One of the biggest gifts of the great disruption is that leaders are naturally embracing Psychological Safety. They are leading with relationship and empathy instead of task and results.
And that shift makes all the difference in the world!
When we lead with humanity -- we communicate that we care about our people. We put them first. And then something really interesting happens.
Trust is established and our teams respond in kind.
I haven't heard much about slackers and whiners during Covid-19. I HAVE HEARD about the amazing employees who have stepped in, stepped up and have done great work under the most difficult circumstances. Everything from:
-- at home...
-- with young children...
-- that need to be supervised and/or educated...
YIKES!
Some people may say that Covid-19 "forced" us to shift our paradigm. I actually have a different opinion. I believe most of us did what comes naturally when we're thrown into very difficult circumstances...
We responded with kindness and concern.
The gift -- if we choose to embrace it -- is to recognize that if we CONTINUE to lead with relationship, empathy and psychological safety our teams will CONTINUE to rise and meet us.
And if we don't... If we revert to business first... We will destroy the trust that's been established. Our employees will feel like it was all just an act -- simply a ploy to get them to work harder. And then we'll experience the boomerang effect... In the blink of an eye we'll move from trusting one another to skepticism to disdain.
So leaders...
Are you going to intentionally continue to put relationship, empathy and psychological safety first. Or are you unintentionally going to revert back to business as usual?