When it gets murky, create clarity
Sheesh, just when we could see the vaccination light coming over what’s been a very steep and treacherous hill, we’ve had our line of sight cut off by the debris of uncertainty. Last week, I was running a face-to-face session with a team; this week has been about rescheduling and redesigning for potential virtual sessions again. I’m feeling okay about it, but we’re seeing some very strong reactions from people who were banking on that light on the hill being reachable without too much more disruption.
If you’re seeing some of that play out with the people you lead, you might help by providing some clarity. I had a lot of conversations about change, uncertainty and the unknown with different people during Aotearoa’s first lockdown. Out of those conversations, a strong theme emerged: leaders and teams who felt most in-balance during that time reported clarity about what was expected of them and what they could expect back. People who reported feeling off-balance, tired and stressed were also often doing massive workdays alongside the critical roles they played in keeping their loved ones feeling safe and cared for.
It made me think about how uncertainty really shakes us. Right now, especially over the next week (at least), is the time to pay attention to this for your people. And clarity is one way to do that. In my Potent Leaders programme, we focus on clarity as one of the key elements of building belonging. When we don’t have clarity, we second guess what’s expected of us. It leads to issues like ‘looking busy’ in the hope we make a good impression. Or feeling like we are out on our own because we don’t know when we’re expected to put our hand up and ask for help. During lockdown, it meant people worked those massive days because they assumed they had to justify their place by being logged on all the time. If some of that sounds familiar, I say pause and try something to create clarity about what’s expected. One thing I learnt from that first lockdown is that the leaders who made the biggest difference for their people were the ones who created clarity of expectation. It meant people didn't have to second guess what was expected of them, nor be unsure what they could ask of others in their team or their leader. What did that look like? Here are a few things:
What’s our turnaround time on responding to requests for help? 2 hours was a magic number because it meant people could do things like a family walk without checking their phone every 10 minutes. They could be present.
How visible do we need to be to each other? Teams who did this well tended to have a daily check-in at – say – 9:30 (after the kids are set up for school), and an optional social check-in later in the day. Some teams included an end of day check in as well. And that was it.
Express what you need and why it’s important: Leaders who gave their people the space to talk about what they needed so they could contribute meaningfully seemed to get more from those people. In return, those leaders were up front about what they needed from their people over that time.
What are you offering to contribute? It’s not all about taking; teams who got through knew what each person was bringing. The offer could be anything – assistance on bits of work, a mental break phone call to shoot the breeze, my favourite story was a guy who did online quizzes with a colleague’s kids while she did a draft review for him – love it!
Keep checking in: What someone needs and can offer one week might change the next, so keep checking in as a team to make sure what you all agreed to still holds. Expect it to change along the way.
If you're thinking this might be the way to go this week, feel free to download the Clarity experiment I use with people in Potent Leaders. You could go 1:1 for this, or approach it as a team to create clarity about what people need in order to achieve a balance of wellbeing and contribution.
Take good care of yourself, create connection with others, build belonging.