How many of you are back in the office? I am and I am happy to be back in a space designed for work and I am happy to be back to my semi normal duties. I say semi normal because although my goals and value at work are still the same, the way of achieving them and the processes are completely different.
I touched upon the why of change in a previous blog and most of my team has been extremely receptive of the new processes since they all know the why. In fact, with the big pandemic, everyone already understood the why well before making it back to work. Despite this, we still faced some push back about things that were well out of my hands. I faced complaints that the masks were too hot, and I faced complaints that the mask policies were not being enfoced strictly enough. I face employees saying that we opened too early and other employees saying we are ready to open without restrictions. I have some opinions on reopening, but the simple fact is that my opinion does not matter and it is way too politicized to talk about with my team without making one group angry.
These problems do not have a solution that I can implement and even if I did have a solution, I would be making one group angry while appeasing another, so I am actually glad in this case that the decision is way out of my hands. Instead, I hear them out. I put down everything else in my life and turn off my phone’s ringer and listen to what they have to say. I empathize and do my best to read the conversation. Sometimes, it is time to find a silver lining and point out the bright side, other times, the best thing to do is just empathize and let them know they are heard.
In these trying times, none of us have the power to improve the pandemic situation beyond wearing a mask and social distancing, so it is a time to empathize and listen to your team who is struggling to adapt to the new normal.
Servant Leadership 