Three Questions You Should be Asking About the Coronavirus but Probably Are Not?

What Reporting Requirements Do We Have for People Who Are Ill? Normally, medical information on individual workers should be kept private, unless the person who is ill seeks to disclose their health problems to others. Yet with the current situation, the need to protect the public health will (most likely) trump any privacy rights. In addition to disclosing the information to co-workers, you may have an obligation to report to government agencies. Here is some general information with links that may prove useful: Restricting Employees Work Related Travel in Light of the Coronavirus Threat and Insights on Coronavirus (legal issues the coronavirus threat raises for businesses).

How Can We Continue to Maintain and Build a Positive Culture When Our People Are Afraid and Discouraged? Given the fear many have of becoming ill, as well as the inevitable financial disruptions of the virus, your people may be working remotely, afraid of layoffs or even business closings. While most will manage to cope, there are things you can do as a leader to help. As Daniel Goleman has documented the research in his book Social Intelligence, humans evolved to stay alive and safe by dwelling in tribes. For most of us, our brains suffer from depression and our spirits darken with social isolation. With many of your people working remotely or not at all, how can you keep them connected?

How Can We Continue Educational and Development Opportunities? Most of us didn’t plan on or welcome the current pause, yet given the reality, how can we use the crisis to learn and grow? When life hands you lemons…

I heard an interview today with Dr. Michael Dowling, the President and CEO of Northwell Health, New York State’s largest healthcare provider and the largest private employer in the state of New York. Dr. Dowling leads a clinical and research workforce of 72,000 and oversees revenues of $13.5 billion. He reminded listeners that while we’re not in control of what happens to us, we can always impact our response to what happens.

What Should You Do?

1. Reporting.In these times, it’s critical to consult your employment counsel for advice on what you should and should not be doing with your workforce. Don’t go it alone.
2. Consider How You Can Keep People Connected.In addition to conference calls, online meetings and other virtual business tools, don’t forget to try creative events to raise people’s spirits. Here’s a sampling of the most innovative ideas I’ve collected:

• Asking remote workers to show pictures of their home office and pets during virtual meetings.
• Hosting virtual after hours “happy hours” where your workers are encouraged to bring adult (or other) beverages, snacks and the like. Asking people to share recipes and hold contests for the best “happy hour” snacks.
• Encouraging PG rated pajama contests where volunteers share pics of the pajamas they’re wearing to work.
• Seven minute “exercise challenges” where someone leads safe exercises that everyone can do.
• Holding online book and movie clubs where colleagues share what they’re reading and watching.

In general, encourage but don’t require people to attend these events but allow people to be creative in suggesting their own culture-building opportunities.

For more suggestions about dealing with difficult times, go to:

Leading Through the Storm – The Eagle Perspective

Leading Through the Art of Inquiry

3. Step Up Educational and Other Development Opportunities. Most live classes, events, conferences and the like have been cancelled or postponed. Again, this provides a unique opportunity to continue and even step up your employees educational and other development opportunities. Ask your providers to do online versions of the same material. Consider what’s been on your list as a leader of development opportunities that you’ve always wanted to provide for your people but haven’t been able to because they’re always traveling, booked, or you don’t have the budget. With so many events cancelled, you may have new opportunities to grow your people. In addition, ask them what kind of continuing education they’ve been wanting to do and listen to their suggestions. Most of our material, for example, can be offered in a virtual format and we’re always developing new workshops, coaching and the like.

Is Working From Home Working? A Mixed Bag

THE BACK AND FORTH OF REMOTE WORK:  Many of my tech clients were ahead of the trend in allowing remote work a couple of decades ago. Ironically, just as less tech-focused companies started allowing some or all of their employees to work from home, some or all of the time, my same clients started sending people back to the office. According to a SHRM article of May 7, 2019, IBM, Yahoo, Aetna and Best Buy were just a few of the companies detailing workers back to their brick and mortar buildings, sometimes generating wails or protests.

WHY REMOTE WORK DIDN’T WORK:  According to research at the time, those most successful working at home had worked with others at the worksite before, had similar work styles, liked one another, had access to high-end technology and were skilled at using it. Unfortunately, most work groups did not have all those factors, leading to all kinds of problems.

SOME REMOTE WORK CHALLENGES:  Psychologists who have studied remote work problems point to “attribution error”, for example. If someone is not in the office, we probably assume that something came up. If we cannot reach them at home, however, we may assume that they are slacking off. Also, other studies have found that people tend to work better when they are surrounded by others who are working hard, and some studies have found that up to two-thirds of remote workers are disengaged. My clients who have seen the pendulum of remote work swing both ways found collaboration harder to create and sustain. Last, but certainly not least, a recent SHRM survey of managers supervising remotely since the pandemic lockdown, has found that a majority found managing more difficult. (As if it was not already difficult enough!)

What Should You Do?

DON’T ASSUME: While some recent reports have suggested that companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter and so on have told employees they can work from home indefinitely, don’t be surprised if the trend swings back again. Also, not everyone WANTS to work from home. Young workers who live alone may depend on work for social ties, and those of us with kids, dogs, and laundry multiplying all over the house may be relieved to return to their office or cubicle.

TRAIN, TRAIN, TRAIN: If you are a manager, make sure that you learn how to manage remote workers differently. See, for example, my recent Monday Memo on how to do so: The Three Best Ways to Use Remote Tools to Lead Your People Now. Make sure that your people have the skills and training that they need. Also, do not assume that everyone knows how to Zoom or use Microsoft Teams effectively.

CUT EVERYONE SOME SLACK: Especially now, when we are all still emerging from a global trauma, people need time to adjust to the changes – whatever those may be. Do not assume that everyone can maintain the same level of productivity and engagement that they had before.

Tough Talk Now: Why You Can’t Wait to Have That Challenging Conversation

WE ALL WANT TO WAIT:  It’s easy to put things off right now, isn’t it? With many of us unemployed, working from home and/or managing our kids’ schoolwork – not to mention all those shows online you’ve been meaning to binge watch – we all want to avoid having to tackle one more unpleasant task. Yet waiting to have that challenging conversation with an employee or boss is the last thing you should do. Now, more than ever, you need to find a way to say the things that need to be said.

WHY TOUGH TALK NOW:  I’ve been coaching leaders for many years on how to say the things they need to say but can’t seem to find the right time or words. A global pandemic certainly seems like a great excuse to procrastinate, but my view is that is exactly the wrong time to delay.

WHY CEOs FAIL:  One of the most useful research projects I’ve seen is from FORTUNE Magazine. They did a study about why CEOs fail. The problem is not usually in strategy or vision, but in execution, especially the failure to fix people problems. These CEOs frequently avoided the difficult conversation that many people in the organization knew they needed to have with one of their direct reports. Others knew that the staff member needed to hear and implement difficult feedback – or perhaps even be released from the organization – yet the CEO was avoiding the tough talk. Even if you are not a CEO, this failing may hold you back from success.

What Should You Do?

ASK YOURSELF, WHAT IS THE COST OF DELAY?   Every conversational delay has a cost: extra compensation for someone you don’t need, incomplete or shoddy projects from an associate who is just not good at their job, or morale problems from other employees who know that you’re not managing someone well. Even if your people are working from home or furloughed, trust me, they are still communicating. They are on the phone, Snapchat or email gossiping about what’s going on with you and everyone else.

FIND OUT WHY YOU ARE NEGLECTING THE DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS: Is it because you lack the skills, the courage, or the understanding of the current cost of waiting? Have you always avoided conflict? Of course, it’s hard to add to anyone’s anxiety right now, especially if you have to let someone go, but in the long run, you are not doing anyone any favors by failing to give them the feedback they need in order to succeed. Even if you must move them out of the organization, the impact of that move on the perceptions of the other people who are watching your actions IS important. What message are you sending your more competent staff by allowing an associate to slack off or engage in any other unproductive behavior? Right now, you need all your staff — hands on deck, fully engaged and working at capacity, not staff who are avoiding what you need from them to help get through this crisis.

GET THE SUPPORT YOU NEED TO DO THE RIGHT THING: Find a coach, a therapist, a shaman, or a priest to help you buck up your courage and engage in a tough conversation.

DON’T COP OUT ON EMAIL: Even if you cannot meet in person right now, you need to pick up the phone or log in and give them the courtesy of hearing your voice and seeing your expression. If you use your imagination, you may even be able to meet – six feet apart — wearing masks, of course. One of my clients delivered his annual performance reviews to his direct reports in his back yard after sanitizing lawn chairs, ensuring spacing and adding masks to the conversation.

I was inspired by a program on NPR about 88-year-old Nick Avtges of Waltham, Massachusetts. With his wife of sixty some years in assisted living and a virus raging, he had been unable to visit her over the past month. So his children came up with an innovative solution. After polling their Facebook friends, they found someone with a cherry picker, loaded Nick into the bucket and hoisted him up to the third floor. With the pair both wearing masks and gloves, Nick was able to touch his wife’s frail hand on the window screen, while holding up his handmade sign that proclaimed: “I love you, sweetheart.” Nick’s assessment after his adventure: “Even now, there’s always a way around things if you try hard enough!”

For more strategies and skills on how to have tough conversations, go to www.workplacesthatwork.com.

Managing Fear For Yourself and Your Staff: The Hidden Reason We’re Afraid Right Now!

FEAR RUN RAMPART:  Most of us are managing fear right now and for good reason. We are being stalked by an invisible assassin, we are worried about loved ones, lost jobs and a world economy in freefall. Yet there is another more hidden reason we are afraid.

A LONELY TIME:  Even if we are cooped up with a partner or a pair of teenagers who are driving us nuts, most of us are coping with a degree of social isolation that is far from our usual life. We can’t go to our usual workplace, the gym, church or temple, or even the park or coffee shop. If you are managing employees remotely, it is useful to remember that they are in this surprising and lonely headspace also.

THE NEURO-PSYCHOLOGY OF LONELINESS:  With rare exceptions, we are herd animals. We gather in packs for all kinds of good – and sometimes not so good – reasons. Our brains have developed over the millennium to remind us that we are safer with our tribe. We are wired to connect. Without our fellows, the deep and primitive parts of our brains react with fear. Psychologist Julianne Holt-Lunstad, for example, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University, reminds us that lacking social connections even puts us at greater health risk. One study, for example, pooled the evidence collected from 70 studies that followed a total of 3.4 million participants for an average of seven years and came up with a startling conclusion: those who are more socially connected live longer, irrespective of what other kinds of health issues they may have.

Researchers believe that loneliness evolved as a kind of early warning system that something is not right, prompting us to get back to the tribe in order to escape saber tooth tigers. That sense of threat can trigger inflammation in the body, leading to tissue breakdown and impairment of the immune system, increasing our susceptibility to conditions ranging from heart disease to Alzheimer’s disease.

After loneliness stimulates a white blood cell inflammatory response, that response feeds back to the brain and makes it irritable, suspicious, and prone to negative emotions, says Dr. Stephanie Cacioppo, Director of the Brain Dynamics Laboratory at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. People who are lonely live at such a heightened level of alarm that they even lose sleep, in addition to daytime bouts of anxiety and depression.

Significantly, researchers tell us that simply being with others will not cure the brain’s negative response. What we need is a shared sense of values and life experiences: we all want witnesses to our lives.

What Should You Do?

TALK ABOUT IT: For leaders who are busy zooming and phoning your staff, be honest about the challenges of isolation. Gently allow your associates to share their feelings and to come up with creative ways to connect, even if they can only do so remotely. Be a courageous model, appropriately sharing your own lonely feelings. And – as I wrote in my last two Monday Memos — prefer video platforms and phone calls over constant emails and texts.

The Three Best Ways to Use Remote Tools to Lead Your People Now The Best Crisis Management Plan Right Now

Remind people of shared values, goals and the witnessing that arises from being part of a team.

BEEF UP YOUR EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM: Therapy can help with loneliness and the resulting negative emotions, especially cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Many therapy groups are working during the pandemic, through phone or Zoom. Encourage your people to take advantage of their services.

CARE FOR YOURSELF: You cannot be an effective leader if your brain is being hijacked by loneliness. Recognize the issue and seek therapy if you need it. Take advantage of what connections you can, reach out of friends, family and colleagues that you haven’t spoken with in years, go through a walk in the neighborhood and smile and nod at your neighbors or chat through your mask at an appropriate distance.

Crisis Management: What Works? Tight Rules or Loose Rules?

THE CRISIS CONTINUES:  It’s hard to find anyone who is not in crisis right now with stay-at-home orders, kids out of school, jobs lost and leaders trying to lead from afar. If you’re a leader or manager in charge, what works best: a tight-fisted rule or one that recognizes and allows individuals to rise to the occasion?

WHO FOLLOWS RULES AND WHY?  In her book, Rule Makers, Rule Breakers, cultural psychologist Michele J. Gelfand details years of research on individuals, organizations and countries about different approaches to rules and their enforcement. In a recent podcast of Hidden Brain, Playing Tight and Loose: How Rules Shape Our Lives, host Shankar Vedantam interviews Gelfand on how her research informs what is effective during the virus crisis. The answer: it depends. While some of us may be natural born rule makers and followers, like the Muppet Kermit the Frog, for example. Others are more like chaos Muppets, such as Cookie Monster. Some people and organizations tend loose, and others tight.

Of course, it’s not just a question of whether you have a lot of rules, but do people follow them? Some countries, such as South Korea, for example, clamped down early and tightly on virus rules. South Korea, Gelfand argues, has historically been a “tight culture”. This may explain their relatively low rates of virus transmission. Other places, such as Italy, which Gelfand characterizes as a “looser” culture, were slower to enact rules, resulting in high rates of transmission, as well as problems enforcing the rules.

MANAGEMENT HEROES?  New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, for example, has gained many fans for his current hard line rules and transparency about New York’s approach to the crisis, even if some argue that he was slower to respond than he could have been. As a former member of his staff argues, even in calmer times, he could drive his staff nuts with his micro-management and his insistence on always asking “And what else?”, even in response to the most detailed presentations. But that approach left him well prepared to lead through the current crisis.

What Should You Do?

HO FOLLOWS RULES AND WHY?  In her book, Rule Makers, Rule Breakers, cultural psychologist Michele J. Gelfand details years of research on individuals, organizations and countries about different approaches to rules and their enforcement. In a recent podcast of Hidden Brain, Playing Tight and Loose: How Rules Shape Our Lives, host Shankar Vedantam interviews Gelfand on how her research informs what is effective during the virus crisis. The answer: it depends. While some of us may be natural born rule makers and followers, like the Muppet Kermit the Frog, for example. Others are more like chaos Muppets, such as Cookie Monster. Some people and organizations tend loose, and others tight.

Of course, it’s not just a question of whether you have a lot of rules, but do people follow them? Some countries, such as South Korea, for example, clamped down early and tightly on virus rules. South Korea, Gelfand argues, has historically been a “tight culture”. This may explain their relatively low rates of virus transmission. Other places, such as Italy, which Gelfand characterizes as a “looser” culture, were slower to enact rules, resulting in high rates of transmission, as well as problems enforcing the rules.

CRISIS MANAGEMENT HEROES?  New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, for example, has gained many fans for his current hard line rules and transparency about New York’s approach to the crisis, even if some argue that he was slower to respond than he could have been. As a former member of his staff argues, even in calmer times, he could drive his staff nuts with his micro-management and his insistence on always asking “And what else?”, even in response to the most detailed presentations. But that approach left him well prepared to lead through the current crisis.

What creative ways have you found to lead your team remotely? Call or write us at: 303-216-1020 or Lynne@workplacesthatwork.com

Leading Through Crisis: Four New Rules

Communication is Key.  As I wrote last week, there’s no substitute for excellent communication during a crisis. In addition, leadership generally faces four other gordian knots during the current Covid-19 crisis.

1)  Wrong Information:  As we’ve seen over the last few weeks, information changes daily, sometimes hourly. The brilliant plan you constructed with your team last week may be worthless tomorrow.

2)  Fearful or Weak Leadership:  Although strong, calm and authoritative leadership works best for almost any situation, during a crisis your people will face psychological responses of fear, uncertainly and anxiety. Your job as a leader is to rise above the fray, see the big picture and project your best self.

3)  Poor Decision-Making Skills:  Knowing how to make good decisions is crucial for any leader but with a crisis, a poor decision may cause cataclysmic results. Check out these decision making tips. Want to Bullet Proof Decision Making? Here’s How Decisions! Decisions! How Objective Are You Really?

4)  No Coach:  Almost all of us need a coach for our business during the best of times, during a crisis, it’s easy to feel isolated and hesitant. An effective coach can help you lead through the storm. Read: How to Make Executive Coaching Work for You.

What Should You Do?

1)  Create a Plan:  If you haven’t done so already, put together a team to handle the crisis. It’s important to know who’s on first so that the organization isn’t sending out conflicting messages.

2)  Identify Stakeholders:  Remember that everyone needs to know what you’re doing or not doing: employees, shareholders, lenders, the media and so on.

3)  Have a Consistent Communicator:  The communicator may be someone different from the head of the crisis team but should be a leader with good skills who can be trusted by the public. Ideally, this should be the head of your organization, but if that person doesn’t have good skills, find the next best option.

4)  Create a FAQ Sheet:  Make sure that the team puts together a sheet with facts and frequently asked questions so that each department works from the same information. With a fast-moving crisis like the current virus outbreak, you may have to update those facts on the hour.

5)  Remember Social Media:  With so many rumors and factoids flying around the Internet, don’t forget to have a strategy that takes those sources into account. https://lynne-eisaguirre.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/pdf/LTTS%20THE%20EAGLE%20PERSPECTIVE.pdf

6)  Communicate Through Multiple Outlets:  Some people still read newspapers, others rely on television, some only look at social media, and still others listen to phone messages. Make sure you use different tools in order to reach as many of your stakeholders as possible.

7)  Tell the Truth Fast:  With today’s technologically connected society, your stakeholders will find out the truth eventually from someone else. Be the first to tell them what’s happening so that they trust you and you have a chance to craft a reliable message.

For more information about managing during challenging times, go to “Leading Through the Storm – The Eagle Perspective”.

What Do You Think?

Does your organization have a crisis management plan? Is it currently effective? What have you learned? Call or write us at: 303-216-1020 or Lynne@workplacesthatwork.com