Those who come through the turmoil of the crisis best, will be those who understand the importance of people, well-being and sensitive leadership.
I want to share three leadership strategies that will help you successfully support your people once they start returning to the office after months of being apart and working from home.
1. Focus on empowering your team not micromanaging them.
While people have been working from home they have become used to working in very different ways. They have been managing their own time and to an extent, workflow. When your people start returning to the office, don’t lose that. Self-leadership is the holy grail of future working. Make sure you build on the experiences of home working, it will help to promote a culture of excellence.
2. Rebuild your connections with your people.
The temptation could be to get everyone back in, nose to the grindstone and catch up as quickly as possible but remember that each individual will have had a very different experience over the last few months. Take the time to express real interest in your people. Re-establishing that personal connection, even if it takes time, will pay dividends in trust and commitment.
3. Remember to listen.
As your teams come back together you'll naturally want to start talking. But this is a time for listening. The experiences of recent times will have consciously or subconsciously stimulated your team's thinking. Creativity flourishes when people encounter new things. Lots of your team will return to the workplace with new perspectives and ideas. Create a workplace where your team feel able to share their ideas and harvest them!
