Leading People through COVID-19 (Part 2) – Dealing with our people and teams in an emotionally intelligent way

Very few (if any) businesses will be operating business-as-normal and so the challenge for people managers is how do we translate our revised expectations to a workforce which must be feeling overwhelmed and distracted. Formally resetting what we now expect and how we are going to modify the way in which we work together will provide some additional clarity to our people at a time when they need it.

When the style of leadership aligns with the task in hand and is consistent with what people expect the result is people engagement, performance and a healthy culture. When you use the wrong style or it differs from what people expect this can leave them feeling uneasy and less emotionally safe.

As previously, the aim of this 2nd article is to provide those with responsibility for leading people with methods for personal engagement and a toolkit of practical activities which can be used during your daily/weekly team catch-ups.

In this second article we will look at:

• “Hitting Reset”
• Signposting your leadership style

After each section there is an activity which is designed to work both face-to-face or on a video call.

 

1. Formally hit reset

Prior to the latest events when you asked managers “Do you get more work done at home?”, upwards of 90% would say an emphatic “yes” (with the odd exception being those individuals who get distracted by daytime TV or Netflix!). With lockdown, finding our focus at home just got exponentially harder with the added internal distractions about health and finances, and external distractions of caring for parents and friends who are vulnerable, finding an on-line shopping slot and schooling the kids. At the same time, we know people are fully committed to doing a great job and playing their full part in serving customers, helping a business to survive or effectively position it when normality returns.

How do people managers navigate the challenge of fuelling performance whilst empathetically tuning into the changing realities of their people’s lives? In reality those reading this would have already made a significant shift in what they expect and how they are working, however it might just be worth taking a pause and investing in a slightly more formal approach. What might that look like?

• Role model openness on the internal and external challenges you are facing, ensure you send the message that this is the depth of conversation you want with your people.
• Consciously adjust and modify your performance expectations about how you and your people perform. Realistically very few if any individuals have suddenly dropped their game but the results may suggest otherwise.
• Rather than waiting for the 6-month performance review open a conversation about what is achievable and agree short-term priorities and monthly and weekly goals. Failure to formally adjust priorities and goals may heighten feelings of anxiety and may feed the feeling within your people that they are ‘not even doing the work bit right.’ Linking to this is providing clarity on what individuals should stop doing.
• With the revised goals and expectations in place you will have a stronger platform and more opportunities to genuinely recognise good behaviours and performance. An increase in evidence based and confidence building feedback at this time will prove a huge deposit.
• Get the balance right between frequent and regular communication and overwhelming them. Much of the remote team-working advice rightfully advocates frequent and regular contact. Whilst this is best practice, if an individual’s opportunities to focus on work priorities is more limited you want them focused on the high-value activities not on internal communications and team meetings
• With competing priorities the premium on ‘working smart, not long’ is greater. The neuroscience research about working smart is plentiful and is straightforward to implement. One aspect of working smart is to minimise multitasking or switching between tasks too frequently – you can find a handy exercise to demonstrate this here: http://davecrenshaw.com/multitasking-example/

 

At your next 1-2-1 meeting check-in on how your people are doing and engage them in a process of formally resetting their goals and how you will work together in the short-term. What’s working from home really like? What’s proving the biggest challenge? How will you let me know if you are struggling to cope? Where are you spending your time? How has your focus shifted? How do you see that changing over the next month? How realistic and relevant are the goals we agreed at the start of the year? How do they need to be adjusted? What additional goals/clarity do you need from me? How is our communication working? (Frequency, timing, style) What do you need me to do more or less of?

 

2. Signpost and discussing the shift in leadership style

Under business-as-usual circumstances most successful leaders have honed, and use as their ‘go to’, a Visionary style of leadership: articulating a picture of the future to ensure people grasp the end goal, and communicating performance standards whilst also affording people the freedom to own how best to achieve the vision. However, with the realities people are currently facing, a visionary style will most likely create a wedge between people leaders and their people as it isn’t connected to the current reality and might lack credibility. If we put this style away for now, which ones will drive engagement? An Affiliative style where we focus on common human values and that “we are all in this together” helps us tune into the needs of people and will send the tacit message that we care about people first and foremost. However, as outlined above people will be seeking greater clarity, direction and predictability. Perhaps this is the time to dust down the more ‘tell’ styles which we associate with more traditional managers. With circumstances changing rapidly a Pace-setting style of “what to do and when” will strengthen direction and certainty, and a Commanding style of “do this because I told you” may even be required. Whilst most of people will intuitively grasp the need for a change in leadership practices, we should not underestimate that at such a vulnerable time the impact of the shift could be perceived as heavy-handed. Taking that leadership pause to reflect on your style of leadership and signposting it to your team is a small investment of time and energy which may deliver a good ROI. Hopefully before long we can get the visionary style out again and get people to look ahead and engage them in a positive future.

Leadership Style	When appropriate	How it builds resonance
Commanding	In a Crisis	Clear direction in an emergency or crisis
Visionary	During times of change	Moves people towards shared picture
Affiliative	Motivate during significant change or strengthen team connectivity	Creates harmony by connecting people to each other
Democratic	Build buy-in or consensus	Values people input and gets commitment through participation
Pacesetting	Pacesetting	Meets challenging goals
Coaching	Inspiring excellent performance	Connects what a person wants with the organisation’s goals

Goleman identified the Six Leadership Styles and found that all Leaders use one of these styles at any one time. If you need any resources or want to chat things through don’t hesitate to drop me an email. I hope those of you leading people find this helpful at a time when we are all managing our own personal chaos! mike@pilkingtonleadership.co.uk