Tracey Diamond, Emily Schifter, and Jennifer Dubrow Weiss explore how leaders can navigate competing pressures, foster collaboration, and inspire their teams.
In the final episode of the three-part Hiring to Firing pre-election series, hosts Tracey Diamond and Emily Schifter continue to explore the various facets of leadership with Jennifer Dubrow Weiss, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey. Drawing parallels with the iconic TV show The West Wing, the episode explores how leaders can navigate competing pressures, foster collaboration, and inspire their teams. Tune in for an engaging conversation that blends real-world leadership challenges with timeless lessons from President Bartlett and his team.
Troutman Pepper's Labor + Employment Practice Group provides comprehensive thought leadership through various channels. We regularly issue advisories that offer timely insights into the evolving employment law landscape, and maintain the HiringToFiring.Law Blog, a resource spotlighting best practices for employers. Our Hiring to Firing Podcast, hosted by Tracey Diamond and new co-host Emily Schifter, delves into pressing labor and employment law topics, drawing unique parallels from pop culture, hit shows, and movies.
Hiring to Firing Podcast — Leadership Lessons From The West Wing
Hosts: Tracey Diamond and Emily Schifter
Guest: Jennifer Dubrow Weiss
Recorded: 10/08/24
Aired: 10/29/24
Emily Schifter:
Well, I know election season is coming up. In light of that, lots of questions from employers about all the different things that this may bring up in the workplace. Tracey, I'm curious. Do you have any stories or memories about a way you might have voted in an election or issues that might have come up that come to mind for you this time of year?
Tracey Diamond:
I actually do, and it involves my daughter, Chloe. I don't know if you're listening to this, Chloe, or not. But Chloe was about five years old. Her and one of her brothers, I took them both to the voting booth with me, so I could show them what it was like and how do you go about voting. Chloe was an adorable little girl, all curls, big green eyes. She's skipping along, and we go into the voting booth. They take turns opening and closing the curtains. Then I show them what buttons to press. I read off the names and who to vote for. They're arguing over who gets to hit the next button kind of thing.
Then as we were leaving, she's again skipping along next to me. Then she stopped short, and she looked up at me all innocent and said, “Mommy, how come there aren't any girls to vote for?” She was right. This was around 2008, and there was not one woman on the ballot that year. I have to say I was embarrassed because I hadn’t noticed, and my five-year-old daughter did. It was sad for me to think at the time that she was seeing at five years old that there were maybe some doors at the top that were closed off to her because we've been telling her all along, “You can do whatever you want to do, Chloe. The sky is the limit.”
Now, fast forward to this election, I'm not saying who Chloe's going to vote for. Her vote is her personal decision and her choice. But this is her very first presidential election that she's voting in, and she does have a girl on the ballot as a choice. That's a beautiful thing.
Emily Schifter:
Wow. Speaking of presidential elections, we will be speaking about President Bartlettt from West Wing today, so stay tuned for our episode coming up next.
[INTRO]
Tracey Diamond:
Welcome to Hiring to Firing, the podcast. I'm Tracey Diamond, and I’m here with my partner, Emily Schifter. Together, we tackle all employment issues from hiring to firing. Today, I'm extra special thrilled to welcome my longtime friend, Jennifer Dubrow Weiss, CEO of Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey.
Those of us who live in the South Jersey area, which is right outside Philadelphia, are well aware of Federation and the incredible support it provides to the community. Along with its family of agencies, Federation provides programs and services for older adults, special needs individuals through global connections in community engagement and with family and youth. Disclaimer, I actually work there for a period of time in my career as their HR director.
Welcome, Jen. I’m very excited to have you here.
Jennifer Weiss:
I'm so excited to be here. Thank you, Tracey. Thank you, Emily.
Emily Schifter:
It's so great to meet you, Jennifer. I'm so excited you're here, too. Why don't you tell us a little bit more about Federation and your role in particular as CEO?
Jennifer Weiss:
Sure. I am the very proud CEO of the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey. We offer every program and service you can think of that strengthens community, so from Jewish family and children's service where there's counseling and case management and lots of support for everything people could be going through emotionally to our Katz JCC, which is our social-recreational arm and wellness, to Jewish Community Relations Council, which does a lot of advocacy and fights anti-Semitism.
We have a day school called Kellman Brown Academy. We have our own security business. We have our own property business. We're a lot of different things to provide the nurturing, the support, and everything you could need at basketball teams for a community. I have been in this role for 11 years. Prior to this, I grew up in the system. I started here as a student going for my masters in social work at Jewish Family and Children's Service at Temple University. From being a student, I became a social worker, and then I eventually ran one of our agencies, Jewish Family and Children’s Service. Then 11 years ago, became the CEO of the entire system.
Tracey Diamond:
I can't believe it's been 11 years already. Although, honestly, 11 years feels kind of short when I think about all the things you've done to expand the reach of the Federation in the community in that time, I mean, really, literally buildings have been built in that time for housing of special needs adults and seniors. It’s really quite remarkable, Jen, and attribute to your leadership. Leadership is exactly what we're going here to talk about today.
In anticipation of the upcoming election, we have been highlighting different iconic TV characters who best embody the spirit and essence of good leadership. Today, we have chosen the best of the best, President Bartlett from the critically acclaimed drama, West Wing.
Emily Schifter:
This is perfect timing because West Wing just celebrated its 25th anniversary which is pretty hard to believe as well. The show premiered near the end of Bill Clinton's presidency, for those who aren't familiar, and provided a look behind the scenes at a fictional White House with President Bartlett played by Martin Sheen at the helm. While President Bartlett was not perfect, he was a great example of selfless leadership, putting the mission and betterment of the country before all. We thought he'd be a good example for us as we talk about leadership today.
[BEGIN CLIP]
President Bartlett:
The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels tonight. They’re our students and our teachers and our parents and our friends. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels. But every time we think we've measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we're reminded that that capacity may well be limitless. This is a time for American heroes. We will do what is hard. We will achieve what is great. This is a time for American heroes, and we reach for the stars. God bless their memory, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. Thank you.
[END CLIP]
Tracey Diamond:
Jen, I know from my time when I was HR director that at various times of the year, Federation had as many – more than a thousand employees. As leader of that large of a community, what do you consider to be the components of effective leadership?
Jennifer Weiss:
It's a great question. I think being a leader in today's world means honoring the people who came before us, right? Standing on the shoulders of the people who came before us. It is the fine art of believing in people, and finding something in everyone you can respect, and finding something in everyone that they can build upon and strengthen for themselves and move forward. Look, we all have strengths. We all have weaknesses. Focusing on those strengths, and catering to those strengths, and building on those skill sets, people can fly and bloom. I believe in that and the actual belief of believing in humans and other people and clipping their wings and letting them fly and letting them know they're supported. Whether they sink or swim, we're going to support you.
In the summertime, we have upwards of 1,600 employees. I believe each and every one of our employees is an opportunity for our future. Believing in people, investing in people, showing people there is a trajectory that they can continue their skill set and to hone those skills and have the opportunity to live and learn and practice each and every day is something I really believe in.
Tracey Diamond:
You're in an interesting role in that you are a leader of a whole community, and then you're also a leader of 1,600 employees at various times of the year. Do you view leadership differently when you're wearing your community hat versus when you're wearing your employer hat?
Jennifer Weiss:
That's a great question, too, because truth be told, I am more comfortable as a leader with our employees and more probably natural when I'm in front of the community. I think the skill set is the same, but the comfort level is different, right? I feel the pressure and the weight of an entire community. I feel the pressure and the weight of 1,600 employees who want to learn, want to do better, want to be rewarded, want to know what their future looks like, right?
I think the things that are so important is letting people fail forward, letting people learn. Whether it's something we're doing and deciding to do in the community, yes, we have some great wins over the past 11 years. But there's been some fails, too, and those fails we take just as much time to breathe into, to learn from, to figure out how we would do it differently next time, right? I feel blessed that we have created a culture and an environment here that people can be safe to do that.
Emily Schifter:
Yes. I love to talk more about culture. I mean, certainly in your role, you've got to motivate and focus all of your 1,600 employees no matter where they are in the organization or if they're there for the summer or if they're there year round. How do you really set that tone at the top and keep everybody focused on moving forward?
Jennifer Weiss:
I'm so excited, and I want this to truly be part of my legacy one day because in the past year and a half, we implemented something called the fundamentals. There are 30 rules that we live by here. Every single staff person had to be trained in a three-hour training on these fundamentals, which a team of employees picked and chose what those fundamentals are. They're things like practice blameless problem-solving, right? Love that one, right? Let's not blame, let's figure out what the problem is, and let's solve it. Things like remember to have fun, things like walk in somebody else's shoes.
We carry these little cards around in our pockets, and we resolve conflict. We start meetings with the fundamentals. Every week for 30 weeks, I personally would put out an email to all staff on the fundamental of the week and what it meant to me personally and professionally. Then we've rotated that since its inception to every level of management doing it and line workers doing it. We all own those fundamentals and use them each and every day. It has taken all the toxicity. Any toxicity that was here it has removed. I am so proud of our staff and how they use this each and every day.
Emily Schifter:
What a powerful way.
Tracey Diamond:
How did you get them to go from sort of talking the talk? Some of those blameless problem-solving sounds great, but it's general, right? How do you get them to put it in practice?
Jennifer Weiss:
They're reminded. Every meeting starts with the fundamental of the week. Whether it's a staff meeting, a meeting with volunteer leadership, a board meeting that we're always talking the fundamental of the week. We remind people about them. We remind them ways in which to use those fundamentals, and they're constantly being there's an app for it. There's lots of different ways in which we're trying to communicate day in and day out this is what's important to the culture here at the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey. This is how we're going to conduct our business.
Emily Schifter:
I love that you sought input it sounds like from employees at all levels in putting together these fundamentals. I'm curious. Are there other examples of things that you do or best practices for creating an environment where employees who maybe aren't a manager or aren't in a leadership role can still learn to be a leader or try to practice those skills for their next role, kind of the failing up concept maybe that you talked about a few minutes ago?
Jennifer Weiss:
Failing forward to us is incredibly important. I want everyone to fail forward. I want everyone to feel safe that they can make a mistake, learn from it, and move forward, right? That's life, right? That's day in and day out for all of us, right? If you are going to be true and authentic and transparent and create, build on relationships, you've got to be able to fail forward. I know that you're going to be okay.
The idea that everything's perfect all the time is not authentic, right? We know that, right? We teach our children that there is no perfect. There is no normal or typical. Every day you have good, you have bad, and you've got to learn to cope with what life throws at you. From an employee standpoint, everyone's dealing with something that I may or may not know about. I see their work, right? They're responsible for their work. If you can get somebody to own their work, they're going to flourish.
When people don't own their work and it's just a job, nine-to-five, and there's no passion in them for that work, that concerns me, right? That concerns me. I think it says so much about us as human beings when you have passion and compassion. I see people helping each other problem-solve, whether it's personal or professional. To me, that's team building. Building that threshold where people know that they're part of something bigger than themselves creates a culture that people want to be a part of.
Tracey Diamond:
This brings us to our next clip, and what you just said is perfect for that. In this clip, President Bartlett's giving his assistant a gift. Let's take a listen.
[BEGIN CLIP]
President Bartlett:
Charlie, my father gave this to me, and his father gave it to him, and now I'm giving it to you. Take a look. The fully tapered bolster allows for sharpening the entire edge of the blade.
Charlie:
It says PR. I thought I knew them all, but I don't recognize the manufacturer.
President Bartlett:
Yes. These were made for my family by a Boston silversmith named Paul Revere.
Female speaker:
Mr. President.
President Bartlett:
I'm proud of you, Charlie.
Charlie:
Thank you, Sir.
[END CLIP]
Tracey Diamond:
It goes right to what you were just saying, Jen, about people feeling like they want to be part of something that's bigger than themselves. Of course, we don't all have Paul Revere doohickey sitting around that we can hand off to our employees. But I do think that you particularly at Federation are in a position. You have a legacy. It's an organization that's been around for a long time, so you do have the ability to get your employees to buy into the mission. Do you have any tips, though, on how to get employee buy-in?
Jennifer Weiss:
First of all, I find being completely transparent with the employees, telling them, “This is the problem. Now, I need your help to be solution-oriented,” is something. I also think doing for your employees is so important, right? We're a nonprofit. We're not in the business necessarily of bonuses and big raises here. However, I know time is so important to people.
We were open the Friday after Thanksgiving for many years, and I know that's one of my favorite days of the whole year, right? Your kids are home. Your family's doing things, right? You have people in from out of town and that to be a family day. We said, “Okay, we're closing the Friday after Thanksgiving. That's it. Be with your family.” It was unexpected, right?
While it doesn't mean every single staff person – we have staff people who are direct service professionals, home health aides. We have people who work in our gym. While not everyone may get that day off, they'll get another day. It’s the idea of showing gratitude, and it's the idea of showing not just that you believe in somebody but that you're grateful. What good is the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey if I don't have happy staff whose lives are being cared for so that they can perform their positions in a way that we need them to work up here and perform?
Tracey Diamond:
Yes. When I was an HR, that used to come up a lot with inclement weather, too. The snow would be falling, and people would have to – of course, there are the essential personnel that you need to have at the building. But then there would be the office workers that would be sitting there not working, staring out the window, wondering how they were going to get home, and miserable but we will give them that day.
Jennifer Weiss:
Right, right. To me, make your own decision. Be where you need to be, right? COVID changed bad weather stuff for us because now everyone can work from home, right?
Tracey Diamond:
That's true. Yes.
Jennifer Weiss:
I never want people to worry about driving on ice for their job. Your life is more important and your safety than your job. We have that perspective and that ability to step back and say, “Oh, that's more important. You're more important.”
Tracey Diamond:
Right. I want to switch topics a little bit and talk a little bit about something you brought up earlier, Jen, which is the idea of pressure. You said before you have the community on your shoulders, and you have the 1,600-employee workforce on your shoulders. In the show, bringing it back to West Wing again, President Bartlett makes many important decisions under, obviously, the tremendous pressure that a US President would have.
A good example is when he had to decide whether to run for a second term after his MS, his multiple sclerosis condition is disclosed. If I remember correctly, it was maybe something he had been keeping under wraps, and it got out. But now, there was a lot of backlash from that, and he had to make a decision whether to run again. Obviously, that's not the same facts as what you go through in terms of pressure, Jen. But the concept of making decisions under pressure is a good one. Is there a time when you felt that pressure, and how do you manage it?
Jennifer Weiss:
That's so funny. Is there a time I don't feel that pressure is more like it. Part of that is what I do to myself, right? It's not necessarily always external, but some of it is what I do to me, right? I feel that I am somebody who likes to build consensus. I am somebody who wants to be a relationship builder. Yes, there are many times where I think we're headed is somebody comes from leftfield and is like, “No, you're not going to go there, and you're not going to do that.”
That takes a lot out of a leader, right? I don't think people – and it's lonely, guys. There are so many moments in a day that it's lonely that I can't really share what I'm thinking with the staff. I want them to be upbeat and moving forward at all times. You keep those uglies and that pressure to yourself, and it's very difficult. I definitely feel those pressures. Sometimes, when other people make mistakes, I'm going to own it because they're part of us, right? When you own that, there's a lot of fallout from things at times that are completely, and I know, out of my control. All of that being said, I am who I am, and I feel it regardless and want it to be right.
Emily Schifter:
Yes. I think the discussion of pressure and how it can be lonely at the top leads perfectly into our next clip. President Bartlett had to make decisions that involved ethical dilemmas or maybe were unpopular or difficult. In this next clip, we'll listen to his Chief of Staff, Leo McGarry, speaking on behalf of the president, talking about a new strategy of the presidents with senior staff.
[BEGIN CLIP]
Leo McGarry:
Listen up. Our ground game isn't working. We're going to put the ball in the air. If we're going to walk into walls, I want us running into them full speed.
Josh:
What are you saying?
Leo McGarry:
Well, you can start by telling the Hill the President's named his nominees to the FEC. We're going to lose some of these battles, and we might even lose the White House. But we're not going to be threatened by issues. We're going to put them front and center. We're going to raise the level of public debate in this country and let that be our legacy. That sound all right to you, Josh?
Josh:
I serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States.
Leo McGarry:
Yes?
CJ:
I serve at the pleasure of the President.
Sam:
I serve at the pleasure of President Bartlett.
Leo McGarry:
Toby?
Toby:
I serve at the pleasure of the President.
Leo McGarry:
Good. Let's get in the game.
[END CLIP]
Emily Schifter:
How do you navigate a community with diverse opinions? For example, with limited funding, you've got to make decisions about how money is going to be spent or what you're going to prioritize. How do you manage that with employees or community members who might have different views, and you're the one at the top who has to make that decision?
Jennifer Weiss:
Yes. It's a good time. When it comes to community programs and services, for the most part our community speaks for itself and says, “We need help with this. Can you start a new program?” That manifests itself by suddenly there was an opioid crisis that took nine children from this community, nine young people from this community. It happened over time, but we realized we need some addiction programs for parents whose children may have a problem. We needed support groups for parents who lost a child.
When it comes from an organic need within our community, we’re able to fund it and find ways to always come through financially for that. When October 7th happened in Israel a year ago, we knew that our community needed help in fighting anti-Semitism on college campuses. We knew our community needed some counseling because they had post-traumatic stress disorder or were depressed and sad and anxious. We knew we needed to put more money into mental health programs.
The ability to know your community and to have that open relationship with your community and to let those voices in is so important. We're constantly trying to find ways to do focus group conversation type engagement with our community. As a result, we pretty much have our finger on the pulse in numerous ways to figure out how to set those priorities each and every year because we do set different priorities each and every year.
Even when you do that, well, it’s the saying, man plans, God laughs, right? We had a whole year plans last year, and our fiscal year is on October 1st fiscal year. You can imagine everything had to change as of October 7th and our priorities and where we shifted. Education and advocacy and fundraising, too, looked very different than what we thought it was going to be on October 1st.
Emily Schifter:
I love the idea of letting the real world still have a voice in where you're going, keeping the mission of the organization always the guidepost.
Tracey Diamond:
And being flexible enough and nimble enough to be able to pig it in the light of current events that happened quickly is remarkable. Particularly as the organization gets bigger and bigger, it's harder to be nimble like that.
Jennifer Weiss:
Yes. Sometimes, it's like turning a cruise ship around in a bathtub, right? We find a way. We find a way.
Emily Schifter:
You mentioned earlier, Jen, about making mistakes. Certainly, as a leader, it sounds like you’re very great at taking accountability for your team, even if it wasn't necessarily your mistake. But what about when a leader makes a mistake or feels like they made a mistake? Do you have any advice on how to recover and learn from it in that situation?
Jennifer Weiss:
Oh, yes. I make mistakes every single day of my life, right? I will be also the first to say, “Oh, I'm sorry.” I own that mistake, right? I shouldn't have. I misunderstood. Whatever it is I need to do to own the mistake on my own, I do it. I feel this is such an important life lesson to own our mistakes. I believe you have to own it, you have to apologize for it, and you have to move forward.
If you get stuck, and of course there are moments where I am so stuck in the mistake I just made, and no one's going to be harder on me than I'm going to be on myself, right? I get in my own head over and over and over again, beating myself up. But at some point, I have to flip that switch and say, “Okay. Now, it's time to move forward and keep going.”
Tracey Diamond:
Yes. It's interesting because I wonder if the male leaders versus female leaders, are male leaders as apt to own up to their mistakes, admit to making a mistake versus female leaders, which probably take on everybody's mistakes as their own.
Emily Schifter:
It's a whole another podcast.
Tracey Diamond:
Right.
Jennifer Weiss:
That's a great podcast, and I actually will sit in my office behind closed doors with somebody who's made a mistake and say, “I want to sit here with you until you're ready to own this mistake,” right? It’s definitely an interesting gender approach because there is a significant difference, in my opinion.
Tracey Diamond:
More than anything, The West Wing is a prime example of the power of collaboration. Collaboration is super important in a not-for-profit like Federation. How do you foster collaborative environment, and how are your employees to express their ideas freely and take ownership of their roles and responsibilities? Something we've talked about a little bit earlier on but how do you get there?
Jennifer Weiss:
This is both bottom-up and top-down, in my opinion. I think you have to continuously set the expectations and role model for the entire staff because it's myself with all the directors of all of our agencies having lunch together once a week. We have lunch together once a week. We can't all make it every time, but it's so important and became part of the culture. The whole – do I think the entire staff knows we do that? Probably not but I do know that hundreds of staff know we have lunch together once a week.
From the bottom up, we create opportunities holiday parties. When you build on things you have in common with others, this is also life lesson. When you build on those commonalities and not the differences, sometimes the differences become the blessing, like the silver lining. When people start working together on something that's bringing them together, a holiday party or a blood drive or some kind of something for the community, they rise above their specific silo, and that's the key, right? You got to get people out of their silos.
Once they're out of those silos, they flourish because they see there's a world something bigger other than what they're doing and their piece of it. This is how it affects Susie and Susie affects John who affects Rhoda who affects Stephanie who affects Sarah. They see that their piece is something bigger than what they thought they were doing day in and day out. That builds collaboration.
Having experience after experience in that realm allows people to say, “Oh. If I'm a personal trainer in the gym and I'm working with somebody who looks like nourishment and food may be a problem, did you know we have a food pantry down the hall in this part of the building? Did we have a therapist you can talk to?” It’s that cross-training and giving the personal trainers a tour of a food pantry so that they can help build those collaborations. The key to independence for everyone is knowing your resources. If the staff know those resources, they can help be ambassadors for something bigger.
Tracey Diamond:
Yes. I would also add because I don't think you would say this, Jen, because you're too modest, but it's authenticity, too, being an authentic leader. You are one of the most authentic leaders I know and kind of giving of yourself to the position and to your staff so that they see you not just as CEO, top leader person, but an actual person with opinions and happiness and emotions; happiness, sadness, and your own investment in the mission and the people. I think that that's very catchy.
Jennifer Weiss:
Well, thank you. If I can't be authentic, it's not going to work for me, right? It has to feel authentic, whether I'm asking for a donation, whether asking somebody to do something. If it doesn't feel good to me or doesn't feel right by me, it's not going to work.
Emily Schifter:
I love the setting the tone at the top. That really, really does mesh in well with President Barlet and our West Wing focus. He’s a great example of that. I know we talked a little bit before about adapting to changing circumstances. We've got one more clip where that's exactly something that President Bartlett had to do. He just won in our next clip the Illinois primary. But instead of going to his victory celebration, he ended up following Josh Lyman to the airport where Lyman was waiting for a flight to New York after learning that his father died. Let's take a listen.
[BEGIN CLIP]
Josh Lyman:
Sir, not that I don't appreciate your having come down here, but there's a ballroom full of people waiting for a victory speech.
President Bartlett:
They’ll wait.
Josh Lyman:
Yes, they will. But the people watching television won't.
President Bartlett:
I've been a real jackass to you, Josh.
Josh:
Well.
President Bartlett:
To everybody. Toby Ziegler, CJ Cregg, Sam Seaborn.
Josh Lyman:
Yes.
President Bartlett:
Don't think I don't know what you gave up to work for this campaign, and don't think I don't know your value. And I'll never make you think I don’t again. You got to be a little impressed I got those names right just now.
Flight Attendant:
Delta Airlines flight 175 to Kennedy International now boarding in gate six.
Josh Lyman:
They’re calling my flight.
President Bartlett:
You want me to go with you?
Josh Lyman:
Go with me?
President Bartlett:
Maybe you want some company on the plane. I could get a ticket and go with you.
Josh Lyman:
Governor, California. You have to go to the ballroom and give a victory speech in primetime and go to California.
President Bartlett:
I guess you're right.
Josh Lyman:
You guess I'm right? Listen to me, Governor. If you don't lose this election, it isn't going to be because you didn't try hard enough. But it was nice of you to ask. Thank you. I appreciate it.
Flight Attendant:
This is final boarding for Delta Airlines flight 175 to Kennedy International now boarding in gate 56.
President Bartlett:
They’re calling your flight.
Leo:
Is he going to be all right?
President Bartlett:
He is going to be fine.
Leo:
Good.
President Bartlett:
Leo?
Leo:
Yes?
President Bartlett:
I’m ready.
Tonight, what began at the commons in Concord, Massachusetts as an alliance of farmers and workers, of cobblers and tinsmiths, of statesmen and students, of mothers and wives, of men and boys; lives two centuries later as America. My name is Josiah Bartlett, and I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.
[END CLIP]
Emily Schifter:
We talked about sometimes when you've had to pivot, and it sounds like one of the biggest ways you've kept your workforce pointed in the right direction was reminding them to focus on the mission. But what other tips do you have for situations where you're having to change course rapidly, and how do you as the leader keep everybody motivated?
Jennifer Weiss:
Every day there's a pivot, right? Every day and every plan, there's always something that requires tweaking or some type of a smaller pivot, right?
Emily Schifter:
Right.
Jennifer Weiss:
COVID was a huge pivot, and COVID was a huge pivot financially. In terms of our programs and services, in terms of how people were going to work and where they were going to work from, that was huge. I think the thing from a leadership standpoint that's so important is to let everyone know you don't have it all figured out. You don't have the crystal ball in front of you. But what you are going to do is support them and to allow them to feel this is coming your way. It may be today. It may be tomorrow. It may be next week. But we're going to figure it out together. Nobody is alone in having to figure it out for themselves.
I think pivoting, it's a great exercise, right? It's not great to have COVID, right? That’s a lot, right? But to learn how to cope with change is so important and to give people permission to it's okay to be afraid. I might be a little afraid, too, but we're going to take this risk together. I'm going to hold your hand, or I'm going to push you up that hill, or I'm going to cheer you on as you go, whatever that individual needs. From that belief in them, they're going to pass that on to somebody else in a different department. I believe in you. I want what's best for you. This is how you need to approach this problem.
Tracey Diamond:
It all trickles down from the top. Yes.
Emily Schifter:
Yes. Back to that authenticity.
Jennifer Weiss:
That's really what I want for everybody.
Tracey Diamond:
Well, listen, Jen. It's been a pleasure to have you on our show today. We really want to thank you for taking the time to sit down with us, and we wish Federation all the best as it continues to grow and does amazing things for the community.
Thank you to all of our listeners for listening in today to our special episode on leadership. Please don't forget to check out our blog, hiringtofiring.law, and shoot us an email. Give us some ideas for your favorite TV show and human resources topic you want to hear about. Thanks for listening.
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