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These are days and nights we have never seen before.
During the great depression or the severe recessions since we didn’t have our kids at home, our bills didn’t keep piling in and the world didn’t stop. These are incredibly challenging times. The entire world has undertaken a massive shift …all at the same time and all because we have been forced to!
We aren’t just struggling to get a job, or get work done, we are working from home, we are eating at home, we are workingout at home and all we are doing is at home! ;
The first priority of all businesses must be to keep their employees mentally stable. The second priority, to keep them physically safe and the third is to ensure their business survives. So how can leaders provide focus and ensure teams are actually productive when for the first time they don’t actually know?
1) Show Up! A leafer must always thin k about how they show up and during a crisis that is more important then ever, for themselves, for the team and for each emplyee. Their role isn’t just to be present but be present with purpose….EVERY. SINGLE. DAY!
2) Communicate! EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. During the best of times employees need communication during the worse of times they need it even more…especially since there is no open door to walk into or colleagues to shoot the sht with..everyone is in their head so this is the time to ensure leaders are leading. While we don’t know what the world will look like in 6 months’ time, a leader can communicate the intentions of the company, the driving forces, the problems to solve and projects to tackle to in order to stay relevent to the times.
Taking control of the your company’s story is so critical right now for maintaining confidence in the company. It’s important to control the spread of misinformation and to ensure the information that comes from the business is clear and simple.
3) Speak Up: With or without you, your employees are talking so while using online formats doesn’t suit everyone a leader must go out of their comfort zone and speak up through Slack, Email, Video call, a thank you note…it’s SO important to be open and speak your truth.
For the first time, every leader has the same thing in common..We are in a crisis! No one is expecting anyone to have all the answers but people need reassurance. This is why, like them or not the politicians are showing up and speaking up EVERY. SINGLE.DAY!
People aren’t seeking false hope, they are seeking someone to tell them what is happening, what things look like from your side and what you and they need to get through this. You are literally in this together.
4) See Your Vision: A leader won’t be able to provide all the answers but they can provide a vision. How they see things, what they will accept and what they wont. People need and want guidance. They want to see their leader share the good, the bad and the promising. They want to see the great work of their team members. This is the time to build a culture, a true culture of rituals and behaviors that define the working life in this new normal as it brings a normalcy to this completely unnormal time.
Jessica Glazer is an empowerment coach as well as the founder and CEO of MindHR, a recruiting and resume writing agency. Jessica is also a motivational speaker and appears regularly on various news and radio stations speaking about employment related issues. She was the television host of Videotron MaTV Starline, micro-documentary series about local businesses as a multi-generational and multi-ethnic urban exploration of Montreals entrepreneurs and job market.
