Where are you right now on the grief/change curve?
It’s been a pretty turbulent few months and you may feel you’re at the acceptance phase and can see light at the end of the tunnel. It can be easy to assume that everyone is in the same place, emotionally and mentally. That we’ve all been on the same journey and everyone is ready to face this new future and make positive steps towards the ’new normal’. The reality is that this won’t be the case. Individually we will have faced new and different challenges over this period – job insecurity, job loss, grief, managing work and family with the additional pressure of schooling – so it’s likely at this time that some people are still working through phases of the change curve that you may have long passed.
As a leader, empathy is a vital quality and crucial skill which allows you to make deeper connections with your colleagues. Research shows that in organisations where the leadership teams show high levels of empathy, employees show a greater positivity in their jobs and a higher satisfaction in their positions, which leads to an improvement in work performance.
Not everything needs to benefit the bottom line, and this feels like the ultimate win-win.