How to lead your teams and managers during difficult times
Many people have been left angry, frustrated and sad in light of Roe v. Wade being overturned in the US. Many others have seen rights to bodily autonomy, legal protections, and safe medical care stripped away, and further, hard-won rights openly questioned. There have been many more world events, over the last months and years, that have severely impacted individuals and communities.
For all managers and leaders wondering what to do and say when returning to work after such events, I want to share some approaches and tools that I have found helpful in the past.
These tips can help you manage in difficult times to support individuals and teams, and even influence positive change in your organisation. I’m a cis white woman, so your needs and perspective may differ; and I’ve incorporated notes below on the different approaches you may want to take depending on whether you’re directly impacted by topics yourself.
This guide is split this into four sections: Taking care of yourself, Taking care of your team(s), Influencing systemic change, and Actions to take as a manager of managers. Feel free to skip to the sections most relevant to you.
Taking care of yourself & your learning
Take care of yourself
If you, or people in your family/community are directly impacted by these events, here are some things you can do:
Check in with yourself regularly and tap into what you need
Check in with your manager to let them know about your needs
Manage your news consumption. Refraining from doomscrolling can be an important act of self-preservation.
This article has some great resources on what self-care may look like, and how community care may play into it.
Educate yourself & take accountability for your own learning
As leaders and managers, one of our biggest responsibilities is to educate ourselves on what’s going on in the world, and how external events may be impacting the people around us. This is especially the case when we’re not directly impacted: it is a privilege to be in a position to learn about social justice issues and discrimination, instead of having to learn by experiencing it all our lives. Here’s how you can educate yourself in practice:
Immediate steps
Read up on news from trustworthy sources.
Be aware of your own situation, and how others’ may differ. It’s our job to meet people where they are, listen, and learn from them, in order to understand how best to support them.
As you go back to work, be aware that these topics may be on many people’s minds.
Share helpful resources & information with your peers.
Longer-term steps
Curate your social networks & timelines include a diverse set of voices, to ensure you’re hearing different perspectives.
Direct support: Take care of your team
As managers, one of our responsibilities is to provide the safest workplace possible to those who work with us. This includes members of marginalised and underrepresented groups who are dealing with structural and systemic challenges that others may not. I believe that we, as leaders, can and need to create space for people to share how they’re feeling about topics like these, which may impact them differently to how they impact us personally.
Acknowledge what is happening. Naming the event(s) signals that you’re paying attention, and signals to your team members creates space for them in which they know they can talk openly.
Don’t put members of underrepresented groups on the spot, including in 1:1s or team meetings. Don’t rely on them for resources or explanations or context; if you need this, reach out to your manager or the people team in your company.
Check in with your teammates individually & intentionally. You can create space by opening your next one-to-one meeting with, e.g., “I know it’s a really hard time right now. How are you feeling today?“, “What can I do for you?“, “What’s on your mind”, or “I am holding space if you need someone to listen.”
Ask what your team members need; if people are struggling with identifying their needs, use a reference model like BICEPS to guide the conversation. You can also use suggestions, e.g., “Would it be helpful to…?” to help them identify what would be most useful. Expect that individuals’ needs will likely vary greatly, from “Wanting to focus extra hard on work” to “Wanting to protest or organise”, so avoid making assumptions.
Listen & seek to understand! Don’t solutionise or problem-solve. It’s understandable to want to provide an “out” or a glimmer of hope to people, or make them feel better — after all, sitting with uncomfortable feelings is tough. You can offer and ask “Is there any way that I can help?” However, when people share their feelings with you, resist the temptation to jump into problem-solving mode or into “being helpful” unless help is explicitly asked for.
Focus on your employees in these conversations. Be honest and vulnerable with your own feelings, but process your own emotions with your peers or manager. Don’t project your own feelings, and don’t try to talk people out of theirs.
Respect people’s privacy and right to cope and work through difficult topics in their own ways. Don’t assume their feelings. Don’t force conversations. People generally know what’s best for them and what they want; it’s our role to make sure they have space to make those choices and act on them.
Be understanding if productivity has decreased. Be explicit about your expectations around ongoing work, goals, and deadlines. Be empathetic and patient with your staff, and with yourself.
Let people know that they can take time off without having to explain, and that they have your support to grieve, process, rest, take action, or anything else.
Refer to available resources such as mental health support or other team members that are available in your company.
Maintain communication & connection among your team and with your teammates. Continue checking in on a regular basis and more frequently than you normally would, in order to keep a pulse on your team’s needs.
Check in & stay in touch with your peers
Support one another as a management and leadership team, share resources, or discuss how you’re broaching conversations, and rely on each other for ongoing support.
Formal support & systemic changes: Influence your company’s response and action
I believe that for us as managers, it’s important to keep higher-level leaders in the loop on what employees and teams need, and to try to influence corporate policy and guidelines to make sure those needs are met. Here are some ways that you can do this:
Share with your manager how people are doing and what they require. Maintain confidentiality, but share at a higher level what you’re hearing. Oftentimes, managers of managers need to develop a picture of needs across teams, and your input can be valuable in helping them influence change at a higher level.
Let your HR business partner/people team partner know what’s needed.
Coordinate with other leaders across your group or department.
Check what resources are available or can be put in place, e.g.
Donation-matching
Updated healthcare policies, in particular in the US and for trans people
Dedicated time off for people to participate in protests or community work
Coverage of travel expenses
Relocation support
Support for temporary or permanent remote work
Use your social capital to influence change. As a manager of managers or executives, you likely hold a lot of formal and informal power. Understand what the impacted employees in your group need, or what other changes may be useful for your company to pursue, and use your relationships and power to influence change.
Actions to take as a manager of managers
Take care of your management team
Share resources with your leadership & management team. They’re the ones taking care of everyone in your workforce, so make sure you help them have the tools that they need to do so. Share posts like this one, and include what resources are available to them. Some companies provide extra management training and information, so make sure to keep them in the loop.
Check in with your managers and leaders (see ‘check in with your team’ above). They’re not just managers, but also humans. Some of them will likely be impacted directly or indirectly by these events, while also supporting their own teams. Make sure you understand their needs and, if required, check in with them more than you normally would, without adding extra meeting load to their calendar.
What to do if you want to share a message with your teams or department
Whether or not higher-level leaders in your team/department/organisation are vocal about these events, in particular events regarding fundamental human rights, and what they say, will be noted. At the same time, corporate co-opting of social justice topics can also become problematic quickly, and if you’re not impacted by these issues yourself, your voice should not dominate the conversation.
You may feel uncomfortable, awkward, or insecure about what to say, so here are some tips:
Preparing before you say anything
Educate yourself (see above).
Prepare for what you want to say and edit your writing before posting. Be thoughtful in your message. This is not the time to wing it.
Identify your target audience and who you’re speaking/writing for. Your department/teams may (hopefully) be very diverse, and there will be a broad range of viewpoints and life experiences represented.
Bottom-line your message: What’s your message, in short?
Stay true to your values as a leader and examine your motivations: What’s important to you? Why do you want to share a message? What outcome are you looking for? If you’re wondering about whether to say anything at all, remember that silence also sends a message.
“A question I find myself asking in countless contexts—personal, professional, political (as if those are separate contexts): Who does silence serve?”
Structuring your message
Set the context. Not everyone may be aware of what’s going on, include 1-2 sentences on what you’re talking about.
Put the people & groups that are most impacted and their well-being at the centre. Don’t make it about you and your feelings if you’re not directly impacted by this. Acknowledge the limitations in your perspective.
Amplify other peoples’ voices. In particular, if you’re not impacted, share what others have written or said who are. This helps again with de-centering yourself and centering impacted groups.
Share available resources that your teams can access. If you worked to learn more about the current topic, you may also want to include some articles that you found helpful for everyone who wants to understand it better.
Share what the company is doing if you can, e.g., updating policies or donation-matching. If you don’t know yet, share that you will work to find out and provide an update again.
Include what you’re doing. As a leader, you likely have formal and informal power. Share what you’re doing and how people can reach out to you if they have further questions or feedback. The latter is especially important if you’re not directly impacted by these events yourself.
Before & after you share your message
Get feedback on your message from leaders around you, ideally people with perspectives and life experiences which differ from yours. Check if what they’re perception aligns with your desired outcome.
Sit with silence, even if it’s uncomfortable. If you’re speaking about this in a department meeting, avoid closing your presentation with empty phrases like “… and now back to business”. Instead, thank people for listening, clarify again where they can turn with questions or remarks, and take a quick break before moving to the next topic.
Stay in touch with your teams. Continue communicating regularly and checking in on people. Oftentimes, these kinds of events are in the news for a relatively brief period of time only, but that doesn’t mean their impact is fading.
No matter the events that you’re dealing with: Continue staying in touch with your team(s) and their needs, and continue lobbying for positive change in your company wherever you can. And, throughout it all, remember to take care of yourself.
