We asked our Change Makers to think about what might allow leaders and organisations to thrive post-pandemic. Nicky Carew writes…
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How to Thrive in the New Reality of Post-Pandemic? – 3 things: People People People!
While business leaders are understandably concerned with surviving rather than thriving during these turbulent times, we are holding up our lens to what you need to do to plan for the future new reality post Pandemic while fighting the current battle. And never more than now do you need to invest in people.
The People #1 – You and your people:
How you lead and how you engage your teams really matters right now. Don’t assume that they will tolerate pressure until you have gotten through the crisis; you need them to have commitment NOW. This is true even if they are on furlough. They will remember how you made them feel (valued or a merely a resource?) while they were helping you build their business.
- Be authentic – exchange real emotions and show you care – this is more important than being in the same room. We are all witness to a real human tragedy, it affects us all.
- Don’t be over confident of your abilities – no one person has the answers, your team will have more. Trusting people on the ground (mission command) promotes dialogue and encourages contributions from different change making viewpoints.
- Encourage everyone to have an impact – we all have experience with change. Embrace every idea and encourage original thinking – you don’t know where the next idea will come from.
- Don’t take control and revert to over-managing. Don’t let yourself default to behaviour that will likely create stress.
- Embrace failure – as things are changing fast the value of past experience plummets in the new reality. Fail fast! It means people are trying and they will learn from the mistakes – but learn quickly.
- Pay attention to your own resilience – when you are under stress your ability to make decisions diminishes.
The People #2 – Your customers:
What do you know about your customers and how they are feeling and behaving in this post-Pandemic time? You are not the same person as before so it is a good bet neither are they.
How can you reach out to them to ask? What matters to them? It is predicted that they will be more driven by safety and ethics than ever before – but we don’t KNOW. What we do expect is that they will be raising the bar of expectation – what are you going to do to earn their business? To do that you need to know what is important to them.
It is also true that if you look after your employees then they will look after your customers.
The People #3 – Your stakeholders
Do you really know who your stakeholders are? Every organisation has them. They will be customers or users and possibly shareholders of course. But there are so many more people that matter to you and would be your ambassadors. Who might influence others about your organisation (potentially negatively as it is more news worthy)? Locals, family members, suppliers, other businesses in your hub…
Then it is Communicate, Communicate, Communicate – how you are meeting their need.
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Contact Nicky at [email protected]
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