Stress has always been part of our lives, and work is a common contributor. It ebbs and flows like waves, with some people experiencing stronger seas depending on their responsibilities, leadership, and corporate culture. Like saltwater, stress is corrosive, with prolonged exposure taking the fire and focus out of talented team members and wearing away organizations' success and profits. We can't avoid stress outright but leading organizations understand its impact on their business and work to minimize its impact and empower team members with skills to compensate.
COVID-19 has added a whole new layer of stress on everyone's plate. Unlike the workplace where the world can impact different people in different ways, COVID-19 is one of the most leveling stressors we face today. I liken it to snow. I know that not everyone who reads this may understand the impact a big snowfall can have on your day, but I think you can imagine it. Imagine waking up one morning to a few inches of wet soggy snow and having to deal with it for the rest of your day. Everything gets a bit harder and takes a bit longer.
Like snow, COVID-19 has added a layer of difficulty to our day-to-day lives, with McKinsey & Company's recent Women in the Workplace 2020 research showing rising feelings of exclusion, the pressure to do more, burn out, and exhaustion. We thought we could hunker down for the first three months and get through everything, but when the snow didn't go away we began to accept our situation and carried on with the uncertainty of when life would be less complicated. Almost nine months have now passed for much of the world, and it is unclear when the stress of COVID-19 will end. Leaders must recognize that this stress is real. It is a rising problem, and it affects everyone we serve, begging the question, "what can we do to address it?" We can't make this virus go away, but there are five actions I think leaders can implement to care for their teams in this pandemic blizzard.
1) Check-in often.
COVID-19 has forced many teams to socially distance. I intentionally use the term social distance to reference those separated by their inability to interact as they would commonly in a Non-COVID-19 world. Even those that can't do their work from home find themselves more physically and emotionally distanced from their colleagues these days. This distance is leading to teams feeling disconnected from their leaders, their coworkers, and their organizations.
All leaders should have some consistent contact with their teams. But in COVID-19, you may consider an increase in the cadence of interaction with your teams and find new ways to stay social. We are social beings and gain value and energy from our interactions with those around us. When those go away, we need to create them in other places. These interactions don't always have to be meetings. I've seen some great success with scheduling virtual "coffee shops" where team members can come on as they please and connect with their colleagues. None the less, it is rare that teams will self-recognize the cause and the solution of these new feelings, so don't wait for things to happen organically.
When there is no one around us, its essential leaders also ask how their team members are doing personally and professionally. No one is "ok," and taking the time to ask about your team's feelings won't change their perception, but it may let them know that someone is listening to them. You may not be able to do anything about their feelings, but demonstrating that empathy may make their day a bit brighter.
2) Let off the gas (or pedal if you are driving an electric vehicle).
Goals. Day-to-day responsibilities. Special projects. Emergencies. These things fill our plates in normal times, but many people's plates are already full, whether it be trying to home-school kids or dealing with loved ones who test positive for COVID-19. At the same time, this virus has had significant impacts on many businesses struggling to make ends meet and putting added pressure on their teams to support the business.
As leaders, we don't have many levers we can pull to fix COVID-19, but we can control how much we fill the plates of our teams. This pandemic leaves a little less room on everyone's plates, and it's up to us to determine what is still reasonable. Leaders should consider their expectations for teams in normal times and whether those are still reasonable expectations right now.
I am not suggesting that leaders drop all expectations. Leaders simply need to check-and-adjust what is mission-critical and prioritize work through the lens of these new circumstances. Simply opening the conversation with teams that you recognize the impact COVID-19 is having on their lives and want to have this discussion is a fantastic start.
3) Say Thank You.
Another human behavior that is hard for us to break is our brain's constant vigilance to look for danger. In the business world, this often leads to us spotting what is wrong versus what is right. I call this "vulture culture," where leaders can default to only being seen and heard when something has gone wrong. It takes some work to change our habits and spot what is right, but it is a much more powerful leadership tool. If you need help, I highly recommend Ken Blanchard's "Whale Done".
Even if we already focus on praising our teams, we can sometimes fall into habits of doing it the same way over and over, which can diminish their impact. Use COVID-19 as a reason to change your approach to thanking your teams and those that support you. Send a thank-you email. Take some time in a virtual meeting to praise a team member. Get creative and send a celebrity Cameo or send a small gift with tools like Thnks. If you haven't discovered the "Give Kudos" feature of LinkedIn yet, explore that for the first time.
Remember the keys to praise; be authentic, be specific, and be timely. Going out of your way to powerfully land your thank you will be remembered and helps teams know they are appreciated in these tough times.
4) Practice self-care.
Leaders are not immune to the stress of COVID-19. Stress can bring out our bad habits, making us less effective at motivating and coaching our teams in these uncertain times. This pandemic has proven to be a marathon, not a race, and we need to make it to the finish line. Therefore just as much as you are taking time to care for your team, take equal time to care for yourself. Many leaders think of themselves as superheroes, putting their teams' needs in front of their own. But I would argue that leaders failing to care for themselves don't just subtract from their team's performance but can actually have a dividing effect.
This self-care takes thoughtful changes in leaders day-to-day and some thoughtful reflection on what may be stressors in our lives. Perhaps the new dynamics of virtual meetings are draining you or you may find that allyships built pre-COVID are slipping. You may need to change your routine or set aside time to do something different, but you likely need to do something as we are no good to our people if we don't care for ourselves. At the very least, showing that you are taking actions to care for yourself will show your team it is ok to do the same.
5) Measure how your teams feel.
Stress from COVID-19 is a new problem, and one of the fundamentals I teach my team about problem-solving is that you can not start unless you have a way to measure the problem. Without measuring how stress from COVID-19 is impacting your teams, you have no idea how bad the problem is or if anything you do will fix it.
So how do you measure feelings? It's not as hard as you think, and you likely experience it every time you buy something as a consumer through post-purchase surveys. Using surveys or forms to quantify people's feelings is a great way to measure how stress impacts your team during COVID-19 and gives them a voice to share their feelings. My recommendation is to keep it simple. Start with what you want to know and limit the number of questions you ask; no more than five so the survey takes just a few minutes. Ask yourself, "what will the answers to this question, either positive or negative, tell me about COVID-19's impact on my team?" If you don't have an answer, don't include the question. To help with this, I've provided a few example questions you may consider below:
How would you rate your well being at this point during COVID-19? (1-5)
In the past few months, which of the following have you felt at work? (stressed, exhausted, depressed, sad, etc.)
How many times in the past few months has stress impacted your ability to do your job? (scale)
Include an open-ended question such as, "Can you elaborate on your feelings during COVID-19?" which will give you some additional anecdotal insights into your team's responses. Then use either your organization's survey tools or any of the free tools out there like Microsoft Forms or Google Forms to write out your survey. Be sure to make it 100% anonymous as people are more willing to openly share how they feel if they believe they won't be judged or singled out. Finally, send it to your teams expressing your intent to understand how COVID-19 is impacting them in the workplace.
Once you've collected your results, you'll have a better measure of how COVID-19 may be negatively impacting your teams. Don't forget to set up a cadence for measuring again as you'll want to continue to measure the problem to see if any of the actions you or your companies take alleviate the problem.
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