Supporting your people through it all
I’m writing to you from my couch with a toddler on top of me. Literally. We’re watching our 239th animal documentary that I’ve counted as “science class” while the younger kiddo naps.
In between episodes I’ve been having very real conversations with Executive Directors and their senior staff about short and long-term planning for their orgs. There’s a common set of takeaways: understand your org’s financial picture and support your people.
For many organizations, the financial picture is scary and some of you have already had to take the painful step to furlough or lay off staff. I’m really sorry.
For others, there’s some more time. And while it may seem counterintuitive to focus on staff support and retention right now, it’s not.
While people aren’t eager to go on the job hunt, no one wants to feel trapped or taken advantage of in their current workplace. How people are treated now will characterize both your organizational culture and your leadership in the long run. Even if you have to let people go, your actions and approach with your people before, during and after that process will have an impact on your remaining team and even on future hires.
My most simple guidance is that you not hold your breath and wait for this all to pass. It’s clear that this won’t be over any time soon and there will be some hard choices.
Ok, so what are some immediate things you can do for your team? Here you go.
Take the pulse of your team. How are they doing? What other obligations are on their plate? Do they need an adapted work schedule or set up? What is one thing that would help them right away?
Focus on the short term with an eye towards the long term. At a minimum, folks should be preparing to work from home through the summer (despite what certain states are saying right now). Focus on what your team needs to do that successfully, while also setting up building blocks for having a full- or partially-”work from home” team for up to 12 months.
Create a task force or small group focused on this. This is a lot to manage and you don’t have to do it alone. In fact, please don’t. Pull together a range of people from your team - across management levels, departments, and current capacity - to help think through options, put plans in place, and communicate with your teams. The rest of the team will feel relief knowing that *someone* is focused on what’s next and that they will get updates on that plan.
There are a lot more details to navigate, I know. These won’t fix all of your problems, but they are some concrete action steps that will help the people on your team focus their time and energy on their work as fully as possible.
Next we’ll talk about ways to offer individual support for people on your team, including approaches to policies, flexible work schedules, and manager support.
And of course, if you need to talk anything through, we’re here to help.
In social-distance solidarity from the couch,
Lola