for a new way of doing work DURING THE PANDEMIC by Barb Arnott
Can you share an example of this in-denial approach?
aren’t entrepreneurs are changing the way they see their relationship with their workplaces. Many people are moving into exciting new roles and others are looking to leave workplaces that did not support them during the pandemic. They’re having a say on how to do their job better. Everybody has their own dream for their lives and their work lives. Coaching is there for them to dig in deep to uncover that and make forward movements to achieve the dream. I would hate to go back to normal. So much innovation is coming from this time. How have expectations of leaders changed over the past year? Leaders telling us what’s going to happen does not work and hasn’t worked for the past 16 months. No one can control everything so we need our leaders to listen and ask good questions rather than issue demands and mandates. There are substitutes and neutralizers to leadership. Distance is one of them. What do you do if you’re leading people from a distance? If you trust the people who work for you, it’s probably an easier transition. If you’re a micromanager, you probably freak out. But why would you hire someone you couldn’t trust? Don’t be afraid to help that person come along. No one is inherently bad. The biggest lesson is the acceptance of diversity at every level. We can be inclusive and there can be the mom who has to work from home or the dad who has to work from home a couple days. We need to be a space for everyone at work. Not to tolerate but embrace. Has the pandemic challenged conventional thinking about leadership and management? Servant leadership, visionary, transformational … those leadership styles actually do work. In coaching, we practice unconditional positive regard. Think about if every boss looked at their direct reports that way. I hope more people realize that seeing employees as whole people is really the best approach. I see that the door has opened for a new way of doing work. People are more than just the person at work. They have lives, families, friends, and pets that we have gotten a glimpse of. It’s quite beautiful, really. The idea of work/life balance is false. We need work/life integration. In certain industries it’s already there. In other industries it will take a lot more time. I love it when a dog comes in during an interview. It’s cool. We’re fitting our lives into our work rather than fitting our work into our lives. It’s authentic. I hope we don’t go back to hiding who we really are.
One is a male boss who—before any vaccines, in the thick of it—really wanted everyone to do an (in-person) off-site meeting because, ‘this is what we do.’ One female employee who has small children couldn’t find childcare. He wanted to fire her. She is looking for another job and he will lose a really good employee. I have seen some leaders fail to recognize their own stressors and fears about their role as leader during the pandemic. Some still cling to the need to have people in the office who could work remotely. That need is quite often just the leader’s or their leaders’ preference rather than an actual need to get the work done. A leader who requires people to put their lives as risk because of a preference could take a step back and really look at what is essential. Do certain leadership styles work better during this type of crisis? I love that you said “this type of crisis.” This isn’t a crisis we are used to. Take an ER: There is clear hierarchy, everyone knows what to do, and there is one leader. The pandemic is an extended crisis, not short-term, so that kind of thing does not work. What we’re seeing is, people who are more transformational, democratic, visionary—they are all doing better. So are learning cultures: organizations with learning as a core value. They’ve leaned into the question, ‘What can we learn from this?’ And, of course, leaders who use coaching can be very successful during times of extended crisis like this. We all need to process what has happened, and it is difficult to begin to process while the trauma is still happening. Leaders who coach are that bridge to processing now as the trauma is still occurring. There’s grief for the life we lost, grief for the way we’re living now. We want things to go back to normal, but they may not go back. The ambiguity is difficult to process. An autocratic or authoritarian leadership style—'I’m going to tell you what to do’—doesn’t work as well. It’s been fascinating to listen to people as they are processing what’s happening, and I hope more leaders really listen. What are you learning from clients in your coaching practice? It has been amazing to work with entrepreneurs. There is this excitement and real attention being paid to the influence of the external environment. They’re asking ‘How can I craft a business around this?’ It is as if the pandemic opened up possibilities for people. Even clients who
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