As individuals or as a group, staff members can feel overwhelmed with events going on both inside and outside work. Is there an internal restructure, or an external national crisis? Both will cause significant disruption and stress on your team. As a leader, you may feel helpless to do anything, but here is how you can support staff during a crisis.
It’s normal to want to support your staff at all times. It can leave us feeling uncertain as leaders as to what policies to implement, what to say to both groups and individuals.
Resilience as a group during uncertain times is paramount. Developing healthy coping mechanisms has the opportunity to bring you through challenges together.
Demonstrate Leadership Presence
First and foremost – be there for your team. It’s OK to feel anxious yourself, but keep it under control for the sake of your team.
Be like a duck
A duck? Yes. It is the perfect metaphor.
Calm and collected on the surface where it is observed, but hustling and pumping their feet under the water.
Staff need to see you not panicking, and reacting in a controlled and collected manner – even if you don’t feel it under the water.
The leadership robot
Check in with your staff. Ask how they are coping, ask if you can help. Be open about how you are feeling. If the whole team is in a crisis, you can admit that you are anxious or nervous too. You aren’t a leadership robot!
This honesty will give you credibility with your team and instill confidence. When you say, “I’m anxious too. I feel good about our plan though, so we will keep adapting and get through this together”. It provides your team the message that it’s OK to be nervous, but there is a plan in place.
The best leaders are visible
Make yourself visible and available to your staff. The last thing they need right now is an absent leader.
Read more about why middle managers are essential during a crisis. Reminding yourself why you are essential helps put it in perspective and ensures that you avoid the temptation to stay in the perceived safety of your office.
Invite Conversation, but Have Controlled Facts
People will want to chat among themselves, crisis is all anyone can think about!
As a leader, you will need to guide the conversation so that one vocally stressed individual does not dominate and poison the other’s crisis outlook.
Be available to talk, listen, and address concerns. Some people just want to be heard – even though they know you may be powerless to control a situation. You can only control your response to a crisis, not necessarily the crisis itself.
Stay on message though. Share what you can freely. Let people know that when you don’t have an answer, you will find one. Follow up and deliver the updates that you promise. Even if you don’t have an answer yet, tell them so. Let them know their concern has not fallen of your radar, you just don’t have a full answer yet.
Be understanding – Listen and Give your staff what they need
Staff may be frightened, anxious, and act out in different ways.
Remind your staff to be kind to each other. If the whole team is upended in a period of crisis, ask that everyone remember to be kind to each other.
“Everyone is fighting their own battles, just as you are fighting yours”
Wonder Woman
Yes, I just used a Wonder Woman quote. Humor is a key ingredient to being able to keep up resilience on a team when things get tough. Take a moment to laugh at the little things. It will go a long way.
Creating Resilience on your team – and for yourself
Even when it feels that everything is going wrong and is outside of your control, it isn’t all hopeless. As a leader, you can control your thoughts, emotions, and reactions to adversity.
Mental health is extremely important for both leaders and employees. Encourage staff to take breaks. Allow them to step away and deal with a secondary issue if necessary. It goes a long way for staff to feel supported by their manager.
Provide the best resources that you can
Give the communication updates that you can, the supplies that you can, and all the coffee that the team needs.
If the team needs a break – give them a break. Crises are not normal times. The traditional 9-5 rigidity has no place here.
Be in this together
Encourage your team when things get rough. Recognize the struggles, be an ally and a cheerleader – not a critic.
This is a great time to pick your battles. . Good luck encouraging someone to work through a crisis when you have just critiqued them for being 15 minutes late. You will just look like an out of touch jerk.
Remind them why it matters
To increase the team’s resilience, you need to continuously remind them why they are working hard – especially in times of challenge. Does your team help manufacture a critical resource? Are you in healthcare? Are you in logistics and making sure things get where they need to go? Does the individual have a special skill that only they can bring to a team?
By being reminded why they are essential, you can increase their stamina, focus, and coping skills. This is the difference between throwing in the towel, and going one more round.