Daisy Lovelace* says there are three effective ways managers can support their teams as offices reopen.
We’ve entered a new phase of the pandemic. Offices, campuses, and businesses are starting to reopen as new variants threaten the return of prior covid protocols.
What does this mean for managers? It means your team needs you now, more than ever.
They need you to be flexible, vulnerable, and a good listener who will continue to support them through tough times.
As a manager, it’s your job to help your team adapt to this new world of work.
Some members of your team will be elated about returning to the office.
Others may be more cautious about coming back, and may prefer to be fully remote or a hybrid option.
Some may have personal or financial considerations, like inconsistent childcare, elderly care, or other family needs that may add constraints to their availability for a while.
To best support your team, leaders need to be flexible in their approach to work and focus on rebuilding trust with the group.
In this post, we’ll talk about how to support your teams in the transition ahead.
- Show humility and vulnerability
If we’re being completely honest with ourselves, most of us were not at our best at different times throughout the pandemic.
Managers can show they are human too by being vulnerable about how this transition is impacting all of us.
How can you build trust with your team so they can do what they need to do for themselves personally, while maintaining successful outcomes at work? Try these tactics.
- Be humble.
You don’t have all the answers. Neither does anyone on your team.
But if you pool the knowledge, expertise, and experiences of all of you, you’re positioning the team to address the challenges ahead.
- Open up.
Share information about yourself and your own experiences. Some leaders may have the instinct to keep their insecurities and challenges to themselves.
If you’re having a hard time with something, it’s okay to talk about it.
Doing so will empower your teammates to open up and talk about their own experiences.
When you demonstrate vulnerability, you give others permission to do so as well.
And remember, vulnerability is not a sign of weakness.
Both humility and vulnerability signal strength, maturity, confidence, and trust.
- Listen carefully to understand what each team member needs in this transition
We’re all stronger as a result of the lessons we learned during the height of the pandemic.
As we return to normalcy, the needs of your team may vary.
And as a manager, it’s important for you to understand the unique challenges and needs of your teammates, which likely have changed, or may be fluid.
Consider implementing short-term changes to support your co-workers during this phase.
To best support your team, you want to get a good understanding of their work-related psychological, social, emotional, and other needs.
Rather than assume you know what’s going on or guess, listen to your employees so you can partner with them to creatively and collaboratively find solutions.
There are three types of listening that will help you better understand your team’s needs:
- Active listening.
While giving your undivided attention, listen for clues as to what your employees have experienced and what they’re saying they need.
Paraphrase what you’ve heard to demonstrate your listening and make sure you’re accurately understanding their concerns.
Nodding your head and leaning forward are non-verbal ways to signal you’re engaged.
- Uninterrupted listening.
And as you engage, it’s important to listen closely and carefully.
Make sure you’re allowing plenty of uninterrupted airtime.
When you interrupt someone as they’re sharing their thoughts, particularly if it’s about something challenging, you signal you’re not really interested, think you know better, or you don’t have the time to really engage.
This is all counterproductive.
- Empathetic listening.
It’s important to listen with empathy.
This means you’re listening to get a better understanding, not necessarily to evaluate or provide solutions.
You also don’t want to put things into perspective for the speaker.
Saying, “at least…” to put a situation into perspective is especially unhelpful.
There are often plenty of scenarios we can imagine that are worse than what someone is experiencing.
Sharing them doesn’t help.
“At least you’re alive” isn’t what your colleague with a broken arm wants to hear.
Remember to suspend judgment as you listen to their concerns.
When you show your ability to listen and hear different perspectives you’re demonstrating to the team that you are a manager they can depend on to help them through this transition.
The best part of these approaches is you don’t have to solve the problem alone.
Your employees most likely have ideas in mind for arrangements that would make them feel supported and valued.
Create a safe space for your team, empower them to share ideas with you, and then you can decide what you can reasonably implement.
- Show your team that you have their back
Opening up about your own hurdles and listening to what your team needs is important, but if you can’t show your team that you have their back, then the rest is all for show.
Take action and help your team get what they need through this transition by:
- Communicating company decisions that impact them.
When we don’t have information, we’re more likely to assume the worst, particularly when situations are challenging.
If you make decisions that impact your team, tell them what’s happening.
You can empower your team to provide input, or make decisions about your collaborative efforts.
If you don’t have to make all the decisions, give your teammates the opportunity to weigh in and share their ideas and opinions about how you tackle projects.
- Demonstrating trust.
Trust is a two-way street that’s fuelled by reciprocity.
If you show me you trust me, I’m more likely to trust you and show you you’re right in trusting me.
The cycle continues. You trust me, so I trust you.
Be the first one to take this step. Think about the ways you can demonstrate you trust your team.
It might be a flexible work policy, offering flex time, or cutting back on your oversight of their work.
Again, this can be a short-term pilot, not a permanent change.
- Investing in your team.
Find training and upskilling opportunities for the people on your team.
You’re showing you believe in their potential by investing resources in their skill development.
Making this investment will not only signal you believe in your team, but it will also yield better outcomes for your efforts.
Since the pandemic hit in 2020, there’s been a lot of speculation about what the world of work will look like when things reopen.
And truthfully, we still don’t know what the rest of 2021 will bring.
There’s an incredible amount of uncertainty, but there’s one thing we can be absolutely certain of.
As a leader, your team will need your support to best navigate whatever challenges are ahead.
*Daisy Lovelace is an Associate Professor of the Practice at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University.
This article first appeared at linkedin.com
