Businesses may be opening up as of the first of June, but that doesn't mean the Coronavirus crisis is over. During this so-called "new normal", leading your team or organization may require some changes in your leadership style - some of which are bigger than others. Whether you're leading a team of two or 2,000, it is your responsibility to be a good steward to those who look to you for guidance and direction. How can you navigate the new normal going forward? Read on to find out.
The "new normal" presents each and every one of us with major challenges, not just in the professional context, but also at a personal level. Some of you might be asking yourselves "do I need to keep the same sized team that I had prior to lockdown or should I reduce my staffing levels?" or "How can I ensure that my family is safe even as I am going to my place of work every day?" There is no one-size-fits-all answer to these questions, unfortunately, but using the tips we've gathered in this post, we hope that you will be able to come up with solutions that work for you and your team in the immediate and medium-term future.
Always remember that this is a collectively traumatic experience for us all
It's easy to forget that this experience has been a massive step change for nearly every single person. And while you as a leader might feel the burden of getting your team back on track as quickly as possible, you must not lose sight of the fact that this is still an ongoing crisis and, more importantly, some have been affected more than others.
Check in with your staff more frequently than you used to. Have they lost a loved one to the virus? Are they worried about job security, finances or health and safety? Are they comfortable coming to the office on a regular basis to do their job? By listening with an empathetic ear, you will not only be fostering an environment of openness within your team, but it is also a great way for them to know that you genuinely care for them as individuals.
Having said all that, it is also important to draw boundaries with people and not allow them to take advantage of you or of this current situation. This is why it's all the more important to be clear with your team members about where they stand.
In my view, those who are performing really well deserve to be given more flexibility and autonomy to determine how they will conduct their work, while those who are not meeting expectations should be closely monitored and guided so they can perform better.
Lastly, it isn't a secret of course, that many Filipinos love drama and will bring out the "woe is me" card at every opportunity. Work relationships between a leader and subordinate are not an exception to this unfortunately. If this happens to you, I would advise you to respectfully acknowledge the person's needs and worries, while also informing them that they are perhaps going into too much detail about a certain situation. Advise them to speak with an HR practitioner or your in-house counselor (if you have one).
Adjust your expectations to suit your reality
Was your restaurant serving 500 customers each day before the lockdown? Did your SaaS business have 50,000 monthly active users? Did your team handle 300 customer support calls per week? Now that we're in GCQ, you as a leader need to accept that things on both sides of the supply and demand equation have changed since the start of the outbreak.
Of course, due to the recent changes, in-person businesses have suffered tremendously with demand slowing down to a fraction of what it used to be. If you work in a B2B context, you might find that your clients have much fewer customers too, and this trickles down to your organization's levels of work. Alternatively, if your organization is a provider of things online such as education, food or grocery delivery, video conferencing, then you already would have experienced the surge in demand over the last few months. One thing is for sure, everyone's situation has changed (and if yours hasn't, I'd love to hear from you!).
On the other end of the scale, if your team's way of working has recently gone from working in-person to working partly or almost completely remotely, you would've seen that productivity of your team has perhaps dropped by a small margin. Or if we're talking about teams that need to work in-person like waiters and hotel staff, perhaps the additional sanitary measures they need to take - whether out of their own initiative or due to company policy - would have also impacted productivity.
Given these changes, you as a leader should not expect your team to perform at the same level as they did several months ago. Being mindful of these facts will allow you to reset your expectations to match the new reality.
Lastly, if there are individuals in the team who you genuinely feel are not doing their part to help your organization perform, take the following steps to encourage them to level up their game: sit down with them privately, inform them calmly but sternly that they don't seem to be contributing to the team as much as they should, give them an opportunity to counter your opinion with their facts and ask them what YOU can do for them (within reason) so that they will perform better. The key in all of this is asking yourself whether you're doing your absolute best as a leader in encouraging and enabling your team to perform at its best.
Take care of your own mental health
In order to be a good and mindful leader, you must never forget to take care of your own mental well-being from time to time. Nobody wants to follow a leader who is visibly stressed out and is reactive to external circumstances rather than proactive.
Head over to our previous post for some practical tips on how to take care of your mental health whether you're at home, on the road or at the office.
Don't forget to take some regular time to recharge your own batteries outside of work, take care of your physical as well as mental health, and spend time with your friends and family while switched off from the day-to-day concerns of your business or company. It's been said a thousand times before that taking time off from work actually makes a person more productive in the fewer hours that they actually do work. So don't spend your time working 15 hours a day without any breaks, and encourage your team to do the same too.
Conclusion
Moving into GCQ is difficult for everyone, and is especially sensitive for leaders of teams and organizations. With a few practical steps outlined above, you as a leader of others can make it easy on your team, yourself and even the people around you outside of work, to adjust to the current situation and maximize your team or your business' performance given the limits we are all facing at the moment.