Leaders: Be the conscious example
How often have you heard the phrase that we are human 'beings' not human 'doings'? Too many I'm guessing and yet, when you boil it down, few of us really ever apply the wisdom of this phrase beyond it just being a catchy saying. And yet, during challenging times like the world is facing right now, it's probably the best strategy leaders can pay attention to.
Leaders who you are being right now counts.
This is the time to be the conscious example of calm, of being centered, of staying focused, of showing empathy, of demonstrating concern and of holding steadfast on the vision.
For many of us, the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity and daily, even hourly change may have come as a bit of a shock. We, our people, our systems and technology, our workplace environments and our businesses were not only operationally ill equipped for these unprecedented times, we were all mentally unprepared for such conditions also.
The current pandemic has unsettled our sense of certainty and brought forth feelings of fear and doubt. Which means what are people are really seeking from us is our steady voice, our plans for coping and a sense of certainty to reduce their fear and doubt. That’s what makes a company's culture psychologically safe. Google research has shown that psychological safety is the #1 thing employees crave, even more now we are facing change globally.
Taking a risk around your team members during good times may be simple, but during times of heightened uncertainty, physical distancing and fear of job loss, even the very best of cultures will see psychological safety dip dramatically as people become afraid to risk sounding ill informed, out of the loop or like they aren't coping. Which is why people need to see and hear their leaders demonstrate empathy whether via a phone call, a zoom meeting and through asking how team members are really going, not just what they are working on.
What I am finding already in speaking to many leaders, employers and employees as well as business owners and people who have lost their jobs this week is that it's not about what the leader says and does, but how they are being that counts.
It's just what Maya Angelou famously described
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
For example, one employee I spoke to who had lost their job was scathing about their employer and their leader. "I got a call just to say don't come in and that I was being let go indefinitely because there wasn't any work, I was kind of expecting it in a way, but they just delivered it said sorry and hung up. Disgusted after I had worked there for almost three years."
Compare this to a leader I spoke to during the week who expressed to me great despair at the inevitable decline in business and the fate of their employees:
"I know their husbands and partners have lost their income too, I'm wondering if there is enough other planning and back end work to give them all a couple of days a week work from home just to give them something. We are in an OK financial position to weather this for about a month but then I would have to revisit and maybe have to let them go. I'm so disappointed, they are such good employees I'd hate to have to let them go and then not be able to get them back."
Same challenge. Different approach and way of being.
What we are seeing here is that the little things, the shared values, the tribe vibe, the care and concern that is shown in the good times is amplified during the bad and vice versa. The employers and leaders who see staff as replaceable 'human resources' simply employed to produce an outcome, once no longer needed, are discarded without a thought for the long term impact, tribe vibe or company reputation.
In organisational terms, this behaviour sets the vibrancy or toxicity that creates or destroys the psychological safety of employees. The challenge is that it's an individual thing. Normally some employees are more susceptible to reacting to the leaders way of being whereas others are not. This may be due to something related to the work they are doing, the people who work in them, the closeness of the team, the amount of fulfillment they get from their role, their remuneration or title or a host of numerous other factors. It may also be due to a number of factors outside the workplace from their relationships at home, personal or family health or financial stressors or their own psychological background and well being. However in major crisis situations such as these we are seeing now globally these factors are compounded by a number of other serious destabilising factors that most, if not all employees are now facing.
This means that how a leader is being with each individual and across the organisation is exponentially impactful right now, it's a 10 times effect. In essence it's about not breaking the chain. It's about who you are being individually as a leader, what you are doing to strengthen the individuals, teams and organisation as a whole. The 10 Degree Shift Model demonstrates how critical and interwoven all of these 10 factors are in creating a vibrant, juicy culture, and they can all still be practices and strengthened for low cost or no cost during a crisis.
If you use the analogy of mother earth for example you would need to consider the soil or the environment you are creating moment by moment. Are you turning the soil, organically fertilising and watering it or are you starving it of nutrients, throwing toxic chemicals down and hoping for the best? Are you nurturing and supporting your people regardless of the decisions you must make? Are you treating them as human beings and offering honour and respect in the way you negotiate challenging news? Or are you infecting the relationship with poison, poison that will spread and multiply across the organisation as people talk and facetime with each other?
The choices you make in this moment to be a real leader who practices being a servant first will shape the ecosystem of your culture in the future. Will you rise up and become a conscious example?
References
Weick, K. E. (1995). Sensemaking in organizations (Vol. 3). Sage.
https://www.greenleaf.org/employee-engagement-tired-topic/
https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful-google-team/