5 EQ Tips to Combat Corona Virus Challenges

‘I don’t want others to understand me’ said no one ever. It’s the human desire to be understood and loved by all. Empathy is a practice of understanding others, acknowledging their pain and standing by them. 

The same sentiment exists between an employer and an employee. They both want to be understood, and need each more, especially at testing times like this pandemic. 

I want to share 5 ways employers and employees can be emotionally intelligent and display empathy towards each other while working remotely and combating #Covid19. 

 EMPLOYERS CAN: 

1.Conduct video town halls, all hands meetings, etc. and reassure one and all that we are #inthistogether. Be vulnerable and share your personal experiences. This will encourage others to express themselves too and build trust.

 2. Acknowledge the hard work and dedication of the entire team - every single person. It is truer now than ever that ‘we are all fighting a battle no one knows of’. We all have a version of our pandemic struggle that is unique to us and our family.

 3. Encourage one and all to take care of themselves, of their family and take time off as needed. Work can wait, right now it truly can and has come to standstill to a great extent. The importance of attending to kids and family during this time shouldn’t be neglected.

 4. Provide discounted / free subscriptions for online kids’ classes, webinars on wellness etc. Staying healthy is never canceled and should be a priority always, pandemic or not. Providing some free or discounted resources to employees and their kids during this time will be well appreciated and build loyalty.

 5. Communicate timely updates, conduct check-ins on the #covid19outbreak situation. There are multiple sources of information out there but the reliability factor is not the same for all of them. It is important to share trusted news and updates with colleagues when possible, not only about the pandemic situation but also about the anxiety and stress colleagues might face during these times of uncertainty around their job security and safety.

 EMPLOYEES CAN:

1. Share each other’s work. Lend a helping hand whenever possible. Due to cancellations or pauses on multiple initiatives across the organization and the country in response to the pandemic, many colleagues have additional time on them to be helpful to others. Reach out to the teams you believe you can add value to. Cross out of the swim lanes and use those transversal skills to your advantage. There are many out there who need your help, especially the communication team as well as the social media teams.

 2. Keep your team posted about your availability. Everyone’s schedules are going to get impacted to some degree in this unique situation. While working remotely, it is important to be transparent and keep others posted of your availability to set realistic expectations.

 3. Perform your tasks with integrity, knowing that the organization is counting on them and needs your contribution. Micro management is a pain, but the good news is that we can avoid it by building trust and being transparent. If we take responsibility and ownership of our tasks and demonstrate integrity, we will be awarded with autonomy and trust.

 4. Be flexible about changing directions from the management. We are all trying to be as nimble as possible and responding to happenings as quickly as we can. There are many things that are not in our control right now and things are changing rapidly. Trust that your management has your best interest in mind and is trying to focus on time sensitive, critical tasks first.

 5. Stay focused on the customer experience and proactively share thoughts / ideas to improve that experience at time of this crisis. Absolutely nothing can and should take away our focus from the end customer, once we are in business in any capacity. Every person in the organization, regardless of customer facing or not, regardless of management or not, needs to keep customer experience at the center of all decisions they make and all actions they take. We are all in the service business after all.

 In a nutshell, when we lean on to one another and practice kindness, the divide between work and personal diminishes, the relationship between employer and employee improves and we are able to be humans first and relate with each other at that level.

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