Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and goal achieving.
Speaker 1: This is the seven minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul Fellovaledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to this seven minute leadership podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode four oh four, and let me ask you
Speaker 2: a quick question. What happens to your business, your team,
Speaker 2: or your day when the Internet goes out? What if
Speaker 2: the network is down? What if your dispatch software crashes
Speaker 2: or your payment system stops responding. What if your scheduling
Speaker 2: tools disappear or your cloud storage locks you out. Now
Speaker 2: here's the real question. Are you ready for your next
Speaker 2: tech failure? Technology runs everything today, from communication to payroll,
Speaker 2: from reporting to real time operations, but we're so used
Speaker 2: to it working that we forget one hard truth. Every
Speaker 2: system will eventually fail, maybe for ten minutes, maybe for
Speaker 2: ten hours, or maybe for ten days, but it will happen,
Speaker 2: and when it does, it won't be convenient. So this
Speaker 2: episode is not about doom and gloom. It's about leadership readiness.
Speaker 2: It's about having a plan before the blinking cursor disappears
Speaker 2: and panic sets in. So here are several leadership checkpoints
Speaker 2: to get your team ready for the next inevitable tech failure.
Speaker 2: Checkpoint number one, know what tech you depend on. This
Speaker 2: sounds obvious, but many leaders can't name the full list
Speaker 2: of platforms tools in digital systems, their operation depends on
Speaker 2: inventory your digital assets, what programs run your payroll, your customer,
Speaker 2: serve your files, your critical communication? Because if one system fails,
Speaker 2: what else is affected? You can't prepare for impact if
Speaker 2: you don't know what's vulnerable. Checkpoint number two. Identify your
Speaker 2: single points of failure. If your entire business grinds to
Speaker 2: a halt when one Wi Fi router goes down, that's
Speaker 2: a problem. If only one person knows how to restart
Speaker 2: the system after a crash, that's another problem. Single points
Speaker 2: of failure are where minor issues turn into full blown chaos.
Speaker 2: A great leader always has a plan B, and sometimes
Speaker 2: even a plan C. Checkpoint number three create a tech
Speaker 2: down game plan. Does your team know what to do
Speaker 2: when the screen goes dark? I'm not talking about just
Speaker 2: calling it. I'm talking about who communicates what to whom,
Speaker 2: what manual processes take over, what gets delayed in what
Speaker 2: becomes priority. This is your digital version of a fire drill.
Speaker 2: Everyone should know the steps before the emergency starts. Checkpoint
Speaker 2: number four. Train your people to think analog. It sounds
Speaker 2: weird to say that in twenty twenty five, but your
Speaker 2: team still needs to know how to operate without a
Speaker 2: screen in front of them. Can your receptionist take notes
Speaker 2: by hand if the scheduling software is down? Can a
Speaker 2: manager track time manually? If the punching system fails? Can
Speaker 2: dispatch shift to radios or phones if the CAD system crashes.
Speaker 2: The more your people know how to handle low tech workarounds,
Speaker 2: the more they'll stay calm and productive under pressure. And
Speaker 2: here's checkpoint five. Have backup channels for communication. If you
Speaker 2: rely on email or chat apps and your network drops,
Speaker 2: how will you reach your team. You need a backup
Speaker 2: way to stay in contact, group texts, emergency contact lists,
Speaker 2: even a walkie TALKIEFRS radio type system. Communication is the
Speaker 2: first thing to break down in a tech crisis and
Speaker 2: the first thing that needs to be restored. Checkpoint number six.
Speaker 2: Protect your data. If your business isn't backing up regularly
Speaker 2: and securely, your one lightning strike away from disaster. You
Speaker 2: need off site, cloud and even local backups. Redundancy isn't paranoia,
Speaker 2: Its preparation, and it's your insurance policy when things go sideways.
Speaker 2: Make sure someone checks this system weekly, not yearly. Weekly
Speaker 2: checkpoint seven. Run regular failure scenarios. Don't wait for a
Speaker 2: disaster to test your readiness. Pick a random hour once
Speaker 2: a quarter and simulate a Wi Fi outage or run
Speaker 2: a tabletop exercise where your payment system goes down. Let
Speaker 2: your team work through it, watch how they respond, debrief afterwards,
Speaker 2: and find the cracks before they become craters. So technology
Speaker 2: is amazing until it's not, and when it's not, your
Speaker 2: leadership is what your team will depend on, not the software,
Speaker 2: not the signal. You. Leaders who prepare for failure never
Speaker 2: fully fail. They adapt, they respond, and they guide their
Speaker 2: teams with calm under pressure. So before your next tech
Speaker 2: crash hits, have the talk, build the plan, and test
Speaker 2: the system, because once the screen goes black, it's already
Speaker 2: too late. This has been the seven minute Leadership podcast,
Speaker 2: and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot
Speaker 1: com