Leading through the unknown.
Leading through the unknown – lessons from COVID.
I don’t believe I’ve ever been more connected to my team than during this time of isolation and uncertainty. ‘How’s that?’ To see their faces and know in my being that they are navigating the same inner and outer terrain as I am dissipates any brewing anxiety and raises my spirit. The smiles, the support, the warmth, the empathy and the wanting the best for each other is palpable, even through Zoom. I think if we could hug we’d be hugging, and from what I’ve experienced in supporting client employees, more walls are coming down than are being put up through this pandemic. Indeed, I think people would be more willing to hug a fellow work ‘stranger’, or at the very least give a pat on the back.
How can we run with some of that good stuff? How is your organization creating the opportunity for connection and care? Do your staff feel they belong to an organism that knows they are out there, that understands their challenges, and that gives a damn? Is your communication with them alive and organic, or pre-packaged ‘self-help in times of stress’?
It doesn’t take much to throw a rope of hope for people to grab onto. At Co-Creation partners, we’ve developed two simple client practices. The first is a ‘daily pause’ email – a moment to stop and breathe in an actionable way. PAUSE is an acronym for Presence, Awareness, Understanding, Safety, and Energy. The daily email is a two to four-minute activity to stop, shift our experience, increase our self-connection, and positively influence our brain chemistry. And importantly, the personal note format of the message lets employees know their organization is thinking about them by connecting with them daily. The response to this program has been extremely positive and filled with gratitude. You can find an overview of the PAUSE process further below.
The second practice is a weekly division-wide, one-hour Zoom call that we co-facilitate with our clients. It has been revealing as a facilitator to put down the ‘plan’ and let our humanity take its natural course – connection. The ‘hugs’ reach through the screen, to faces they know and to those they do not. You only need to ask a few questions: ‘How are you feeling?’ ‘How are you taking care of yourself today?’ Or, on another day: ‘What is one thing you are challenged by?’ ‘What is one thing you are happy for?’ The intimacy a Zoom paired share can create allows for every single voice to be heard. Full group debriefs using the chat feature leave everyone feeling included and connected. ‘How are you feeling’ may or may not shift their challenges, but it feels so good to be seen and heard, understood and connected. Who knew we needed each other so much?
People need connection, not only to each other but to themselves. This is a chance to explore our inner world, to get to know ourselves better, and to be kinder to ourselves as well as each other. The opportunity in this crisis may well be to harness a culture it took a pandemic to create.
There will be much to unpack as the unknown takes shape. I do know that if you lead, people will follow, and cultivating the best of people in the worst of times is a leadership act that people will remember.
Below is a brief overview of the PAUSE process.
Presence. Getting back into this moment. Breaking the ‘trance’ of what you are hooked into externally.
Awareness. Getting on the balcony to see a broader perspective. What is really going on?
Understanding. Understanding means having both insight and self-compassion... but mostly self-compassion!
Safety. What can you do to feel safer in this moment? This is about resourcing ourselves. There is a lot happening that we cannot control – we are feeling it individually and picking up on the energy of this as a society as well.
Energy. Where we place our attention brings that experience ‘to life’ – either in our reality or in our imagination, it really doesn’t matter! We become and experience what we think about most of the time. Being choiceful about the thoughts we are activating has huge potential to shift our feelings and experience!