The Resilience Toolkit: A Guide for Leading Through a Crisis

Apr 1

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Welcome!

These are unprecedented times, to say the least. We’re no longer even in the “day to day” approach to leading our teams and instead are immersed in “hour to hour” leadership. There’s growing pressure and stress on managers to quickly move their teams to a remote working environment, offer clarity in a world filled with ambiguity, continue providing quality service to clients, and quite frankly, multi-task all of the other personal and work responsibilities you have. That’s precisely the reason why we created this toolkit. It’s our attempt to continue to serve you in a time of need.

What’s Included in this Toolkit

This toolkit offers practical tips in six areas:

· Embracing Change

· Leadership Presence

· Guiding Principles

· Virtual Meetings

· Virtual Team Building

· Self Care

Embracing Change

It’s important to understand that the rules have changed, which will require you to flex and adapt quickly. The way in which you and your team will get work done in the weeks and months ahead will look very different from what you’ve done in the past (even 3 weeks ago). Be open to change and try to use this time to be creative in how you solve problems.

To help get you in the change mindset, we’re offering you a free online course on Embracing Change. Click here.

Focusing on Leadership Presence

How your employees perceive your leadership during times of high stress and ambiguity will define their perception of you for a long time. Once you’ve either diminished or broken trust on your team, it will take a Herculean effort to restore it. Sounds like common sense, but here’s the challenge: you’re human, too. You’re also trying to navigate through uncertainty and anxiety. And perhaps you now find yourself at home with your spouse or partner, your kids, an ailing parent, your pets, etc., and you’re struggling to figure out how to manage it all AND continue to be a strong leader for your team.

Below are some tips to help you stay focused on building trust across your team.

· Be human. This is a time to lean in and build meaningful human connections. Acknowledge that you and your team members may be afraid, anxious and uncertain. Know that people may not respond in the same way you do. Demonstrating empathy and validating feelings is critically important to how your employees will evaluate your effectiveness and supportiveness when this crisis is over.

· Overemphasize the “how” rather than the “what.” Employees are far more likely to notice how you engage them and not necessarily what you do. And during times of rapid change, you’re less likely to have control over the what, but you have complete control over how you conduct the work.

· Demonstrate gratitude. We know it’s hard to be grateful when there’s so much negativity occurring around us. But to whatever degree possible, remind employees what you are grateful for and encourage your team to do the same. You might consider starting each team meeting with “5 minutes of gratitude” to encourage your team to remain upbeat and optimistic.

· Don’t withhold bad news. It’s almost a certainty that the COVID-19 crisis will adversely impact your firm, which may have implications on the team. Be respectful to your employees by communicating with them in a timely manner.

· Don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know.” Don’t try to answer a question if you know you don’t have the answer.

· Keep your words and actions aligned. When members of your team begin to express stress and anxiety, you’re likely to want to offer immediate support. This can open the door to saying something prematurely in an effort to be helpful before fully considering whether that will ultimately serve to be true.

· Check out this funny video clip on the power of listening:

Defining Your Guiding Principles

Your team will likely crave some stability and focus. So, it will be important to offer that to them through a call to action. The call to action could be the answer to one of the following questions:

· What is within our control that we can focus on over the next three months that will help us stay connected?

· What are the top 3 behaviors we can adopt now that will allow us to remain cohesive and productive through this crisis?

· What can we do to share gratitude across our organization?

Be creative and get your employees involved in the final product. What the output becomes, embed it into everything you do with your team…

· Remind your team at the start of every meeting about the call to action.

· Reward employees when you see them acting as “call to action” champion.

Conducting Virtual Meetings. Conducting meetings in the virtual space will require a different approach and skillset. Below are tips to set you up for success.

· Select a reliable web-based conference tool, such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Webex, etc. Your firm may already have a corporate account with a vendor so check with your IT department.

· Create a detailed agenda for every virtual meeting and distribute at least 24 hours prior to the meeting.

· Ask everyone to log into the virtual meeting 5 minutes early. This allows them to address connection issues beforehand and enter the meeting on time.

· Ask everyone to turn on their webcam, if feasible. Seeing each other, reading body language and just the simple face-to-face connections are important to sustaining a strong, unified team.

· Record the meeting, if possible. That way it remains accessible to those who could not attend.

· Give everyone ample “air time.” In the virtual space, it’s easy to let a handful of employees dominate a discussion. In virtual meetings, it will be your responsibility to drive foster inclusion and participation.

· Whenever possible, keep the virtual meetings to no more than 60 minutes.

· Circle back to the team with any action items or takeaways, with task owners and deadlines clearly identified.

· Check out this video about virtual meetings and perhaps show it at your next virtual team meeting.

Building a Strong Team (Virtually)

Managing a remote team doesn't mean you have to sacrifice impactful team engagement and development. In fact, remote teams will need more structure, guidance and feedback than ever before. This is a time to encourage creativity within the team on how to continue to build trust and engage in necessary conflict and debate that will allow the team to excel.

Click the link below to watch an abbreviated video on how we at Loeb Leadership used our digital learning platform to engage in a team building exercise that yielded a set of behaviors that we will hold ourselves accountable against in order to remain a highly productive and cohesive team during this crisis. We are happy to help you design a similar exercise, if needed.

Click here to watch the video.

Taking Care of Yourself

You’ll be limited in how effectively you can show up and support your team if you don’t first take care of yourself. It’s important to adopt coping mechanisms and best practices to ensure that you remain well, particularly during times of high stress and uncertainty. Below are some best practices you can consider.

· Start each day with a 5- to 10-minute meditation. There are plenty of meditation videos on youtube that will provide instruction and music for instilling peace in your mind and heart.

· Practice box breathing a few times throughout the day in 2- to 3-minute intervals. Box breathing follows a four cycle, four-count process. First, you take a slow deep breath through your nose (counting to 4) and hold that breath in for another count of 4. Next, you slowly exhale through your nose (counting to 4) and hold for another count of 4 before starting over.

· Exercise! Get out of the house and take a walk. Obviously, we want to encourage physical distancing, so you’ll want to pick a location where you won’t be in close contact with others. In addition, there are many online exercise programs (both live and recorded) that are accessible via Zoom, youtube, etc. You could even start one with your team!

· Reduce the amount of time you watch, read or listen to the news.

· Tell your family what kind of support you need and ask what they need from you.

· Keep a journal. Each day, jot down observations about how you feel (what you’re sad about, what you’re grateful for, what’s causing stress, what’s helping).

· Limit alcohol consumption. You want to go to bed refreshed so that you’ll wake up energized. Alcohol can interrupt healthy sleeping patters, and actually cause more stress and anxiety.

· Stay connected with friends and family members. Participate in virtual coffee meetups, online games, webcam gatherings, etc.

· Make a reading list and invest time each day to unplug and read.

· Be clear about the boundaries between life and work. It’s easy to further blur these lines when you work remotely.

· Consider a coach. A coach is a confidential and trusted thought partner who can offer support and guidance as you navigate the months to come. Don’t be intimidated; even smart people lose confidence from time to time. Ask us about our pro-bono coaching program. We have a limited number of hours available so we will offer it on a “first come first served” basis. To learn more, call Natalie Loeb at 732-995-1278.

Share Your Best Practices. We want to hear from you as well. If you and your team have developed ways to remain focused and energized during this difficult time, we’d love to learn more. And perhaps you’ll be helping other leaders and teams get through the weeks and months to come! Email us at info@loebleadership.com and place “Best Practices” in the subject line.

Stay Focused. Stay Strong. Stay Well.