In this new series of blogs (and accompanying webinars) we are going to look at how you can manage in this unprecedented time. How to manage your team and yourself.
I don’t think I’m generalising, what we are going through at the moment will be causing stress to everyone. Whether your business has had to stop, whether your business is now in over-drive or if you’re dealing with the health impacts of this pandemic, there is a lot of stress to go around.
As managers and leaders, we want to be there to provide the direction, be the person that inspires our team to work hard and deliver on our vision. The challenge now though is that you may find yourself in a situation where that isn’t possible and there is nothing you can do about it. That may leave you feeling out of control, it’s now not about achieving the vision, your mission is now survival.
This causes a different reaction inside of us, we feel as though we are being attacked rather than feeling inspired to grow. We will still want to be that rock to our team but everything is now improvised. For some people that comes naturally, for others this will be terrifying.
There are 7 Cs we believe are essential in Coaching through Crisis and we will be tackling one each week:
Culture
Depending on the culture you have created with your team, you may feel comfortable being open with them and saying that you are approaching it with a gut feel approach, some cultures will require a different approach.
Whatever the culture, whatever the crisis, we can still be in control of how we approach it.
Connection
It is often easy to feel alone but by encouraging ourselves and others to seek out connections in teams and partners, we can use this sense of connection to build on collaboration and mental wellbeing.
Control
By understanding our ‘normal’ and how our emotions change around that ‘normal’ sounds simple enough but it isn’t something we are used to/or comfortable doing. It’s also not something we often think of doing in terms of how to manage.
This self-awareness is one of the key elements that defines emotional intelligence as defined by Daniel Goleman, an American psychologist – we are going to come back to this a lot over this series.
Challenge
The way we see this crisis will determine how well we fair through it. If we see is as stressful then we will be defensive. If we see this as a challenge to overcome and therefore an opportunity, the more positive scenarios there could be going forward.
Compassion
Some of us are more compassionate than others and that’s OK but we also need to have a little compassion for ourselves. Identifying where we are pushing ourselves and others too far.
Change
Things are changing all the time around us and how we think about things. We are essentially going through a light-touch version of the stages of grief. We need to work through our denial and anger and change the way we manage in those stages.
Courage
There are some actions that we are going to be tempted/pushed into taking that might seem scary over the coming weeks. Having courage to do what you think is best at that time will give us the confidence to lead our teams. We might make mistakes but inevitably those that stand still often get left behind.
An excellent and fun way to identify the strengths and weaknesses of you and your team is to complete the personality type test here.
Join us each week as we delve into each of the 7Cs of Coaching through Crisis.
