The Hard Questions #2: What Is My Role With Scared & Anxious Employees?
This is a part of a series discussing the hard questions from leading during this time. The questions are hard because there isn't one right answer, but there are definite wrong ones.
The Hard Questions #2: What is my role as a people leader with scared and anxious employees?
I’ve known many leaders that get the sweats at the thought of having a conversation without a clue where it may go, or even become emotional. They feel ill equipped and want a script to follow in the event it becomes emotional. A few things to keep in mind:
We are humans first. A wonderful part of being human is the ability to experience emotions.
Emotions are data. They are a sign of something important to the person. Get curious instead of avoiding them!
Neurologically, we experience emotions before we even become aware of them. Our emotions impact our decision making and our rationalization.
Recognize fear and anxiety will reduce their ability to perform. Take care of your employees and your end clients and customers will benefit down the line. Neglect the employee and you will not only feel the impact in your business, no one will want to work with you.
As a leader, it’s not about you, it’s about the employee.
The Gallup organization did research in what makes employees choose to follow a leader. They found employees seek: trust, compassion, stability and hope. This is a good moment to have compassion for your employees. It’s OK for people to feel frustration, anxiety or fear. It’s OK to take a breath and feel like it is a lot. And it’s OK if productivity looks different during this time.
There has been a suggestion that job candidates should ask these questions: “How did your company handle the Covid19 situation? How did you respond? Take care of your employees? Reprioritize work?” The responses demonstrate the culture and values of the organization and leaders. This is a time where you can feel proud about how you respond to your employees.
Your natural response may be to ignore everything but the work. Doing that ignores a huge boulder in the employee's live. It isn't the reality your employees are facing. Treat them as a human first and check in on how they are doing. While you aren’t expected to play the role of therapist, having and demonstrating compassion will extend employee commitment and engagement. Without it, you will chip away at the employee’s trust and engagement.
Ideas for individual interactions (future questions will focus on communications):
Before you even connect with the employee, take a moment to reflect on what they may be experiencing. What does the world looks like from their perspective?
Take a moment to ask yourself "How do I want to show up? How do I want the employee to describe my leadership and actions towards them to friends and family?"
Ask how the employee is doing. Show you care about them as a person. And then listen and helping them feel heard.
Acknowledge what you hear “That sounds hard/heavy/difficult/ frustrating/sad/confusing/overwhelming…” You likely have had some of these same emotions too! It's fine to share an anecdote to show you relate. Just don't monopolize the discussion and make it about you. Avoid generalization statements and platitudes like "This too shall pass." They are well intended but dismissive and not helpful. Acknowledge it may have been difficult to share by phrases like "Thank you for sharing that with me. I'm glad you told me."
Ask “What can I do that would be helpful?” Or, "What is one thing we could do at work to make this easier for you?" This will show you what is important to the person and gives you a chance to see what, if anything you can do that is actionable.
As the employee talks about work, be prepared to make shifts to priorities. Listen for areas of confusion and together discuss where to focus and what to ignore. This is a time to eliminate or pause all things that aren't critical - and you may need to do this multiple times over these months. Employees are seeking stability...and one way you can provide it is helping them think about where to focus and what to ignore.
Be intentional about resilience. I've seen companies offer free subscriptions to apps like Calm and Headspace. I've seen others offer a virtual meditation to start the day. One team invites on of their children on the last five minutes of their zoom call to give the highlights of her day, always leaving the team in laughter. Teams are scheduling no-work weekends, no call days and being mindful to schedule off time. Resilience is key to manifest hope. If you are depleted, you lack hope.
Encourage your employees to use their PTO as planned. Work and home lives have been blurred more than ever. Many people have been over-extended in these weeks and will suffer burnout without a chance to reset. I know many are wanting to save it until they can travel or move around with more things open. Encourage people to schedule days where they aren't working, checking email or responding to messages.
What are things you’ve been doing to help your employees?
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