Recently at a client’s office, I saw rows of empty desks, unused for two years. In preparation for return to work the following day, each cube was decorated with balloons and gifts. I wondered whether helium and trinkets with the company logo would be enough to smooth the re-entry.

This Week’s Edition

Leaders are accountable for results, and often a leader’s instinct is to tell the team what to do to perform well. But generally, people don’t like to be told what to do, especially in a post-pandemic Great Resignation world.

Clarify Your Thinking

Leaders around the country (along with their HR teams) are navigating the return-to-work (RTW) era and managing a variety of responses from their employees who work from home.

A main driver for the RTW initiative is that leaders must have greater productivity from their teams. The organization’s future depends on it.  Behind closed doors leaders are fashioning a message all the while questioning the distribution format: a letter from the CEO, a pre-recorded video a team meeting? Regardless, the message is clear:

“You’ve got to step it up. We need you to do more. The pandemic is over. We need your team to return to pre-pandemic levels of performance.”

The problem is that their message is falling flat… like a lead balloon. It’s not quite the response they were hoping for from their welcome back campaigns. 

As employees receive the message, they are thinking: 

• I’ve done a lot during the pandemic. Don’t tell me to step it up.

• I’m working more now than before. I don’t even have a commute.

• Your return-to-work is unreasonable. Infections are on the rise again.

• Do you really care about me or just achieving the numbers?

• You haven’t really checked on me up to this point and now you’re telling me what I need to do?

Thoughts Lead to Actions

Leaders are facing a dilemma. Mark, the CEO of his company, is a compassionate leader, but he needs his sales team and other employees to take their current performance to the next level – to pre-pandemic levels.  

“Robin, I need my whole organization to produce more given the Great Resignation and other market forces. I need my team back in the office. Collaboration is a key to our success. How can I be firm about what our company needs and be sensitive to our collective post-pandemic situation?” 

“Mark, your employees don’t want to be told what to do.  They’ve spent two years being told what to do by others who don’t even know them,” I said. 

“I understand that, but what do I do?”

“Don’t tell them what to do. Tell them who they are. Remind them who they are, who they are to you, to the team and to the organization.”

Mark and I discussed these steps:

Step 1: Remind the team of your vision for the organization.

Step 2: Share with each team member who they are:

• Their strengths, talents and expertise.

• Why they are on the team.

• What they’ve accomplished in the past.

• What their potential is going forward.

Step 3: Have the rest of the team share their perspective about that team member too.

Mark realized his relationship with his leaders and employees had been tested due to the physical absence related to the pandemic. He chose to tread lightly in his directives re: productivity. The last thing he wanted to do was to come across as transactional. He took a relational approach, reminding them who they are. 

Choosing to lead your team by building relationships will ultimately take care of the engagement you desire… productivity will follow.

Boost Your Performance

In World War II, Winston Churchill, had the unenviable task of preparing the British people for the German onslaught. To survive they would have to do inconceivable things. His strategy was brilliant. He didn’t tell them what to do. He told them who they were. Find out more in this week’s video.

What’s Your Opinion?

Who is someone you need to seek out to remind them who they are? Share with me at: robin.pou@robinpou.com.

Don’t let doubt count you out. Have a confident week!

Robin Pou, Chief Advisor and Strategist

If this was helpful, feel free to share it with another leader who needs to defeat doubt and complete their confidence.

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What is “The Confident Leader”?

During the Covid-19 Pandemic, I began a video series called “Panic or Plan?” It was designed to equip leaders to navigate the doubt they experienced and to rise in the confidence they needed to lead during turbulent times. It took off. I then started this newsletter to equip leaders in the same fashion each week for the doubt that crashes across the bow of their leaderSHIP.