Leadership Post Pandemic
As we navigate through unprecedented times, we leaders face challenges to redefine how we create value and explore new initiatives to achieve employee cohesion for the road ahead.
The pandemic has been transformative, unsettling, stressful and traumatic. As leaders, we are constantly resetting what we have known as “normal” by elevating our abilities to engage, collaborate, manage relationships, and perform tasks between the virtual and physical space with employees.
Throughout the pandemic, boundaries for both leaders and employees between work and home got blurred. As leaders, we must understand that employees may be coping with financial or relationship difficulties and, incidentally, juggling multiple hats with competing priorities.
We must view each employee individually and from a Holistic Perspective, recognizing that employees’ experiences go beyond work. Hence, a shift in mindset is significant in achieving this goal. If we take a holistic approach, we can view challenges considering the inter-relationships of their parts rather than just the function itself or an event on its own.
An elevated level of Emotional Intelligence will be the attraction we leaders need to move things forward. Self-awareness, empathy, humility, a growth mindset and having the ability to commit to noticing, articulating, and regulating emotions so that teams can do the same. Leading teams during challenging and uncertain times will go a long way. Being an emotionally intelligent leader does not mean perfection, but starting to recognize, understand, and learn how one’s internal emotions influence external results, will be necessary.
Psychological Safety is at the heart of most employees, and the critical challenges facing organizations since the pandemic will continue to prevent employee burnout and high turnover and improve employee well-being. It can be particularly challenging when employees work remotely or in hybrid schedules. We leaders must elevate our abilities to create or enhance psychological safety for our employees as they must be able to speak freely and bring their whole selves to work.
Organizations, in general, must also bear in mind that their employees are responsible for delivering to their customers, and they are also perhaps a parent, a homeschooler, a caregiver and much more in the context of psychological safety. Therefore, creating meaningful engagement and experiences that impact individuals, work, and organizational culture is imperative.
I hope my blog today will help us, leaders, reset our priorities and adopt a more human-centred and agile approach to leadership.
Change is difficult, but if we approach our employees holistically, apply high emotional intelligence, and foster a psychologically safe space for our employees, we can help navigate these unprecedented times for the road ahead.
