Four Questions Leaders Should be Asking During COVID-19
Life in COVID-19 is information overload. Leaders might not know where to start when it comes to facing organizational uncertainty and leading their teams through instability. Meanwhile, many team members feel unsure about the future, about their jobs, and about their organizations. Thus, leaders must strike a balance between continuing to run the organization and accomplish its mission, while also offering all of the understanding, support, and flexibility they can to their team.
Finishing the feedback loop is key to creating an environment where team members feel supported and sustained by their leaders.
Navigating through important dialogues can be hard, so we’ve compiled some tips into four main questions to be sure to ask your team on a regular basis throughout this and other similar crises.
Are you and your family okay? Your team members are people first and employees second. If you think about the phrase “human resources,” it can be easy for leaders to zero in on the “resources” part in times of strain, although it’s precisely when team members hope you focus in on the “human.” We hear about this landscape being “unprecedented” on daily basis, but still, we can’t grow numb to how much recent events have impacted individual team members’ health, resources, and well-being. We are here to remind you that is it possible to focus on both the “human” and the “resources,” even in times of crisis.
Do
Allow extra time for meaningful discussions. Let team members know it’s okay to not be okay.
Reassure them that although work is changing, your team has flexibilities to allow for this.
Don’t
Interrupt team members or pivot back to “resources” (e.g., overtime requests, performance metric reminders). Save those conversations another time. Being rushed or disingenuous wholly defeats the purpose of asking how employees are doing.
Try to have serious virtual conversations while being distracted or using creative backgrounds that put you at risk of going viral.
Do you feel like you understand changes that are happening at our organization? As a leader, you have likely faced many obstacles and difficult decisions over the past weeks and months about how to keep your organization going during and after this crisis. You probably feel steeped in your organizational responses, strategies, and updates for this crisis. You might also feel like you’ve done a great job of relaying this information to your team members. But still, you should directly ask team members what they have heard, understood, and if they have any questions. Many people feel scared and maxed out, so overcommunication, transparency, and consistency can help get your messages through effectively. This overcommunication ensures employees do not need to make up their own answers to all of the questions in their heads
Do
Be sure to overcommunicate key details about plans for job security or changes that directly impact employees’ basic needs.
Frame how you might interpret changes or key communications. Using phrases like “From my perspective, I think this means…” can help provide reassurance and try to prevent the spread of other interpretations through informal channels.
Don’t
Announce “well, this is our new normal!” There is nothing particularly normal about our current landscape and suggesting team members get on board with the “new normal” can be unintentionally insensitive.
Assume hearing an announcement once is enough. Instead follow up in-person conversations through another channel such as email to solidify the message. You might also consider sending very regular updates (e.g., every Monday) so employees feel in the loop and know when they will be getting updated information.
How has your daily work changed? Asking about team members’ daily work can give you a window into the reality of their environment. You might generally think you know what team members might be experiencing (e.g., their kids are out of school, spouse lost their job, their clients are panicked), but you can’t really know what new or additional burdens or barriers your team members are facing. Beyond that, you probably can’t control their environment in some of the ways you could in the past. Asking about their daily work is key to understanding the ways in which it is or isn’t possible for them to perform in the ways they could before COVID-19.
Do
Ask team members if their work schedules or communication preferences have changed. Ask how they are taking breaks, setting boundaries, and allowing themselves flexibility when possible.
Offer praise and call out outstanding performance and flexibility in a new landscape.
Don’t
Focus your conversation on problems and gaps without providing potential solutions. This can serve to heighten team members’ fear and stress. You don’t need to have all the answers, but you can brainstorm and follow up later.
Suggest team members should be able to meet deadlines because they have “nothing else going on.”
Are there tools, resources, or feedback that I could provide to help support your work? Last, we recommend you get a bit tactical with this last question to ask team members if there are ways you could support their ability to work effectively. Of course, financial stakes feel especially high and organizations can’t provide everything to meet team requests, but simple supports (e.g., office supplies, Zoom licenses) can go a long way to help fight some of the new daily hassles. Most importantly, keeping lines of communication open on ways you can support them is key.
Do
Have open and supportive conversations about what’s needed so team members can feel comfortable requesting supports.
Consider offering something “extra” to let team members know that you’re thinking of them. This could be something like ordering team shirts or sending a greeting card.
Don’t
Immediately dismiss their requests and speak at length about budget concerns which might make them feel guilty.
Provide resources or new assignments in a biased way. For example, new tools shouldn’t be available only to the leadership team.
Finally, we recommend ending the conversation with, “What questions do you have for me?” Finishing the feedback loop is key to creating an environment where team members feel supported and sustained by their leaders. With these questions, we believe leaders can both focus on the needs of the business as well as the needs of their employees through times of crisis. If you would like additional support with leading through COVID-19 changes, feel free to reach out!