Lockdown sucks. Truly. Apologies for some London-centric posting of late, it may not feel relevant to friends and family in Cayman where they are Covid-free, or even the USA where very little of the country is under restrictions, but when you live in London, we are in true lockdown and it both sucks and is a little scary. After all, approaching 1 in 15 people within my local radius currently has Covid and we have a dominant strain of the virus that spreads 70% faster than before, so yes it is feeling pretty claustrophobic right now. Lockdown sucks.
What to do as leader, well, start with being empathetic. The other day I wrote “Leading through Lockdown” , giving three areas to focus on in leadership and communications right now. The first ot the three is empathy.
To me, empathy is listening to someone and being able to say “I get what you feel” and it is all about listening, not about being in conversation and responding too quickly with “yes, let me tell you about my problems and how I feel”.
However, when times are tough and everyone is going through this in their own way, sometimes it can create space for people to share where they are if you first simply acknowledge that you feel impacted by the situation we are all sharing. How much detail you share is up to you (I suggest very little if you are truly listening with the intent to understand and empathise with someone else), but share a little, to begin with.
Having created that space, then listen, ask them how they are, truly be open, keen to listen, to understand where they are and how they feel. We are all going through this together, it is having an impact on all of us as humans, so we cannot robotically act as if all is “fine” at work. First, let us look to understand ourselves and others, then (and only then) move on to steps 2 and 3 from my Leading through Lockdown post.
Right, writing this the day before 8am posting (as normal), it is 16:00 (4pm to my American friends) and getting dark. 4pm and getting dark. Going to post this then call it a day. Tomorrow is another day and “this too shall pass”!