Mindful Leadership in Corona-Times

Welcome to the VUCA world! Just few weeks ago we could not have imagined that volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity can invade our private and professional lives so promptly and deeply.

The worldwide recommendations on the corona crisis are quite clear-cut: anyone who is not immediately required to maintain operations and supply for basic needs is to remain at home. While some continue to work from home office, others are shifted into short-time work and in the worst case even find themselves unemployed. Public life is largely at halt. Our economy is heading for one of the most violent crises we have seen in the modern world at a rapid pace.

It is inevitable that this will cause fear and a blend of emotions inside all of us. Employees worry about their income or even their job. Added are numerous private challenges such as unexpected childcare, quarantines, positive test diagnoses or in some cases even serious illnesses. In the worst case some of us may have to deal with death in their own teams and families. In contrast to previous crises everything just seems to rain down on us simultaneously.

Owners and supervisors must find a way to overcome this fundamental crisis, together with their team, and figure out how to deal with the vast amount of changes that continue to rise. Keeping the team together and addressing the greatest concerns of colleagues is crucial in this situation. However, the question remains: How may this goal be achieved, and these challenges tackled, alongside all the other issues and challenges that one is facing.

New leadership is now in demand. Anyone who has failed to take care of new leadership qualities such as empathy, mindfulness and self-reflection must now make up for it in a very short time if they want to continue to exist with their team in the future.

The following recommendations maybe helpful in this situation:

Ensure transparency and clarity

1. Communicate swiftly, comprehensively and regularly with your team.

2. Share all information that is important to your team immediately and directly.

3. Use all possibilities of digital communication: Set up very regular virtual team meetings and use new means of communication such as slack and teams.

Emphasize appreciation and communication at eye level

4. Allow your team to express their feelings and take their concerns seriously.

5. Consider yourself part of the team and openly talk about your own concerns as well.

6. Involve your team in the process of finding solutions, whether it is dealing with customers, finances or individual personal challenges.

Live a culture of continuous improvement and learning

The good news is that there is no one to blame for the crisis that hits our companies in these times. Everybody has to deal with the same challenges.

7. Avoid any judgement or even blame. Look for the good in an apparently bad situation and work hard to find interesting new insights and solutions.

8. Ensure that everyone involved learns how deal with the crisis.

9. Keep an eye on changes and challenges for your customers. Motivate your team to develop more suitable solutions than the previous ones.

Handle conflicts constructively

10. Listen to others and consider the benefits of different perspectives instead of devaluing each other's perspective. The VUCA world is too complex to rely on single views!

11. Work with scenarios instead of one-sided, seemingly clear conceptions.

12. Encourage your team to find a variety of solutions that can be tried out and reviewed, rather than limiting yourself to the one solution that seems to be the right one. The latter could very likely only solve part of the complex problem in this volatile situation.

Take care of yourself

At the moment almost all people run on “autopilot” and in crisis mode: directly controlled from the amygdala in our brains, adrenaline secretion and other reactions by our nervous system may result in us acting on our basic instincts in a fight-or-flight manner. Unfortunately, this system is genetically built for short moments of danger as opposed to longer periods of crisis like these times of corona, whose fallout will definitely face us for a very long time.

Conscious of this knowledge of our basic nature, we need to create other solutions and habits to remain healthy, to keep the ability to act adequately and to stay resilient on a long term. This includes:

13. Taking regular breaks for relaxation, meditation and self-reflection.

14. Maintaining our social environment that supports us, even if it is stressed itself.

15. External coaches or moderators can be a valuable help because they are not directly affected by your personal concerns. After all, it is about keeping a clear head, making sure that everyone remains on board and adapting to the new situation as quickly as possible.

We in the Consensa team set out on these principles. Hopefully, we can all emerge from this existential crisis eventually, strengthened with new knowledge and skills that help us to deal with the fundamental changes that will hit us in the next years.