Get your act together. Your role as a leader got more complex.
How do you build and maintain team culture during a pandemic?
We’ve all been focused on how to literally operationalize our (now) virtual team, but let’s not forget that we need to also lead (especially) in a time of global uncertainty, heightened anxiety, and abrupt lack of (physical) connection.
As a leader, you may be tempted to doubt yourself or struggle to come to terms with your own personal and professional realities.
I’ve asked colleagues and team members in higher education and other industries for insight.
From their reflections, I offer you the following advice on how to lead in this historic (and totally bonkers) time.
- Dig deep. Assess and adapt your leadership style and seek feedback from colleagues and team members.
- Lead with empathy, action, and humility. Be there for your team with flexibility and understanding while also acknowledging that you don’t have all the answers. We all have some level of chaos happening in our lives, it’s not a competition to see who’s is worse. As a leader, try to listen and not dismiss how your team member is feeling — even if you’re thinking, what the heck?! I have it worse.
- Find ways to connect your team to each other, and to you. This can be through Fun Friday activities on Zoom, brown bag lunches with professional development opportunities, and “office hours.” In my physical office, I had a couch. So, my Zoom room is “the couch.” When I’m not in a meeting, I hop on my couch and anyone on the team can “walk in the door.” It reinstates a sense of familiarity.
- Keep up with your own professional development. It’s great to encourage your team to take courses or follow the latest trends, but don’t forget to give yourself some TLC (tender loving care). Remember, your behaviors are ones that team members and colleagues mirror so demonstrating your commitment to lifelong learning is important.
- Show appreciation. Saying Thank you goes a long way, but I would add that it’s equally important to “talk up” your team members. Managing up someone on your team demonstrates that a) you were paying attention to something they did, b) you valued that performance enough to praise it openly, c) you give credit where credit is due.
- Encourage a culture where team members recognize each other’s contributions. In my department, we have this thing called Awesome Cards, which admittedly I need to resurrect in a digital space. (Cut me some slack! I just got back from parental leave!) anyway, these Awesome Cards represent one of my proudest moments because a team member came to me with this idea about a way to praise fellow co-workers. It was off limits to the supervisors so there wasn’t a perception of favoritism — though, obviously we could receive awesome cards… :)
This team member said, “I caught a little bit of the webinar yesterday on Happiness in the Workplace, and I had an idea. One of the agencies I used to work with had something called Awesome Cards. We handed them out to anyone on our team we wanted to give a shoutout to for doing an awesome job. We’d just leave them on their desk as a little surprise!”
People displayed these Awesome Cards at their desks and pinned them on their office walls. It was a badge of honor. I recommend something like this in the quarantine world as well, just digital.
