Your managers need support.
As the initial intensity of the crisis ebbs, and is replaced by exhaustion and frustration, managers will shoulder the extraordinary responsibility of their team’s well-being while delivering results.
The last few months have been anything but normal with crowded homes, social disconnection, anxiety about finances, health, friends and family. But through it all we’ve seen great examples of empathetic leadership and teams coming together to deliver extraordinary feats of innovation to meet their responsibilities while everything around them is upended.
We are now entering the most difficult time as people try to adjust to living in continuous uncertainty.
What are the key things managers need to be thinking about?
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+ Embedding new ways of working:
Some offices are opening up, but with staggered schedules and lots of precautions. Others are shifting their entire model to become permanently remote. Many are still working out what to do.
Managers will need to create new norms of collaboration that ensure no matter who is working where that development opportunities are available to everyone equally, insights are shared and no one is left behind.
+ Communicating clearly:
A lack of information leads to high levels of anxiety, low productivity and poor decision making. Relying on being in person to interact, collaborate and share information isn’t going to work.
Managers need to communicate their decisions and share key information with everyone who needs to know it - clearly and consistently in a way that is both engaging and easily understood.
+ Listening to really understand:
Everyone is facing their own challenges - whether that’s inconsistent workloads, redundancies or simply adjusting from a lifetime of working in a 9-5 office. Many are experiencing mental health issues.
Managers need to understand the unexpected challenges people are facing - to ask questions and pay attention to people, ensuring they are comfortable to share their concerns.
+ Managing equitably:
Before Covid19 people from outgroups were already facing career penalties and obstacles and we've seen that in this environment they've been disproportionately impacted in terms of health and economic outcomes. We know that this will also impact day to day experiences at work and longer term career progression if not addressed early.
Managers need to ensure they are actively seeking out different voices and perspectives, asking for feedback and insight, in a way that promotes collaboration, recognition and innovation.
It’s a lot. And without support your managers will struggle.
And if your managers struggle, so will your organisation.
To help, we’ve created a scientifically backed, highly practical Manager Support Kit. It’s designed to help managers identify and develop the behaviours they need to build inclusion and focus within their teams, in-person or remotely - providing a clear guide to where they need to spend their time as a manager.
“...the main burden of motivating staff through the featureless desert ahead will fall again on managers. They were able to call on a heroic collective effort from their teams at the start of the crisis. Can they sustain that shared sense of mission through the long, flat grind of the coming months?”
FT, June 2020
