3 things leaders should be doing right now

In this time of Covid-19, strong leadership is more important than ever. Here are three tips on what you should be doing right now for your team.

1. Put yourself in the shoes of your people

Empathy is one of your most critical skills in this time of upheaval, uncertainty and crisis. Each of your employees will interpret today’s situation differently and manifest behaviors accordingly. You will see a faction of employees who become workaholics in the home office environment, logging on as soon as they open their eyes in the morning, and feeling the need to stay online late into the night. You’ll see another group of people who treat this period like a long vacation. They struggle to get up in the morning, they feel very little desire or incentive to complete their work, and they are often absent from their devices for extended periods, making it difficult to get in touch. This disruption to our normal work lives will elicit abnormal behaviors from your people, and as leader, it’s your job to understand it, empathize with it and do your best to work with it. By doing that, you can have a better conversation with the workaholic who can’t turn off, and your empathy will make the talk with the ‘vacationer’ less attacking and more understanding. 

>Read up on empathetic leadership from Forbes.

2. Find new ways to motivate and inspire

Working remotely is a skill learned over time, and it’s definitely not for everyone. The reason many of us get up in the morning and go to work is, in part, due to the comradery of the team. The office is a social place, where people know us, engage with us and collaborate in teams. It’s what we’ve been trained to do our entire lives. Suddenly, we find ourselves alone at home. The inside jokes, the quick brainstorms, the easy advice and the personal interactions have all disappeared. All that’s left is the work. And while the work makes some go overboard and others give up, it’s your job as leader to find a way to make the people want to keep the engine running. I believe, in this situation, a little effort can go a long way. To meet the needs of all, try something new. For example, schedule a morning video ‘catch-up’ just to check-in with people, ask them to share their latest quarantine story, find out how their families are doing. Ask them to share what’s on their agenda today, soliciting input from the team that would normally happening over morning coffee. And then, as a team agree on a one-hour time period when everyone should log off, eat something, and move their bodies. Home office keeps you handcuffed to your laptop, and you need to keep the team energized and healthy. 

>More tips for keeping up the motivation in your team while working remotely

3. Be honest; it’s the only way

Everyone is talking about business continuity these days, probably even you. And your team members are not stupid. They know that if the business doesn’t continue, they don’t continue in their jobs. At this point in time, we probably all know someone who has been recently released from their position due to lay-offs in the company. Your employees are alert to the world around them and know that this is a possibility during these trying times. Your job is to be as open and honest as possible about the struggles the company faces. Do not paint an overly rosy picture, only to shock them a month down the line. Tell the truth and let your team use the reality to think differently. Maybe there’s a yet uncovered idea; maybe the team members will be proactive and consider job-sharing or other helpful solutions; or perhaps, someone has an idea to support customers in a brand new way. You won’t know until you trust your team with the problems. They won’t unravel with this knowledge. They may just surprise you. 

>Good advice on what can happen when a leader is transparent