Your organization may have not officially restructured or furloughed any employees, but the way people work is restructured forever. Every manager I talk with is consumed with the safety and mechanics of moving people back into their next routine, and rightly so. People are trying to find a new rhythm while the ground is shifting under their feet. They feel their stress level going up and most don’t know how to deal with it.

Unfortunately, there are still a few  managers out there who are oblivious to the emotional side of all this workplace reshaping. They continue their micromanagement and subtle manipulation to grind away at “the task” and feel in control. 

Fortunately, the better leaders out there realize this emotional side of transition is real.  But they teeter between attention to physical safety concerns and psychological safety needs, struggling to balance both as they guide people forward.  

One Thing To Do Now

Actively supporting personal and professional development will help people become more productive ( see AMA study). Encourage and allow time for people to learn something new every day, as you model the same. Today may not be the time to engaged a full-blown training and development initiative, but my experience has been that people stop worrying when they are intensely involved in learning something new.  

Journal Entry: Since it seems like everyone is “Zoomed Out,” meaning they have done way too many virtual meetings, why not find a small hard or softcover book and ask people to read ten pages a day. Encourage them to share one thing they learned each day that helped them in their leadership and life.

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”― Mahatma Gandhi

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

“Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” ~ Henry Ford

“The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson