Hi! This is Nick Noyes with Insight Experience. In a recent blog post, "Say/Do/Think/Feel: Leading in Crisis," I wrote about the importance of strategic communication in this time of massive disruptions and uncertainty. The four elements outlined here show what your people are listening for in your communication, whatever form it comes in.
Communication is always important as a leader, but never more important than right now. Right now, two particularly important elements are empathy and energy and content and context. What's going on around us? How is that changing? What does it mean for me and how I’m feeling and doing?
What you say and how you say it is just one element of a triad of key leadership levers you have to move the business. This has been proven thousands of times over the more than 20 years we've been running immersive business simulations for leaders. Your people are, of course, interested in the organizational decisions you're making and how the budget is being allocated. They have heightened sensitivity to these, especially during these times. Will there be more layoffs or furloughs? More budget cuts? These are important drivers of business results and, of course, they impact your people, but they’re not where your highest leverage is to drive employee performance and keep the ship together.
Let’s dive a little bit into the drivers of employee performance:
These three fundamental attributes are critical drivers of employee performance. Do I have the skills to do my work? How am I feeling about my work and what’s going on around me? Am I excited to be here and to be working? At the heart of it, do I trust my manager and leaders to do the right thing? These are core drivers of employee performance universally. But what does that mean for our current times?
Each of these drivers takes on new dimensions and new importance. From a skills perspective, do your people have the skills and tools they need to work effectively in their current environment? Maybe they’re working from home with children or elder people they have to care for.
How's their morale? How are they really feeling? Are they experiencing stress and anxiety? According to a recent article, seven out of ten employees said that this was the most stressful time of their professional career. A total of 88% percent of workers surveyed reported experiencing moderate to extreme stress over the past four to six weeks, and two-thirds of those reported losing at least an hour a day of productive time. A third of them lost two hours a day. Those are massive numbers. How are your people feeling? Are you checking in? Do you really know?
Finally, do they trust you enough to follow you in a crisis like this? Do they trust that you’re doing the best for them as well as the business? Are they willing to follow you into uncharted waters and go the extra mile to think about creative solutions to how the business needs to evolve from here? You’re going to require their best thinking in order to pull this off. All these elements play an important role in how your people are willing and able to perform at the end of the day, but trust is the power player—now and always.
The question in this environment is: How do you influence these? Go back to the key leadership levers of employee performance: what you say and how you say it; how you spend your time in the service of the business and ask others to spend theirs; and the priorities and focus you set for the business, yourself, and others. These are the things that have the most impact on the elements of employee performance, and they’re never more important than right now. They have an outsize impact not just on employee performance but on the culture you're creating, sustaining, or growing—or at the very least, preventing from damaging—as we emerge from these challenging times and face a long and uncertain road ahead.
It’s a great time to step back and take a fresh look at what you’re doing and saying and what you’re asking others to do. So, think about these questions:
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How are your personal values, beliefs, and perspectives showing up now, in this moment?
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How are those perspectives and beliefs impacting how you think and feel, and how in turn are they driving what you say and do?
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How has that evolved over the last few weeks and months?
On your people’s side, they’re listening. What are you saying now, and how is it different from what you were saying a month ago? How are you saying it? Are you speaking with empathy and understanding for the evolving situation your employees are facing? How are you communicating in terms of methods? Are you emailing? Zooming? In large groups, small groups? Are you checking in with people one on one? That has big implications for how you’re spending your time now and moving forward—and how you’re asking others to spend theirs. It’s worth reflecting on because those are specific asks of you as a leader—or implicit in the decisions you make.
And, of course, those decisions are based on the priorities and focus for the business. Has that evolved in the last couple of weeks, even as you look forward to the next normal? What is the impact on you from a leadership perspective? But most importantly, what’s the impact for others and what you’re asking them to do? Reflection and self-awareness are never more important than when the order of things is changing, because your people are carefully watching and listening for signs that this is not business as usual.
Business results are, of course, critical, and they’re key to all of our survival. We’re all trying to help our employees survive and, if possible, thrive during these times. Remember the three key leadership levers and their importance as you continue to make organizational and operating decisions to adjust to the new normal. Be more conscious of what you feel, think, and how that drives what you do and say, because it’s those leadership levers that your people will remember long after this crisis has passed.
Thanks, and good luck!
