Managing through Crisis

Any article that promises to give you all the answers to managing your team through the kinds of events that happened on 6 January 2021 is almost certainly lying.  

Kommon is not an American company, and we don’t currently have any American employees but nonetheless the shocking events of last week caused pretty much all work to stop as we tried to process what was happening.  We can only imagine how Americans of all different backgrounds felt. 

The most important lessons from 6 January won’t be learned in the workplace (or something’s gone even more wrong).  However, at times of significant upheaval and trauma in people’s lives, employers and particularly managers, are amongst those who can have the most immediate impact - for better and for worse.  So whilst we won’t claim to have all the answers, we’ve been following some of the advice to managers which has been circulating over the past few days, and accounts from those at work, and we wanted to share some of it.   Hopefully in a small way, it may help you and your team prepare for and process the next crisis, whatever that might be. 

We’ll actually start at the company level.  Mainly because a supportive organisational environment can significantly alter the type of role that a manager has to play.  To look at the range of responses on the day, we’ll turn to Angelique Weger, a Senior Software Engineer from Baltimore who has been cataloguing different companies’ actions.  She found everything from this: 

To less positive stories:

From reading through individuals’ reactions, we get some insight into what employees appreciate at times like this:

• Acknowledge the issue: sounds basic, but as those responses make clear, in some cases leadership didn’t even acknowledge the existence of an event which might affect employees.  Not only is this deeply uncaring, but it doesn’t create the permission structure to change working patterns and take any exceptional steps in response (see following points).  Not remaining silent is the first and essential step. 
  

• Create Space: having acknowledged the event, leadership can define the expectations on employees at this exceptional time.  The more specific the better.  Opt-in phrases like ‘take the time if you want to’ place the burden of judgement on employees and are less helpful than specific guidance, like, for example, rescheduling meetings, extending deadlines and how to communicate with customers.
  

• Offer Support: if they are available, leadership can highlight any corporate resources for employees to draw on (e.g. mental health support) and broadly emphasise the firm’s support for its employees.  In reality, a lot of the actual frontline support will be pushed to managers (see below). 
  

• Talk to people: how this scales will depend on the size of the organisation, but it was striking to see accounts of how much people appreciated group Zooms with their colleagues and leadership just to talk through the events.  Clearly this should be optional, it’s not how everyone chooses to process these things.  However, offering to get out from behind email/Slack/Teams and speak in person seemed invaluable for some.  On a lighter note, the events did highlight the issue with using automated project management tools to communicate at times of intense stress.

Now for the manager.  As you can probably see, if your employer doesn’t do any of the above, a lot of that burden falls on the manager instead and you need to start from the top.  However, assuming these things are done, as a manager you can assume a more tactical role, which means: 

• Steady yourself:  are you ready to support others? You’re an employee too. Take a moment to understand how events are impacting you and whether you’re ready to do you job.  You might not be and may need to lean on others for help.
  

• Assess what’s important: you’ll be aware of the outputs your team delivers, which are critical and which can be postponed if team members do need space.   Reassess your deliverables and liaise with other stakeholders so you know what absolutely has to get done.
  

• Offer specific support: depending on the size of your organisation, leadership can offer the words and permission structures, but it will often be up to managers to create meaningful change.  Work with each of your team members to understand how they are, what they need over the coming hours/days, and how you can help.