Among other things, the COVID pandemic is a collective event that has traumatized all of us, including the people you lead. As a leader, you have probably gotten an earful from your staff about how the pandemic is affecting them, whether because of lossed loved ones, isolation-induced depression, a chronic sense of distraction, or any number of different consequences. As much as we might like to pretend we can leave these things behind when we show up for work, we really can’t. We ourselves are the ones who are doing the work, and whatever is going on with us personally will inevitably impact our work.
Psychotherapists and other health care providers have long known that their work must be trauma-informed; that is, they must approach their work in a way that acknowledges the fact that many of their clients are impacted by trauma. Today, especially because of the COVID pandemic, practically all of us need to know how to be trauma-informed in our work. This has special implications for leaders. Fortunately there are some concrete steps leaders can take to respond appropriately to the trauma of their people.
Leaders Must Manage Their Own Trauma
Leaders are under incredible stress right now. First off, they are impacted by the pandemic the way everyone else is. Second, they are also witness to the trauma of the staff that confide in them, which can set off a series of stress reactions referred to as secondary trauma. Third, when staff miss work or are unable to be as productive as they had been in previous times, leaders often jump into the breach to fill in for their staff. Under these trying circumstances, there are a number of actions you can take:
Express Your Emotions to Your People
Make yourself vulnerable and share how you are feeling with your staff. While it might be tempting to put on a face and soldier through without showing how you are really doing, this actually makes it impossible for your staff to know what support you need. It may also reinforce their feelings of self-doubt and inferiority if they compare themselves to you, and to all appearances it looks like you are not bothered by anything that is going on. Sharing your feelings with them makes you more approachable and also allows rallies them to support you and your leadership. It also sets the climate for interactions between the group, creating a permission structure for team members to express emotions with each other, creating a more humane and welcoming workplace environment.
Seek Help as Needed
You will also want to seek help yourself. This could mean hiring a wellness coach, seeing a counselor, going for socially distanced walks with trusted friends or colleagues, or anything else that you do that reduces stress.
Postpone or Cancel Low Priority Work
You should be stringently prioritizing work during this period. Rank projects and job functions according to how critical to success they are to your organization, and work towards postponing or cancelling unnecessary work.
Validate the Trauma of COVID
In both 1:1 meetings and in group meetings, make some time to discuss the personal impact of the COVID pandemic. You may want to circulate articles like this one that describe the mental health impact, and have a group discussion about it. Demonstrating that it is ok to talk about it, and showing that you as a leader understand what people are going through and see their reactions are normal, will go a long way towards building a strong trust relationship with your team. Certain kinds of inappropriate behaviors occur when people are not sure whether the leader is really available to them. If, during this crisis, you can show that you are present and available to your team when times are tough, you may be surprised at the quality of work that your leadership inspires in them.
Encourage Emotional Expression
We talked earlier about the importance of expressing your emotions to your team. You should also encourage your team members to express their feelings to each other. Expressing emotions does not have to be done in a dramatic or unprofessional way. It can be as simple as saying “I’m feeling anxious about going back to the office because I am afraid of COVID”. Without emotions, none of us would have any motivation for work, and we could never create a quality customer service experience, since that depends on a level of empathy and emotional responsiveness. When team members can effectively express their emotions to each other, it will strengthen their trust connection with each other, and better able to find the motivation to keep going.
Encourage Help Seeking Behavior
The work of a team is better when people are able to openly talk about the challenges they are facing and get help from each other. Many project disasters have occurred because the cultural climate became too unsafe for team members to share when they were uncomfortable with a task or overwhelmed by their role in a project. The COVID pandemic offers a lot of opportunities for team members to share their challenges and ask for support from each other. When you see team members doing this, highlight it and show your appreciation.
Make Statements that Define the Team as Resilient and Supportive
Team members are always looking for clues from their leader about how they should behave. Very often, leaders don’t provide enough explicitly guidance to their teams. You should explicitly tell your team how you expect them to behave towards each other and towards you. Consider the following:
I want this to be the kind of team where people are able to directly express how they are really feeling.
I want this to be the kind of team where people can admit when they need help and request it from each other.
If there is a personal issue that is bothering you, it is ok to tell me about it.
What’s important to me is that we all treat each kindly, and that we develop stronger trust of each other over time.
Conclusion
The COVID crisis represents an opportunity for you to define yourself as a leader who can lead in a way that is supportive of everyone even during times of crisis. By following these practices, you may find that the lessons you learned during the pandemic will last a lifetime.