My Team is Concerned About the Coronavirus, How Can I Help Them?
One Friday, each month, I dedicate the post to looking at some questions I have heard recently from developing leaders. Sharing those questions and my thoughts for them is a way for me to spread the information to as many leaders and future leaders as possible. If you have a question about leadership, or just a situation you would like some additional insight on, please email me at Effective Retail Leader. Let’s take a look at this week’s question.
My team has asked me serval times about how the Coronavirus might impact their job or store. How can I help them?
The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus and the continually unfolding changes to the world reaction have caused a lot of concerns and questions on many levels. Naturally, people are wondering how this may affect them, both personally (from a health standpoint) and professionally (from a job standpoint). Not all of these questions can be fully answered right now. It is important that you remain available and transparent for your teams.
Gathering information is one of the most critical roles you can play at this time for your team. Ensure you have the most up to date information from your Human Resources Team. Remain in contact with your leaders, especially from Human Resources, to relay questions and concerns you are seeing and hearing from your team. People will continue to want to know what this will mean to them. Will they lose hours, will they receive benefits if your location closes for a period of time? What happens if they get sick and need to miss an extended period of time at work? Each business will have their own responses to these types of questions. Your role must be to capture the information and share it as quickly as possible with your team.
Many situations will be different. Do not assume that there is a one-size-fits-all response to everyone’s question. If you have an associate with a unique situation, ask HR leaders for assistance. There may be options for certain circumstances that cannot be broadcast globally that would help in your specific situation. Helping your team navigate through their specific needs will help to build trust and strengthen the long-term relationships you have, even if the answers are not always what people want to hear. More than anything, they need the truth, unfiltered, so they can make the appropriate decisions for themselves and their families.
Keep yourself informed from trusted sources - CDC, WHO, your physician, those you know in the medical field. Avoid relying solely on a single source of information, especially TV or news outlets. It is important to ensure you get a balanced set of data points to help inform yourself and your decisions.
Show empathy for your team. All of your associates, peers, and even leaders will have different points of view. They may have different sources of information, or different financial situations and resources. Ask questions to help understand the information they may be looking for. If is difficult to always understand on the surface the situations others may be facing behind the scenes. Remain aware of that and open to the possibilities that things may be more complicated for those around you. Showing compassion and concern will allow you to identify their root needs and then provide the information they are really looking for.
These are challenging times and while there is a constant stream of news and information, much of it is difficult to understand or only applies in global situations. How your company is handling this situation will vary from others, and providing that specific information to your team is most critical, especially in the earlier stages of this virus spread. Helping people navigate the situation and avoiding panic will be a service that every leader needs to provide to their teams. Stay informed, remain visible and available, and provide transparent information to your team to help everyone feel as though they have what they need to manage through the current situation.
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