Our world is engaged in a passionate, on-going debate—one that treats two concepts as mutually exclusive and leaves people feeling unheard, isolated, angry, and afraid. The discussion is centered on how to re-launch routine activities while we’re still living amid a global pandemic. Take, for instance, two conversations we’ve had recently:
- Conversation #1 featured a front-line worker who was expressing dissatisfaction that leadership “doesn’t understand that we’re still addressing a pandemic over here” when asked to engage in a routine training activity.
- Conversation #2 featured a senior leader who was expressing frustration that employees “don’t seem to realize we still have a set of activities that we have to complete, pandemic or no pandemic” when they received push-back on performing a required departmental audit.
Amid every crisis, this moment emerges, and when it does, the rallying cries look like this:
It’s Time to Move Past the Crisis!!!
It’s Time to Move Past the Crisis???
One is an emphatic statement. The other a dubious question. And while the thoughts may appear mutually exclusive on the surface, the sentiments behind both are appropriate.
As leaders, we must move toward a post-pandemic world. We have budgets to prepare, employees to hire, evaluations to perform, projects to launch, training to conduct, strategic goals to chase, and revenue streams to pursue. While we should realize that COVID-19 will impact how we execute those items, execute we must (in our best Yoda voice).
Yet, as leaders, we must ground ourselves amid the pandemic. We have immediate community needs to fulfill, people to serve, empathy and compassion to express, and moments of rest to encourage (and take). While we hope for a declaration that the pandemic will be over soon, we must be prepared to pay its toll for the long haul.
So, how do we move past the pandemic (or any crisis) while staying grounded in it?
Clear Our Head.
Remember all those mindfulness tips we’ve been sharing? This is a perfect time to dust them off and try them. Over the holiday weekend, let’s allow ourselves to be immersed in a single activity. Perhaps we can watch a movie with our families without checking our email and texts. Maybe we can grill hamburgers and engage all senses as we feel the patties form in our hands, hear the sizzle of the meat, smell the enticing aroma, see the color change to our desired level of done, and then take that first succulent bite.
Have Healthy Conversations.
Once our mind is clear, we’re prepared to engage in meaningful conversations about the future. But what do we talk about? We’re seeing organizations have healthy conversations around these topics:
- How can we develop or improve our products and/or services?
- What if the much-anticipated return to normalcy doesn’t materialize? How can we pivot to offer digital products and/or services?
- What partnerships could we pursue to help us cut overhead and/or enhance our ability to fulfill our mission?
- What are the best changes that have come from this pandemic, and what can we do to make those changes permanent?
Have More Healthy Conversations.
Remember the early days of the crisis when leadership teams across America held regular all-employee virtual meetings to share updates about the pandemic and their organizational response? Those were the good old days. No, really! A few employees may have grumbled about those town halls, but most of them appreciated the free flow of information and sense of stability those encouraged. As we re-launch our traditional business activities, it’s important to share why we have chosen this moment. If our departmental audit is required by a government agency, we should say so. If our training program is designed to enhance job sharing or cross-functional collaboration if we have a second wave of COVID-19, let’s tell participants. Identifying the reason for re-launching an activity is also a good test of whether it’s necessary to re-launch. In our experience, mission-critical and time-sensitive operations should be brought online first. Then others can be phased in as people feel more confident and secure in the changes the crisis has necessitated.
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Final Thought: How we balance the call to live in the present and in the future is a difficult leadership test. If we can help you navigate the challenge, please contact Becky or David.