tell you at least the outline, and he's like, nope, I'm not going to do anything. Wow, he trusted me to walk into this new CEO and do this presentation. He, you know of everything that I was going to do and I presentation he, you know everything that I was going to do. And I, to this day, have learned from Ron that he believed in me more than I believed in myself and he was willing to give me a shot. And I remember what I literally finished my presentation and answered all these questions and CEO was like two hours late, so we were just sitting waiting, which made it even worse, and I remember leaving because he had he was staying on to do other meetings and walking away and going.
Tracy Nolan:I think I did okay, I don't know, but like I was, you know, kind of self-doubting, going through the whole thing and like two hours later he's like you nailed it and I thought you know what.
Tracy Nolan:Thank you, ron, for trusting in me more than I trust in myself. So my philosophy is is that a one presentation, like he knew that if, even if I bombed it, I would have another chance, but like he was willing to give me that space and not feel like he had to control it. And so I try to give my team and a lot of times I put people in front of you know to handle a meeting or in situations that they don't even know if they can do. But I have enough faith and willingness to do it and I think again it's another piece of why I've been successful is because it's not about me, it's about my team and giving them the opportunity and to shine and I, you know if I can, if somebody else can say Tracy Nolan the way I say about Ron Boylett, that would be. That would be like I've achieved. What my goals here on life are about is really helping others achieve goals and greater good than what they thought they could do.
Tom Mueller:Well, it's such a boost for you know, for up and coming executives, to have that kind of vote of confidence in you. I mean, I think back to you know, something that I've experienced, actually, and seen in others, is that impersonator, complex, right when you feel like man, I'm in over my head here. I'm not sure I can do this and you don't really know until you step in, step up and do it, but it really requires somebody to support you and help you through that. Have you seen that in you know some of your people.
Tracy Nolan:I personally had it numerous times when I got. I remember when, you know, verizon said hey, you're going to go run one of the largest markets. I was from upstate New York. Hey, you're going to go run Chicago, you know, and it was a market that had had two region presidents in the last two years. And then they said, hey, you're up, you're going, and here I am, from upstate New York, going to a big city and running this market. I remember getting out of the plane going, oh my gosh, like this is what I'm.
Tracy Nolan:You know, I have over a billion dollar P&L that I'm responsible for and I've had it myself, right and it's. It can be debilitating and really make you not perform well, but I have had to get comfortable and this is what I tell everybody is like you don't need to know everything. You know, like that's why you know, I always look to hire really great people around me that know more than I do, which a lot of leaders don't want to do because they're worried they're going to be outshined. But a great leader surrounds themselves with really strong people who know something that you can teach them and they can teach you. And until you get comfortable with that, you're going to have that imposter syndrome right with that. You're going to have that imposter syndrome right.
Tracy Nolan:And then realizing that every day I just I used to also because of the type type A and just wanting to be perfect all the time, I've had to realize like, stop grading myself on every little thing that I do, because that is very unhealthy, and as long as I do my best today and then try harder tomorrow, like that is it, it's okay. If I got on a call and I didn't have the perfect answers, or I even missed a call by accident because I was running over and something like just give yourself a little grace. Like we're all human right and someone entrusted you enough to have that seat at the table or have that job. Like that should be a boost, enough confidence for you to be able to do what you need to do.
Tom Mueller:Yeah, if only, if only. But yeah, that imposter thing feels it's something I think so many of us feel at different times in our careers and our lives. So thanks for sharing your perspective on that and for taking time to chat with us today. What's your final sort of advice to executives who find themselves in that situation where you know there's a very steep mountain ahead, lots of chaos, rules. How do you get through that successfully?
Tracy Nolan:Realize that nothing is done in a day, and you know. Take a deep breath, figure out what's the most critical item that you need to address today. Breath, figure out what's the most critical item that you need to address today. Don't think about like fixing it all or making all that change happen immediately. As long as you're moving forward, that's all. That is a great step in the right direction. And don't be afraid. Like so many people, don't want to have to give bad news or have that. Just be honest and talk to the team as if you would want to be talked to, and you can accomplish a lot and probably more than you even think you can do if you just take that deep breath and realize that it can't be all done today. Just focus on the most important.
Tom Mueller:Tracy Nolan, thanks so much for joining us today.
Tracy Nolan:Thank you, Tom.
Tom Mueller:And that's going to do it for this episode of the Leading in a Crisis podcast. Thank you again for being with us today. Hey, if you want to email the show, you can reach out to me at tom at leadinginacrisiscom, and we'll see you again soon on another episode. Take care.
