Leaders: There is no bouncing back!

The new reality that has been forced on humanity has brought us many challenges, one of them being the way we lead others.

Organisations are living profound changes not only on how they do business, but on how people perceive them and their leadership. The things we knew for a fact, are now being deconstructed into pieces and have been given a whole new meaning.

We are learning that, although engagement is, and always has been, a bellwether in determining the health of a company’s culture, right now it simply isn’t enough (PRNewswire, 2020).

Resilience is a quality that has been critical to organisations during the pandemic, and it will continue to be essential going forward. As such, leaders will need to be particularly patient, resilient and will need to demonstrate extraordinary empathy towards their team members, because even though they may not have every answer, every step of the way, they should always strive to achieve multi-level organisational solutions collaboratively.

In this new context leaders will need to reinvent themselves and, according to Power (2020), Hamilton (2020) and GamaAcademy (2020) here are some tips on how to do it:

• Use new technology for employee training and professional development: spend some time searching online for new platforms for training, nowadays learning can be developed and administered completely online — sometimes even without the assistance of a live instructor, and with a full adaptive curriculum. This can allow people to take the training at any time. Online collaborative tools allow employees and teams to share knowledge, and training materials can also be presented in a gamified format to increase employee learning engagement. There are plenty of affordable options, if you take time to explore them you may find one that better suits your team. This may help them connect better and work better with each other despite physical distance.
• Communicate new goals and initiatives for 2021: nothing excites a team more than the way you communicate new goals and objectives, so communicate them with clarity, sincerity and excitement. Get your team on the same page as far as to what the company wants to accomplish and try to review your goals multiple times a year, not only to check on progress but to make some adjustments if needed. We are living in uncertain times, so you may not accomplish all that you set your team for, so be humble enough to adjust your goals into more realist ones if needed, so your team can keep their excitement.
• Recognise employees for their hard work: feedback is crucial, even more now. Be attentive, recognise hard work, give feedback in a constructive way and never let them feel like their work goes unnoticed. Feedback and recognition have always been important, but now that physical distance plays a huge role in our lives, feedback is even more significant. So be attentive, even if goals aren’t being met that doesn’t mean that your team isn’t working hard to meet them. Recognise them not only when they succeed but also when they fail.
• Improve communication skills: communication has always been important, but it is even more crucial now! Remote work has taken a huge toll on communication and we need to adapt and develop communication skills and strategies for the online environment, whether for synchronous or asynchronous format. Not only the channel is different but also the content of a leader’s message needs to be adjusted.
• Always be accessible: make sure you’re always accessible to your team. In a time of uncertainty there is nothing more important than knowing there is someone there for you. Be a solid support and be available, try to get answers to questions before they come up. If your team sees you as a person they can count on it’s more likely that they will start to trust you more and develop a deeper connection and relationship with you.
• Show you care how people are coping: It is important for leaders to be on the lookout for the way their team members are coping with the reality we are facing. Some people may deal with the stress and anxiety a pandemic brings better than others, that doesn’t mean that everyone reacts the same. Be aware of early signs of exhaustion and pandemic fatigue and when some team members may be needing some help. And be empathetic, dedicate a portion of your time building trust with your employees and taking steps to keep them interested and engaged (McElhinney, 2020). It is extremely helpful to have an EAP — Employee Assistance Program in place.

But at the end of the day, as leaders our biggest challenge is to accelerate our own leadership capacity and competences in the face of it all, because traditional approaches to leadership development aren’t keeping pace with the kinds of complexity we are now facing (Henley, 2020). Actually, it is no longer just about the right thing to do, but what’s best for our team. It’s about reinventing ourselves to deal with a reality that came unexpectedly and is here to stay full of uncertainty, unbalance and unpredictability.

References:

PRNewswire (2020). Perceptyx’s 5 Key Lessons Critical for HR Leaders in 2021. HRTech. Available at: https://hrtechcube.com/perceptyxs-5-key-lessons-critical-for-hr-leaders-in-2021/

Power, R. (2020). How To Be A Better Leader For 2021. Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rhettpower/2020/11/29/how-to-be-a-better-leader-for-2021/?sh=7489bceefc66

Hamilton, G. (2020). 6 habits of successful IT leaders in 2021. The Enterprisers Project. Available at: https://enterprisersproject.com/article/2020/12/it-leadership-6-habits-2021

GamaAcademy (2020). Liderança em 2021: 14 Dicas Para se Tornar um Líder em Destaque no Próximo Ano. Available at: https://gama.academy/blog/carreira/lideranca-2021-14-dicas-tornar-lider/

McElhinney, D., C. (2020). The Impact of Confinement and Isolation on Your Work Force. Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie. Available at: https://www.lrrc.com/files/Uploads/Documents/The%20Impact%20of%20Confinement%20and%20Isolation%20on%20Your%20Work%20Force,%20by%20David%20McElhinney.pdf

Henley, D. (2020). What Leaders Can Expect In 2021 And How To Best Prepare. Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dedehenley/2020/12/19/2021-leadership-resolutions-to-find-success-in-our-changing-world/?sh=6b17e68b6fab