So – it’s August. And usually, in August, about 56 million kids in the US go to elementary, middle, or high school, and the majority of them leave home to do so. But these are not usual times. Instead of the typical hustle and bustle and excitement of the back-to-school season, parents everywhere face difficult decisions about the safety and well-being of our kids. If you have working parents in your office, or you are a working parent, these decisions are weighing heavily on the collective psyche of your team and likely impacting your company’s productivity. It’s an emotional time for many of us, and dealing with emotions is tough work – even under normal circumstances.
As leaders, we can’t brush these emotions away or try to ignore them. It’s best to understand what effect they’re having and to develop strategies to work through them. The need for authentic, empathetic leadership has likely never been greater. It’s time to guide our teammates through these unusual, uncertain times.
Uncertainty has consequences
The lack of certainty is defined as a state of limited knowledge. It is impossible to exactly describe the existing state, a future outcome, or more than one possible outcome. I don’t know about you, but that pretty much sums up the way I’m feeling about the pandemic and the lack of a known timeline of when this will end or what will happen in the meantime. And it probably sums up the way most of your staff members are feeling. This uncertainty can lead to increased feelings of stress and anxiety and decreased engagement and productivity. As it grows, it can lead to potential burnout and absenteeism. Under the worst of conditions, if limited information is shared with employees, gossip and false assumptions set in, taking an even greater slice out of customer service and productivity.
Leaders need strategies to communicate and help their employees work through this.
Helping employees overcome the stress of uncertainty begins with you.
In the absence of information, it’s human nature to fill in your own truth. Especially when fear and uncertainty are running rampant, your employees could be worried about their jobs and their livelihood. As leaders, we need to have an effective and consistent communication plan that flows openly back and forth regularly across the organization. Give your employees regular updates on the state of your business, your vision for the short- and long-term future, and what measures are being taken to safeguard their wellbeing. Now is also the time to listen more than we talk. Connecting with employees personally regularly goes a long way in assuring them that you care for them as individuals beyond their work. Consider making it a weekly priority to connect with your team members and ask about their day, their lives, what’s going well, and how you can support their success.
It’s also important that we are the pillar of stability during the chaos, which is no small feat. Recent articles have pointed to pandemic fatigue; we are all beginning to feel, calling out the need to be sure we’re finding healthy ways to cope. On the airplane, they tell us to put on our own oxygen mask first for a reason. We can’t help others if we can’t breathe ourselves. We certainly can’t help our employees if we don’t have the inner resources to do so day in and day out. We must take care of ourselves and make sure we’re managing our own well-being and self-talk.
Behavioral insight is a great asset for tailoring communication and leading through uncertainty.
Behavioral assessments are well known, especially in the hiring process. But now, more than ever, it’s a valuable tool to use on yourself and your existing staff. Self-aware people are more productive and energized. As leaders, the more we understand ourselves and our colleagues, the more effective we can communicate. Knowing an individual’s level of assertiveness, communication style, work habits, comfort with ambiguity, and degree of independence goes a long way in helping the leader tailor the communication. For example, if you have someone who prefers to problem solve with facts and data and doesn’t like being put on the spot in large groups, you wouldn’t want to deliver new information and ask for their immediate opinion on a video conference call. If you have a highly assertive, outgoing salesperson who thrives on in-person sales interactions, they are likely going crazy sitting on conference calls all day. Look for ways to communicate and celebrate sales wins virtually and build in time for social interactions with their colleagues.
Also, do what you can to make it fun. During times of growing uncertainty, the lines between our business and personal lives are getting more blurred. More than 40% of the US labor force is now working at home. That means the boundaries between home and the office are more integrated or don’t even exist. We used to take great strides to separate our business life from our personal life, but now it’s nearly impossible for almost half of working professionals. We’ve even laughed together at the litany of viral videos where the precocious children interrupt mom’s Zoom call and the dog that kept demanding attention from the local meteorologist.
Encouraging your employees to be authentic and embrace their unique personality traits builds community and workplace trust. Finding ways to share the struggles and tribulations of work-life balance while being realistic about your own emotions and challenges will help unite the team around a common theme. Taking care of yourself and brushing up on new ways to lead and communicate will help get you and your employees through these uncertain times and the difficult decisions we make. One thing I am certain of is that we can get through anything if we do it together.
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