What it takes to balance Empathy & Productivity

As a leader, everyone is looking to you more than ever for assurance, direction and stability. Being a leader is hard enough under the best of circumstance. In this COVID-19 and DE&I environment, business directions are changing daily leaving many feeling bewildered and without direction. 

As an employee you may feel like your every move is being micromanaged and no one knows what the hell they are doing. And no one seems to notice you are trying to do your best. And no one seems to appreciate anything. 

Whoever you are, under all this stress it can feel like you need to muster super-human strength just to face another a day.  

I’d like to suggest, as you begin each day, take a moment to remember that the impact you have on people will have lasting implications. Emotions are running high. Communication is breaking down. Collaboration is deteriorating. Morale is at an all-time low. 

This isn’t easy. 

This isn’t for the faint of heart.

There will be winners and losers. 

Where will you land? 

When this is over, those employees who felt supported and trusted will be more loyal and engaged than before, positioning you to take full advantage of the growth opportunities to comes, as they surely will. As they always do. 

One of biggest muscles you can develop right now is Trust. 

Yeah, I know, TRUST is one of those 500-pound marshmallows that is hard to define. You know when you *don’t* trust someone, but it’s hard to define why you *do* trust someone.  

Trust is hard to build and easy to lose.

Let me say again,

This isn’t easy. 

This isn’t for the faint of heart.

There will be winners and losers. 

Where will you land? 

I’ve been talking a lot about balancing empathy and productivity as organizations are desperately trying to keep afloat while caring for their people. Trust is the leavening agent that enables it to work. I picked Dr. Henry Cloud’s book up again, The Power of the Other because I really like his chapter on Trust. 

He defines trust as a *confident expectation*. He writes, “We invest ourselves, our time, our energy, our resources, our talents and so forth when we’re confident that doing so will lead to good outcomes. Trust fuels investment of time, money, energy & self.”

CEOs are chasing cash. Trusting others is an extremely difficult mindset to have right now. I cannot stress this enough. As a business owner you may be worrying about the health of your organization while pumping money to your biggest line item that may or may not have the commitment, priorities and focus that you do.

As a manager, you are trying to be a good steward of what your boss has entrusted you with while juggling your own COVID-19 induced stresses. Everyone is worrying about job security. Paying their mortgages. Safety of their family. Some of us are on the brink of going stir-crazy. I get it. 

As an employee you may feel like your every move is being micro-managed, your manager doesn't trust you to do the right things or to have the right motives or misinterpret your motives. You may feel like your manager doesn’t have time for you.

I repeat. 

This isn’t easy. 

This isn’t for the faint of heart.

There will be winners and losers. 

Where will you land? 

One thing is for certain, to get through this without destroying relationships, you need Trust. And Trust requires Empathy. If people don’t feel understood (empathy) they begin to shut down. 

Example, many of those who Work From Home (WFH) are juggling spouses WFH, and children schooling from home. Some people thrive under this kind of pressure, but not all do. Snapping at others, abrupt instant messages, frantic emails, chaotics team calls, and micro-managing are sure-fire ways to destroy any trust reserves you may have banked.

Now is the time to focus on empathy, understanding, and patience. Trust is based on the belief that you have the other person’s best interest at heart. We trust someone when we feel like they have our best interest at heart. And when we feel trusted, we give our best. 

Trust is the fuel you need to get the Results you want. 

How do you want to show up? 

Grab a post-it note, write down something you can *start* doing right now to build more trust. Next, write down something you can *stop* doing right now that will lead to more trust.

Post that somewhere visible as a reminder of your intensions.