Leadership is never easy. And in these times, the threats are mounting daily. Many of us are experiencing unprecedented anxiety as a result. Nevertheless, we are still accountable to our employees. Our present circumstances, though painful, provide us with the opportunity and the challenge of building trust throughout our organizations.
How You Treat People Now Counts
With the insecurities we are all facing now, you may hesitate to work on trust in your culture. Possibly your circumstances are so dire that you prefer to avoid your employees. Perhaps you face furloughing or laying off good people. Maybe you are fearful that your company won’t survive.
No matter how difficult your situation, you are still responsible for the people in your organization.
We will emerge from these crises, one way or another. And the way you treat employees now will determine how they, as well as others, will view your leadership later, long after the crisis is behind us.
What You Can Do
Here are a few things you can do to build trust now, regardless of your current circumstances:
Connect with Your Employees
Transparent and frequent communications go a long way to establish trust, especially in difficult times. We’ve all heard it said that nature abhors a vacuum. In the absence of information, people will create their own stories, predictions, and interpretations, often inaccurate at best and conspiratorial at worst.
- Communicate regularly.
During a crisis, the best leaders communicate with their employees frequently and consistently. Resist the temptation to place communicating low in your long list of priorities. Instead, rise above the urgency and moderate your crisis mentality.
The trust you wish to build depends on clear and frequent communications with the people in your organization. No one expects you to have all the answers for how to proceed through this uncharted terrain.
Don’t let lack of clarity prevent you from sharing information continuously. People need to hear from you now more than ever.
- Enable real-time connecting.
Since your employees are likely to feel more isolated than usual as they “shelter in place,” they could become consumed with threats and fears. Foreboding times can cause anxiety and depression.
Occasionally, fears instigate destructive behavior.
High levels of anxiety destroy a sense of well-being. And anxiety-ridden people are not productive.
Of course, you are not solely responsible for alleviating your employees’ fears. And you can’t single-handedly eliminate the threats they are experiencing. Nevertheless, be available to them.
Seek out opportunities to communicate and connect. If you are fighting fires and have let communications lapse, pick up the pace now. Share what you know and admit what you don’t know. Make room for questions and discussion.
Facilitate real-time conversations virtually. People are longing for authentic human connections – not just emails and announcements.
- Communicate how you are making decisions.
No one likes to make decisions when the context lacks clarity. And currently, the conditions that affect our lives and our companies are shifting from one day to the next. However, we must give up trying to predict and control everything that will confront us over the next few weeks and months.
Even so, you can exert some control over your world by developing a framework to guide your decision-making. Once you have sketched out the basis for your decisions, share it with your employees -transparency rules.
- Reaffirm your purpose and values.
Despite the immediate and longer-term threats, your company’s purpose and values must form the foundation of your decision-making framework. Clarify your values and how you will enact them throughout this crisis. Communicate and demonstrate what you stand for to your employees.
- Do not sidestep difficult decisions.
Do not act as if the business will proceed as usual if it won’t.
Tell your employees if the conditions in our world threaten your company. If layoffs are possible, acknowledge it. Your employees want you to be straightforward with them, even when the news isn’t great.
Demonstrate Caring
Above all else, show your employees that you care about them and their well-being.
Invite employees to tell you what they need and pledge to help in areas where you can make a difference.
Ask your employees to hold you accountable. Provide them with opportunities to give you feedback. You need to know how you are doing.
Take the time to reflect and learn in your virtual staff meetings.
Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable. You are human and thus likely to err from time to time. Admit any missteps and pledge to do better.
And Finally, Once the Crisis is Over
Uncertainty and ambiguity will be with us for a very long time; it seems. We are unlikely to emerge from the immediate crisis with all of the answers we crave.
When people trust, they tolerate these unpredictable circumstances better.
Trust lends some stability to an otherwise uncertain environment.
By taking steps to fortify trust in your culture now, you are also developing a strong foundation for your organization’s longer-term strength.
No one knows what the new normal will look like. However, one thing we know for sure: no matter where our companies land, we will need engaged and dedicated people to rebuild.
Resilience depends on a foundation of trust. And now is the time to build it.
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