Image by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash
Wow. For most of us, this is like nothing we’ve seen before. Decisions and actions happening quickly based on minimal information and hopeful speculation. This frenzy is absolutely necessary to deal with the immediate crisis so we can #flattenthecurve.
As a leader you might feel like you have no time to eat, rest or think. You’re busy trying to keep up, keep the lights on, keep your customers cared for and keep supporting your people. It’s BIG stuff. It’s real and it’s OK to be human and feel overwhelmed.
In the midst of crisis it’s hard to know where to focus but now more than ever, leaders of all kind need to keep talking with each other and with their teams.
While some thrive under pressure and stay forever optimistic things will sort themselves out, most of us will have times where we struggle, have mixed emotions, lose focus, feel worried and confused .
And it’s completely understandable.
If you’re like me, you’re having lots of discussions right now in many forums and gobbling up any information you can that will help you figure out the next steps. It will also be important to put some intentional thought and focus on how you need to communicate not only as a leader but also as a team right now.
Emotional distress will take a toll. It will start to interfere with the quality of our communication and the way we handle conflict. Skilled, purposeful conversations will be critical in the days ahead if we want to remain effective, productive and supportive for each other and keep our businesses and communities functioning well.
You have a lot of hopeful eyes on you waiting for answers. This isn’t an easy time to lead. But we can keep talking through it and working through it together.
3 Conversation To Keep Having Right Now
These are 3 conversations (what I call CORE conversations) you need to keep having with your teams – especially if you are suddenly working remote. It can help the team find balance and stay focused on the things that matter:
Clarity Conversations: Acknowledge what you don’t know and keep figuring out what you do know. This is an ongoing conversation as new information and ideas come up.
Confirm and re-confirm expectations and understandings about the team’s current purpose, principles, practices and what that means for individual and team priorities.
Be curious and be willing to adapt priorities as things go along – while checking-in to make sure the team holds to core principles.
Connection Conversations: Be intentional about human connection, acknowledge what’s happening emotionally, let people bring their realities into the conversation and giving them space to deal with their life (kids at home, playful pets, parents in care)
Get creative and make time for fun in the virtual video conference world (Haiku contest or Eye Spy anyone?). Talk about and agree on strategies for handling issues or when things get off track.
Commitment Conversations: Ensure you have shared agreements on what’s important, what to let go of and who is accountable for what, for now.
It’s time to distribute authority and discuss how to call out things that aren’t productive. It’s also important to set up the method and frequency for follow-ups and commitments to follow through. Shorter more frequent connections are better for some things, and longer sessions for others.
As you engage in these conversations, you can try some of the questions below to support the discussion:
What’s most important for us to focus on right now?
What expectations do we have for ourselves and each other?
How will we hold ourselves accountable?
What can we let go of to cut ourselves some slack?
What do we need as individuals to work best right now? (resources, technology, response times, frequency, format, platforms etc.)
What can we say to each other when we notice struggle or confusion to be supportive and stay connected?
When and how will we check in on these commitments as we go along?
How can we intentionally and productively build in social interaction?
Digital communication is creating game-changing opportunities right now. As we dive head first into digital work, we can forget some skills that were easier to keep top of mind in person.
I’ve dusted off this guide: 10 Tips for Digital EQ as a quick reference and reminder to make the most of you digital messages in these demanding times.
And I want to support you in any way I can. If you need a sounding board to navigate your next conversation, or just need someone to listen and help you find some calm focus to figure out next steps, let's book a conversation. At no cost. You can book time with me HERE.
Stay Well. Stay Connected.