Get in shape...

Any way you look at it, this has been quite a year. The pandemic and this Presidential election have been enough to make this an unbelievable year, and it’s not over yet. The first affected all of your plans and your team’s sense of  job security and well-being, and the second probably shook your team’s cohesiveness and working relationships. To help their employees cope with all they’re experiencing, leaders should get themselves in a good frame of mind, first by taking time to prepare themselves mentally, second, by examining all their options, and third, by remembering that employees are their most important assets. Your approach and communications related to these challenging times and issues should be full of empathy and transparency. Executives formulate plans, but line managers are left to communicate them to their employees: make sure these mid-level leaders are included in discussions and planning, and are comfortable with their responsibilities. Keep your messages simple and your lines of communication open, allocate time for the inevitable discussions that will occur, and put yourself mentally in their shoes to better understand their points of view. In these challenging times, what you are thinking is important to your whole team, but the shape your mind is in is what makes the biggest difference of all.  Prepare yourself and then help your team cope with the issues they’re facing today.

Willie Mays  (born 1931): American professional baseball player and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame