According to many economists, it may be a couple of years before we recover. That means we will be living in turbulence for quite some time.
How do you find stability within this time of uncertainty? How do we continually rebalance and rebuild when things continually change?
First, it is important to recognize there is no going back to normal, there is only what is next. People are confused, looking for hope and healing. Our employees want stability, guidance, and leadership.
To create stability start with our 5Rs Rebalance and Rebuild Your Team™ model.
Restart and Rebalance
To start to rebalance and rebuild your team, you must first start with rebalancing yourself. The more centered we become within ourselves, the better prepared we are to help our teams rebalance, reset, and rebuild.
Step One: Rebalance and Reset
Review what happened, acknowledge and accept it, and reconnect as people. When going through difficulty we put our heads down and focus on what is right in front of us. However, there comes a time when we need to pause and take a breath. Most people want to move on and move forward.
During virtual team sessions, one of the ways we help teams pause, take a breath, review, and connect is by asking a simple but powerful question, “What did they experience as a result of COVID-19, and how are they feeling?”
The power of asking this simple question and allowing people to express themselves in 3-5 words in the chatbox is huge. We are hearing a recurring theme; grateful, exhausted, concerned, fearful about the future, tired, and overwhelmed. Additionally, we ask folks how COVID-19 has directly impacted their lives.
We are now hearing, 3-months into this pandemic that many have personally been impacted by COVID-19.
Taking a few moments to acknowledge what people write and share in the chat, as a leader that demonstrates caring and vulnerability.
Leaders who share their own experiences and concerns, and who acknowledge people’s experiences and emotions create a deep sense of connection and trust. Connection and trust is fundamental to rebuilding the team and moving forward.
Step Two: Rejuvenate
We are months into the COVID-19 pandemic and economic uncertainty. Life as we knew it, our work life, our home life, our friendships, is forever changed. Based on sentiment, most people have become more cautious and fearful. This is a stress reaction. As leaders, if we are stressed, we are less resilient, agile, and productive.
We need to help our teams reduce their stress if we want them to become more resilient, agile, and productive.
To reduce stress, we started our last three client team sessions with a 4-minute guided breath meditation. We led the team through a process that allowed them to acknowledge their stressful feelings and taught them a breath technique that reduces stress.
At the end of 4-minute meditation people said they feel centered, balanced, relieved, energized, and ready to begin again.
When you promote stress reduction you improve resilience. When you improve resilience, people bounce back, become re-engaged, more flexible, adaptive and innovative.
For more tools on how to reduce stress, check out our 3-Part EmergeStronger Stress Series on our website.
Step Three: Reimagine
People cannot reimagine the future if they are tied to the emotional past. Don’t underestimate steps 1 and 2. As I shared before, most people, teams and businesses want to just move on.
Take the time and provide a moment for people to pause and review what happened. Build on past strengths and understand the lessons learned and imagine a new future. It’s like a new beginning.
After you and your team feel re-energized, then outline any lessons learned. To do that, we’ve had our clients use the continue-start-stop method helping them identify, what’s been going well that they want to continue, what they need to start doing to help them reduce overwhelm and become more creative, and finally, what should they stop doing because it detracts from their effectiveness. With this process, teams naturally envision the future and create action plans that they want to achieve.
Step Four: Revitalize.
Energy and inspiration comes naturally when people feel free to share and create their future. When people are included in the solution it gives them a sense of control. There are three things that are essential to help your team revitalize:
Reimagine the possible future. Ensure that what is being imagined is within the control of your team to create. Prioritize, there is no bigger energy drainer than bringing on more to-do’s when we are overwhelmed and tired.
The plans for the future need to include how to stop doing the things that are no longer important and that are out of our control.
Recently, one team wrote down they needed headquarters to stop making requests. This is unrealistic and not within the control of the leader or the team. So, they created a start. The team knew the importance of the goals and put a roadmap together. This helped with 2 things: 1) prioritization and 2) it allowed the leader to set the direction and expectations of senior management.
Step Five: Rebuild
Now that you and/or your team have been able to reimagine the future, it’s time to put plans in place and move forward.
If you would like help with:
Implementing the 5Rs with your team,
Executive coaching,
Bouncing some ideas off of us.