While we see some stability in the social and economic environment, the crisis is far from being over. We continue to experience job cuts, closure of businesses, sharp cost escalation thus prices across all industries moving away from the targeted consumer. That being that we also see large conglomerates and banking sector recording historically high bottom-lines during 1Q this year.
Broadly, these are extremely challenging times and one may say that the worst is yet to come when you analyse the country’s foreign revenue numbers and still mounting debt. We are in the midst of a global economic slowdown and worst ever economic crisis locally.
In times like these our employees struggle. They are stressed. They are afraid. They are worried about their job security and future. They are worried about their ability to provide for themselves and their families. Truth be told, you are likely feeling some of the same things.
Yet, as a manager, you are required to soldier on. Budgets have to be managed, sales targets have to be met, escalating costs have to be recovered and difficult decisions have to be made to ensure the ongoing viability of your organisation.
Acute strategy and effective execution are key to stay afloat during tough times and to do that you need every employee to be on the same page in terms of changes at hand and the organisation response. Batting out with people and winning with people is the only way out. This is best done with effective leadership communication. And communication in a crisis situation is a deep science and creative art which all managers need to master.
Have you ever responded to a colleague or direct report in a way that left them feeling unheard or unappreciated, even though that was not your intention? Perhaps you gave them a prescriptive solution when what they needed was an empathetic ear.
Or maybe you emphasised deadlines, task-related commitments, and accountability at a time when what they needed from you was compassion and understanding. As a manager, it is likely that you have experienced this at some point. These types of experiences are even more likely to occur during periods of crisis like the one in which we currently find ourselves.
It is of paramount importance to attend to the needs, fears, and concerns of your employees. It is also vital that you solve pressing problems and make critical decisions necessary to sustain the business. The problem is that these two things require us to activate different parts of our brain. And, we can sometimes get stuck in either the network in our brain that enables that task-focused attention needed to solve problems, or in the other network that facilitates reflection, compassion, and social connection.
Listen to your employees more
To be most effective in leading and truly helping our employees, however, we need both networks. We need to understand them and their specific challenges and we need to relate to their feelings and emotional state. We need to form and confirm our thoughts about their perspective and we need to be open to hearing and seeing what they hear, see, and feel. How do these two networks work in our brains — and how to become more adept at balancing both?
How am I processing things at this moment? Am I thinking about concrete facts, details, or solutions? Or, am I reflecting more openly and creatively about possibilities? Am I thinking about what is objectively right or wrong? Or, am I weighing the relative merits of what seems fair or morally just?
What types of situations or activities tend to pull me into the analytic network? When am I most likely to be pulled into the empathic network?
On the whole, do I spend more time in the analytic network or the empathic network?
There are a variety of ways to exercise your empathic and analytic neural network “muscles.” A useful approach is to spend more time exercising the network that you are less likely to use. It is similar to the benefit of a right-handed batsman working on batting with their left hand to improve their overall stroke play for a better striking rate to win the game.
Have daily conversation with managers in which your sole purpose should be to understand the other person, not to solve their problem or give advice. Foundation for communication success is knowing your people – their attitudes and perspectives on issues.
When you are listening to someone, stop whatever else you are doing or thinking about and try to give that person your full attention. Attempt to listen beyond what you hear, tuning into to the whole picture of what you hear and see, like body language, tone of voice, emotional cues, facial expressions. If you think there is something you know with relative certainty, push yourself to challenge that assumption and consider other possibilities.Schedule specific windows of time within which to complete certain tasks. Hold yourself to those committed windows, even if they are not actually firm deadlines.
Identify a situation at work that requires a new approach to reach a successful outcome.
Practice balancing both
When you have mastered the ability to be more aware of when you are either operating in the analytic or empathic network at any given time, and you have developed the capacity to activate either network upon demand, you are then ready to practice effectively balancing the two networks. Again, both networks are important. Your objective here is to develop an ability to seamlessly toggle back and forth between the two networks as necessary.
Be clear on your intention. We may sometimes be aware of a need to toggle from one network to the other, but consciously choose not to do so. In other words, sometimes it is not an ability issue, but instead a motivation issue.
When making and communicating a decision that impacts others, think about potential personal implications of the decision. Spend time attending to these relational aspects in addition to the technical ones.
The analytic and empathic networks are waging a constant battle in your brain. When one is activated, the other is suppressed. You don’t have to choose sides, however. It is not that one is good and the other is bad. You actually need them both.
The key to maximising your effectiveness as a leader and having more productive relationships is learning to be more aware of which network is activated at any given time and being able to seamlessly toggle back and forth between the two as necessary.