I recently read an article about the need for managers to be both resilient and compassionate. There’s been a lot written in the past 6 months about the resilience expected from managers – adapting everything to keep up with the continually changing pandemic landscape: closing, working from home, planning reopening, changing everything to meet demands and expectations, adjusting for volatile business levels, ordering furloughs, identifying new-normal realities, and agonizing about layoffs. All that resilience can be tiring, frustrating, and mostly unfulfilling… for the leader and those being led. In the midst of that is the need for compassion – not just bouncing back but helping others understand and deal with the changes that are inevitable. Managers used to refer troubled employees to Employee Assistance Programs; now they’re on the front line with employees and trying to help them cope with all that’s going on: they weren’t trained for this and often told not to go there. Traditionally, employee assistance programs were used by a relatively small number of employees; today, everyone’s affected by and suffering from the effects of this pandemic. It’s hard enough going thru this alone; harder yet to go thru it with others. Keep your eyes open for the chance to be considerate and supportive of people’s feelings and tribulations today.
Mary Kay Ash (1908-2001): American Entrepreneur and Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics (resilience and compassion)
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