Leadership through resilience
When the unexpected happens, needs can morph overnight: needs that are sometimes difficult to articulate, let alone meet. It could be said that the definition of resilience is how people handle work and life in times of rapid change, so when you’re dealing with the needs of others as well as your own, the pressure is magnified.
Flexing to the demands of a pandemic, the business world has had to reorganise its priorities and ways of working. As the memory of the restrictions fade, we talk to leadership coach and strategist Clint Evans about the resilience challenges leaders have had to deal with – both theirs and those of their teams.
The pressure
‘I’m going to be honest, for leaders this has been an arduous time,’ he says. ‘Having to make profound changes so quickly in terms of method and style of leadership has been extremely taxing. Trying to lead a team remotely can be like working in the dark.’
He explains that in many cases it has accelerated the amount of progress an individual may have made in a post, condensing what they might have otherwise learned over five years down into two and a half. All in all, an exhausting process.
When the learning curve doesn’t level off
‘We’ve opened up different channels of working, which is good for employees but poses specific challenges for leaders,’ Clint says.
He shares a little insight on areas of development that will be ongoing:
- Meetings: mixing online and face-to-face participants in the same meeting can make for a poor dynamic, so how do we put together a schedule that works for everyone?
- Real estate: juggling the needs of office, home and hybrid working has implications for real estate. Fluctuating levels of occupancy may require unfeasible levels of flexibility. How do we go about managing this?
- Organising a team: do you open hubs or try hot-desking? How do you manage productivity and cohesion when people are working at different times in different places?
‘These days, profitability means being attractive to the people you want to work for you, but managing the options open to them in terms of where and when they work won’t always be easy,’ he says.
The antidote
Clint knows that making a positive difference starts with finding out how well invested a company is in its people and purpose, and how well they communicate with their teams.
Leaders play a key role in this, with one important added element: instead of modelling oppressive schedules and burn-out-inducing long hours, Clint encourages leaders to model self-care, self-investment and self-awareness.
‘Having been a CEO and COO, I come in from the leader’s perspective. I know what they’re going through,’ he says. ‘Sometimes I’m the trusted sounding board asking the clever questions but as a WRAW practitioner, my role as mentor and coach is about being inquisitive. How do we marry together the needs of business and humans?’
Going forward, we need to acknowledge and appreciate the huge strain put on leaders in recent times, but ensure that in putting things back together we don’t lose the best parts of the past two years.
We’ve lived through a time of great reorganisation and reinvention, so let’s not lose our sense of innovation and ingenuity. What have we learned about the connection between wellbeing and productivity, and what does this look like in real life?
Clint believes it starts with standing back and putting human needs at the centre of the process. Get in touch if you would like to hear more. We would love to hear your thoughts!