Observation
Leadership comes in many different forms – empathy and succinct advice are part of that tool kit!
It’s tough being a grandparent – no seriously!
Many of our friends, perhaps not surprisingly, have recently also reached this elevated status and our conversations have many common themes – ‘what is the role of a grandparent?’, ‘how do you support without interfering?’, ‘do you offer advice (no!)’ and so on.
‘I am not yet ready to sit in the corner and drink sherry.’
‘Our only role is to love the grandchildren and have fun.’
These are two comments from friends and they have really resonated with Julie and I.
The first captured the shifting of the generations and the unease that creates. It showed an empathy for how we were feeling because our friend, a successful and active tech entrepreneur – not a typical sherry drinker at all, was sharing how he felt and it mirrored our own experience.
The second observation has proved very practical. When we have been thinking about what we do, we have often referred back to these words of wisdom.
Of course neither statement is comprehensive nor applies in all situations but they have been really helpful!
As a New Year starts, I am sure that many of you will have detailed plans, schedules and budgets. Just remember that sometimes demonstrating empathy and providing simple, succinct practical advice is as powerful as any 100 page deck or multi layered communication strategy.
Challenge
Do not assume your organisation will hum
as it did in the past!
‘After 21 years of teaching, it usually takes me two weeks to have a new class really humming. Four months after the start of this school year I have yet to achieve this and that is down to Covid., It is worse this year than last year. It is like trying to herd barn cats.’
Stephanie Cotterill
Elementary School Teacher,
Farmer’s daughter and my cousin-in-law.
West Virginia
I don’t know Steph that well, we typically only meet up every couple of years, but she strikes me as very grounded and competent, not inclined to fanciful statements, if she says this is how it is, I believe her.
What really concerns me is the parallel with the business world that I do know. What impact will two years of home working, with only occasional fragmented times in the office, have on your workforce?
The lack of regular reinforcement and interaction will have weakened; the existing culture, the ways of working and the effectiveness of meetings. This will only be compounded by the development of:
new ways of working - how many days a week are you in?
societal norms - why can’t I live in the Outer Hebrides and work in Milton Keynes?
customer expectations - what do you mean, I can’t do it online?
new colleagues who have never physically met - who are you?
Given these challenges I suspect it will be better to plan for having to herd cats than naively expecting a humming organisation once Covid has retreated (whether Omicron is the dark before the dawn or just another continuation of the nightmare).
Practical Action
Invest now or you risk having a barn full of cats.
Each organisation will have a unique context and will need to respond differently to the challenges I describe above. Here’s what I would be tempted to think about: Define The Problem As a leader, I’d spend time trying to understand if there is a problem and if so how I would articulate the challenge including the opportunity that comes out of addressing it. I’d then start socialising that view amongst my colleagues and testing out parts of it by listening and observing across the whole organisation. I think this is a CEO and leadership team challenge and not just an HR one and therefore at some point I’d engage the Exec Team to agree on the problem/opportunity and the action that flows from it. As ever it will be competing with many other priorities but my own view is that this is likely to be time critical and that drives it up the agenda. Hopefully at some point in 2022 colleagues will be returning to a ‘new normal’ and as they do that, can you as leaders afford not to nurture the evolving culture, to shape the ways of working and raise the capability of individuals to operate in the new world? Double Down On A Few Key Areas My starter for ten would be:
the culture – now is the time to ‘stand up for what you stand for!’
signature processes and meetings – they are the battle rhythm of the organisation
roles – many roles will not look the same as they did two years ago (and even if they are the same, it will be good to confirm that).
Enablers To help the above, I’d ensure the following:
start with yourself – as leader what you do, not what you say, will have most impact
have individual development plans for your Exec – it will help them think about their own role and behaviour
engage L&D – this needs to be built in to the long term fabric of the organisation
listen – find ways of having a better understanding of what is going on for all your key stakeholders (colleagues, customers, partners etc).
There will many organisational consequences of Covid. Do not allow yourself to be sucker punched in to believing high performance will return without significant leadership effort.
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