Leading in a (Long) Crisis
This week I am sharing insights and strategies for managing stress and preventing burnout. We typically associate burnout with work fatigue but in a crisis like the one(s) we are facing today, many different sources of stress compound to put us at greater risk.
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Monday we explored stress and the brain and Tuesday we put our emotions in perspective. Today we'll talk about how to talk about these challenges as a team. Wednesday we talked about how to talk about these challenges as a team. Today we're looking at how we lead our teams by example in a crisis.
Leadership is challenging on a normal day. Leadership in a crisis feels impossible, but it's how we show up in times like this that tells us what kind of leader we are.
We can start by supporting your team in the themes we've already discussed this week:
Encourage people to take time off, then track it and follow up with anyone who isn't taking their holiday/vacation. What’s stopping them from giving themselves the space to rest and recover?
Create boundaries for your team. For example, let them know you don't expect them to be on email at all hours... or better yet, only email them during working hours. Even if you do some work on the weekend, save drafts to go to your team on Monday.
Set healthy boundaries yourself. Many of us have leaned into work as a coping mechanism. Myself included. My work has provided me a sense of purpose, connection and distraction, but I know if I am not careful it will overtake all of my waking (and dreaming) time. Take care of yourself so you have the energy to take care of your team, and remember: stress automatically trickles down from a leader to their team.
Influence responsibly. Another reason to set healthy boundaries and manage your own stress: Your team pays attention to the choices you make, and takes guidance from them. For example, are you still answering email while on "vacation"? Think about the signal that sends to others about how we expect them to spend their time away.
Don't neglect the now. Sometimes we are so focused on planning for the future we don't pay attention to the needs of the business today. Check in with your team regularly about how they're doing and what they need, and use that information to adapt more effective and efficient ways of working (more on this tomorrow). This sets us up better for a future we can't predict.
Lead with a growth mindset. Invite feedback on how we can support our people better. Welcome mistakes (ours and theirs) as opportunities to learn. Let's give our teams and ourselves some grace and some space. That’s how we'll all continue to show up and do our best work.
Practices: Crisis Leadership
For Myself: There's never been a better time to start a mindfulness practice.
With My Team: See above.
Tomorrow: Focus & Flex - Identifying what is most important to business/client success and reorganizing accordingly