Thank you very much for the encouraging response to my articles. The recent covid19 pandemic has stirred the air of uncertainty in our lives never before. Most of the Leaders in the companies are unclear of questions like, when is the lockdown going to end, what will be the impact on my business, what will be my team’s response, when will my business be able to restore the cash like good old days and so on.
Today I will share my thoughts on the team handling in this crisis. There is a lot of chaos and crisis outside the organization, why not start by making things simple at our end. This simple incident will help understand the point.
During the lockdown, most of us are working from home. One day, my daughter was continuously crying and asking for my attention. I was under a lot of pressure on office work and household chores. So I chose to ignore her and continued with my work. Thinking the situation will be handled on its own. However, this did not take place as expected and the discomfort of both of us kept on increasing. Finally, I took a break and talked to her. I tried to understand the problem from a child’s perspective. I understood the reason for her discomfort. Children are more used to outdoors and playing with friends. Suddenly due to pandemic situations, they are forced to stay indoors and entertain themselves with toys/games. They are working equally hard like us to adapt. Also, I tried to explain my situation in a way she could relate to. I finally engaged her with her favorite activity and continued with my work. Thus restored the situation to favorable. Now since I have a deeper understanding I can handle such future situations more effectively.
EMPATHY is what handled this situation. Both of us understood each other’s pain, of course, based on our capacity to understand and the situation got restored.
We can relate this situation to our business/careers also. So following are the key takeaways from this story:
Hiding head in the sand like an ostrich is not going to help: If we hide from the problem thinking that it will resolve on its own, is not going to help. The leadership and the team have to collectively work to come out of their comfort zone to handle the crisis.
Practice Empathy: Empathy is, after all, a human skill; you can get better and better by practicing it. Too often we underestimate the power of a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
Thus, if we practice the value of Empathy within our organizations, decision making, and work will become far more becomes less complicated.
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With more than 10 years of experience partnering with Multinational corporations and global staffing firms, Vrunda has the unique ability to match candidates with clients' expectations through her expert assessment of competency, potential and cultural fit.
Contact Author: vrunda@acesai.in
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