I had the honor to work with a team that I adore recently. I have a nearly 30 year relationship with this team as a student, employee, friend, mentor, and more. I titled the session, “Uncertainty and Success in Crazy Ass Times.” Hey, it was spot on; they agreed. We had a very in-depth, reflective day. There were some great takeaways for everyone. I’m excited to continue to work with this team in 2020.
There is no doubt that we are living and working in times of uncertainty and change. I am receiving an uptick of calls for assistance in team building, respect, professionalism, and most definitely leadership development. The requests don’t surprise me considering the environment. When I’m asked to work with teams regarding change, uncertainty, loss of trust, frustration, etc., I find it absolutely necessary to spend time bringing it back to self-reflection. It frustrates the hell out of a lot of people. “How is this going to help us be successful? I already know who I am. I don’t have time for this shit.” Once again, leaders AND team members must make time for this shit.
Change brings uncertainty. Uncertainty brings fear. When fear is brought into the mix, self-protection starts rearing its head…and hard. I don’t believe most people are afraid of change. They are afraid of the unknown. We will walk into the unknown but not without a lot of armor doing it. Why do you think people resist change? No one wants to be hurt, and I’m not just talking emotionally. This self-protection causes people to become less trustful of others, become siloed and not work with others (after all, she might get credit for something I helped with and that means I could lose my job), and in some cases, become disrespectful and hostile to their fellow colleagues at all levels.
Self-protection in the workplace is normal at healthy levels. The healthy levels become toxic when we ignore the elephants in the room around uncertainty and change. Trust is broken when we ignore the concerns and fears people have during uncertain times. There is a lack of communication, censoring of information, favorites played, and more…enemies of trust. Sometimes harder to understand is that those enemies of trust – betrayals – are not always intentional. We do some pretty harsh things when we are afraid. This behavior can cycle and create a pretty toxic environment when we forget the human side of change and uncertainty.
So what we can do to break the cycle?
Leaders: communicate, communicate, communicate. Some of my colleagues will disagree with me, but there is no such thing as over-communication. Your team has a choice to exercise their information power, let them use it (their participation in success is up to them, more on that in a few weeks). Share the vision of the change. Be HONEST that you don’t know everything. Acknowledge that you know your team is uncertain about moving forward. And remember, you can hold your team to expectations in a compassionate way.
Team Members: remember that all of us are walking a journey. Those journey’s involve experiences and feelings no one can know or understand. Exercise compassion during times of change and uncertainty. Everyone has fear. If someone says they don’t, they are lying, ha! I am not making fun of anyone, but I am saying we all deal with fear differently. Not everyone is harsh intentionally, nor means harm to you. They are self-protecting, just like you. Try to remember that during uncertain times. And remember, you can hold your team to expectations in a compassionate way.
Organizations: stop ignoring the elephants in the room, especially the ones involving human factors. Come together as a team. Talk about what is going on. Brainstorm. Create new ideas. Innovate. Think outside of the box. Do something new. Team build. Get to know each other again. The organization can’t succeed without everyone helping. Michael Jordan didn’t win championships on his own. Your organization won’t either without the help of everyone. And remember, you can hold each other to expectation in a compassionate way.
Change and uncertainty don’t have to be the downfall of you, your team, or your organization…as long as you don’t ignore what’s going on. Talk about the fear. Talk about the unknowns. Listen and make others feel heard and valued. The effort to create success during change and uncertainty can be amazing, even a little fun, when we remember the humans involved.
How is your team handling change an uncertainty these days? I’d love to hear more from you.