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Empathetic Leadership: Skills for Leading During High Stress Times
EMPATHETIC LEADERSHIP:
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SKILLS FOR LEADING DURING HIGH STRESS TIMES
Last year’s AEMP University tasks, situations, and even locations that we EquipmentSHIFT 2020 conference count on to do a good day’s work. We are all presented nine interactive redefining the very core of our jobs — what webinars via Zoom focusing on our responsibilities are, where will we perform personal development as a way them, who has authority to make decisions, to elevate yourself and your team. which people require new support, and how By improving our soft skills — our Emotional are we going to pull together these new Intelligence — we are much better equipped variables to meet our goals in what Wally to lead our teams through the uncertainties in Adamchik, President of FireStarter Speaking today’s new work landscape. and Consulting, calls The New Landscape.
As a professional fleet We are in a unique position right manager, you manage business and you lead SELFPERCEPTIONEMOTIONAL & SOCIAL FUNCTIONING now to sharpen our soft skills to get us through today’s people to get projects done correctly and on schedule. During STRESS MANAGEMENT WELL BEING Self-Regard Self-Actualization Emotional Self-Awareness SELF WELL BEING volatility and be better prepared to handle unforeseen wallops normal times, you and your team know your department’s goals and expectations on R PE F O R M A N CE DECISION Flexibility Stress Tolerance Optimism EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE EXPRESSION Emotional Expression Assertiveness Independence PE R F O R M A NCE in the future. Adamchik’s Zoom presentation, The New Landscape Requires New a day-to-day basis. Chances are you manage the business MAKING Problem Solving Reality Testing Impulse Control WELL BEING INTERPERSONAL Interpersonal Relationships Empath Social Responsibility WELL BEING Leadership and Emotional Intelligence, discusses side of your department with skill and efficiency. You also have excellent working EMOTIONAL & SOCIAL FUNCTIONING ©VECTORCREATOR– STOCK.ADOBE. COM how your Emotional Intelligence (EQ) enhances and connects your management relationships with your team members. It’s a and leadership abilities. dual balancing act that calls into play your Adamchik defines EQ as the ability to operations skills and your interpersonal skills. monitor and define our own feelings and
However, this year COVID has emotions, as well of those we manage. Armed unceremoniously upended many of the with that insight we can make emotions
WALLY ADAMCHIK I Make Assumptions
that my data and meaning are accurate, and represent reality.
STEP 5
I Select Data
that I feel is relevant, and discard data that seemms irrelevant.
STEP 2
STEP 3
STEP 4
I Add Meaning
based on what I feel is reasonable, according to the data I selected.
I Adopt Beliefs
based on my conclusions, as if everyone has the same conclusions and beliefs.
STEP 6
STEP
7
I Take Action based on my
beliefs as if they were proven facts. And I adjust new data to fit my beliefs.
I Draw Conclusions
based on my assumptions, and based on what is best for me, and those I care for.
STEP
1 I Experience and Observe
data as a video camera capture data. I hear words, observe body language and collect information.
work for us instead of against us, resulting in better well being, social functioning, and our performance. Adamchik defines these five essential components that configure our EQ:
In a work environment, strong emotional intelligence skills improve decision making, personal well-being, and decrease occupational stress. When applied in a team setting, EQ builds leadership and increases team performance by proactively facing adverse conditions and crisis with clarity and optimism. Adamchik says the people we manage take their cues from how we withstand difficult episodes and the course of action we take. How we manage our stress as we ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ is contagious including knowing how our team members are working through hard times.
Adamchik stresses the importance of fleet managers noticing when a team member appears to be in distress, especially under current conditions. Behaviors that are out of the norm for that person such as unreasonable reactions to other team members, self-isolating, risky behavior, and physical signs of burnout are signals the person is distracted, perhaps dangerously so. Because distractions can result in unintended actions and poor decisions that can have harmful ripple effects on other team members, managers need to step in to find the cause of his worker’s issue and help get that person back on the team’s track.
When helping someone work through a tough issue, your most important leadership tool is looking that someone in the eye and saying “Hey, how are you doing?” with authentic interest and empathy.
Adamchik reminds us that empathy is not about being ‘nice’ or ‘agreeable’. Empathy is the ability to step aside of your own needs and actively listen — acknowledge — the other person’s facts to identify what they may be thinking or feeling. In fact, research has observed that some aspects of empathy can be traced to neurons in the brain that fire when we observe someone else perform an action in much the same way as those neurons would fire if we performed the action ourselves.
Adamchik says too that every person’s individual perspective — and the ways that perspective was formed — determines what
we consider to be our facts. Simply put, your perception is your fact. Accepting and respecting that premise at the beginning of your discussion levels the field for everyone.
Adamchik says to try this: When talking with your employee, envision the conversation between you as taking place on an empty stage. When you ask him/her “Hey, how are you doing?” the spotlight shines on you. When your employee answers, the spotlight redirects off of you and highlights him. By allowing them to keep the spotlight as they talk you convey that the employee’s part of the conversation is your primary immediate focus. You are letting them know in personal and professional terms that what they have to say has value.
WHY NOW?
A bad day at work is one thing, but month after month of everyone having a miserable day at work magnifies the stress across the board. Ignored and left to fester, the stress can reach levels that become unmanageable for the group. The COVID pandemic is a perfect example of blanket distress.
Adamchik identifies the primary COVID stressors as VUCA: ❯ Volatility is the accelerating rate of change. Things are happening so fast and it’s hard to know where to focus. ❯ Uncertainty is the lack of predictability. How can we plan our life if we keep getting blindsided by random events? ❯ Complexity speaks to the interconnectedness of cause-andeffect forces. Who is the expert, who’s the authority, and why are we being forced to play Wack-a-Mole? ❯ Ambiguity adds the strong potential for misreading situations and people, resulting in decisions made with
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mistaken input. Who’s on first? Fleet managers can help workers mitigate their team’s VUCA levels by offering information that may be at their disposal but not at the worker level. Adamchik suggests: ❯ Counter Volatility with Vision.
Explain what upper management is expecting and how they hope to work the situations. ❯ Meet Uncertainty with
Understanding. Allowing others to voice their apprehensions and helping them verify the accuracy of their concerns can help them to deal with known issues instead of anxiety-based assumptions. ❯ Clarity simplifies Complexity. Distill down complicated situations by isolating and prioritizing the components that make up the problem. Provide additional details when possible, and be honest if you don’t have any answers right now.
If Ambiguity has lead to a misread or a mistake, demonstrate Agility by pivoting to another solution. Agility is always forward thinking and is the quickest path to Plan B.
Right now we are all seeking reassurance that the foundational needs that form the employer-employee relationship — physical safety, psychological security, job stability, and flexibility — are secure. Empathetic leaders use their EQ to dial into the needs of their employees and adjust to the moment. The result is a safer and resilient company with a fighting chance to flourish in the middle of a pandemic.
Wally’s The New Landscape Requires New Leadership and Emotional Intelligence video presentation is available free to AEMP members on the AEMP University website under EquipmentSHIFT 2020. Wally Adamchik can be reached at wally@beaFireStarter.com and at www.constructionleadership.com.
EMPATHY IS NOT ABOUT BEING ‘NICE’ OR ‘AGREEABLE’. EMPATHY IS THE ABILITY TO STEP ASIDE OF YOUR OWN NEEDS AND ACTIVELY LISTEN - ACKNOWLEDGE - THE OTHER PERSON’S FACTS TO IDENTIFY WHAT THEY MAY BE THINKING OR FEELING.
Employee COVID Concerns for 2021
In a September 2020 survey titled “Hindsight 2020: COVID Concerns into 2021” managed by the Workforce Institute at UKG, employees from 11 countries were asked how well their management is responding to the COVID pandemic.
Clean and healthy workplaces are meaningless without job security, flexibility, and work-life harmony.
❯ 43 percent say their company’s ability to balance workloads to prevent fatigue and burnout is a top priority. ❯ 59 percent of employees and business leaders said their company have taken some measures to guard against burnout; however, 29 percent of employees wish companies would act with more empathy. ❯ Burnout and fatigue are of equal concern for employees working remotely (43 percent) and those in a physical workplace (43 percent). ❯ Three in 10 employees and business leaders wished their organization had better leveraged technology to provide flexibility, especially when the pandemic was at its most chaotic.
This is especially true for those with families (34 percent), though this technology-focused wish exposes a generational divide between youngest workers (31 percent) to Baby Boomers (19 percent). ❯ More than a third of employees and business leaders (36 percent) are concerned about future layoffs and furloughs due to economic instability created by COVID-19. China (44 percent), Mexico (41 percent), Canada (40 percent), and the U.S. (37 percent) are the most concerned.. ❯ Concerns about job security span all generations: Gen Z and younger
Millennials (35 percent), older
Millennials (37 percent), Gen Xers (36 percent), and Boomers (34 percent) are all equally worried. ❯ 46 percent said quick notification about confirmed COVID-19 cases in the workplace is their top concern. ❯ 32 percent yearned for more communication – both sooner and more transparently – which was noted as primary regret for more than a third (35 percent) of C-level leaders.
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“While organizations made mistakes during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees also recognize the unprecedented nature of this once-in-a-generation event. Instead of dwelling on what went wrong, employees want their employers to adapt and evolve as quickly as possible. Those that have made changes to address and protect employees — specifically physically, emotionally, and with economic stability — have earned newfound employee trust, which will be a valuable commodity that helps ensure future success.”
— Dan Schawbel, best-selling author and managing partner, Workplace Intelligence; advisory board member, The Workforce Institute at UKG
