Any leader must be adaptable. Yulia Badritdinova on her main management lessons

A team that is required to do more, faster and without emotion during a war does not last long. In a crisis, management is no longer about KPIs and deadlines – it's more about endurance, honesty, and the limits of the possible. Why the demand to "work as before" is a strategic mistake and how to keep a team in the face of chronic uncertainty, LIGA.net explains together with Yulia Badritdinova, CEO of McDonald's in Ukraine, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.War and transformation of management styleYulia Badritdinova sees significant differences between markets, but not in customer expectations. In all countries, people value quality service, comfort, a sense of security and stability. The difference starts at the level of pace, focus and priorities of tactical decisions. The Ukrainian part of the team is now going through unique challenges. Since the beginning of the war, classic management models do not work: it is impossible to plan for years ahead when reality is changing every day."The focus is shifting from processes to people. We have always been people-driven," says the CEO.The first criterion for any decision is the safety and psychological stability of the team. The next is more open communication and involvement of people in the decision-making process."We can say that in such a reality, leadership is a balance between empathy and demandingness: you need to be able to hear people and at the same time keep the bar of standards high."- We can't talk about achieving business results if we don't know how our people feel, what they need, and how to help them through difficult moments. That's why we introduce innovations invisible to our customers that reduce the workload of our teams and increase productivity: from kitchen equipment to AI tools.Read alsoThe team is afraid of AI: 5 approaches to help engage people in changeIn addition, the Ukrainian reality shapes our culture of "anti-fragility": we do not just withstand blows, but use them for development. For example, we have implemented new safety standards and developed detailed protocols for dealing with various crisis situations. And this experience is already being adopted by other markets.How to be a leader todayThe world is changing every day – technology, people's expectations, economic realities. If you can't react quickly, you lose not only your competitiveness but also the trust of your team."Any leader today has to be adaptive by default," McDonald's CEO continues.- But adaptability is not about chaos, but about the ability to change tactics to achieve a strategic goal. It is the ability not to be afraid to adjust the route if the context changes. It is impossible to develop plans for all possible scenarios, no matter how hard you try. Therefore, we focus on the situation in the business here and now, but leave room for change.For me personally, adaptability has another dimension: I manage a team in three countries at the same time. Every day I learn to coordinate the pace and style of people's interaction, to maintain empathy for different scales of problems. So it is a constant process of learning and development.Life without instructions: how to actUncertainty is the new normal. The task is not to protect people from it, but to teach them to be stronger than it. With this comes an understanding of their own responsibility for the result. Then, instead of fear, initiative appears, and instead of waiting for instructions, the ability to act independently, Yulia is convinced.- The world we work in today does not allow us to rely on instructions alone. It rewards those who can think, make decisions and take responsibility. Therefore, for me, the key is to give people the right framework and a lot of freedom within it. This framework is:clear values;risk limits;expected results."A person may not have an answer to the question 'how', but he or she should know 'why'. When these guidelines are clear, 80% of decisions are made faster."How to keep your team motivated and trusted: approachesHonesty, care, and meaning are simple principles, but they make us resilient, emphasizes Yulia Badritdinova.- It all starts with an honest acknowledgment of reality, because people lose energy not because of difficulties, but because of uncertainty. The team needs to hear the truth, even if it is difficult. You should not create illusions. But at the same time, you should give priorities, transparent criteria, and an action plan.Secondly, people are not a resource but a responsibility. For example, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, we have been paying salaries to 10,000 employees during the downtime of restaurants and helping with relocation to safer regions. Now we continue to pay salaries in full for the time our employees spend in shelters during air raids. This is not a legal requirement, but we do it anyway. We also provide financial assistance to employees in case of damage to their homes or injuries, and payments to their families in case of death. Other benefits include health insurance, access to free counseling with psychologists, and salary retention for mobilized employees.The latter is the greatest force in meaning. During a full-scale war, people's need to see meaning and value in what they do has become especially acute: "People come to us to 'exhale', and our employees understand this."On making unpopular decisionsThey work on the principle of "Discuss, Don't Present"important decisions are not made in a vacuum – they are always preceded by a discussion. This way, the team always has an understanding of the background and logic of decisions. Depending on the task or question, they gather people around a fake table:subject matter experts;functional teams;if necessary, involve leaders from restaurants or external experts.They collect information, look at the details, look at the numbers, discuss different scenarios, weigh the risks, and look for the most successful way.- That is why, for example, we have cross-functional teams – this is the basis on which all major changes are built. Let me just mention our merger of three countries into one market in 2023, which at one time raised many concerns and questions. It was a logical step for business, but a new and atypical one for everyone. People wanted to understand how it would work in practice. And this is the most valuable moment – when understanding comes not from coercion, but from trust.Advice for managersSpeaking about fatigue and burnout, Badritdinova recognizes that this is a reality that the whole country is living in. In such a context, it is not right to blindly demand the same productivity from the team – you need to take active steps to maintain this productivity.If an employer wants to maintain team effectiveness, it must invest in the well-being and mental health of its people. But this is not enough without changes in approaches to work when people's resources are limited, she continues.- It is especially critical to set the right priorities – stop and really look at what works and what wastes energy. And don't be afraid to simplify. Reduce unnecessary tasks, remove bureaucracy, and automate operational processes. This helps relieve unnecessary pressure from people.The second point is develop leaders within the team. Leadership is the ability to move yourself and others forward despite the unknown. And it is this ability that we need to cultivate in everyone: to systematically invest in team training, leadership programs, managerial development, and employee motivation programs. Then the internal network of strong, autonomous people will become the supporting structure that holds the organization together.Read alsoHow to work during war and blackouts: 5 practices for office, hybrid and remote work

Any leader must be adaptable. Yulia Badritdinova on her main management lessons

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