David D’Souza, CIPD, Director of Membership
“Revisit market data and look at some external
benchmarking as well. Think as creatively as you can in light of whatever change is affecting the market.”
David D’Souza knows that business leaders must achieve a delicate balance if they are to keep their teams productive when a crisis strikes. “It’s important to stay calm while instilling your workers with a sense of urgency about the situation. You must refocus resources in a calm, clear, and consistent way while at the same time stressing the importance of operating effectively. It’s easy to get caught up in the emotion of the situation, to absorb all the headlines, to let them overwhelm you, and to allow your team to enter that space, as well,” he says.
When communicating with your team, it’s better to be open about what you know and can control than to attempt to display the confidence often expected of business leaders. “Particularly when the crisis is as far reaching as the one we’re currently in, it creates incredible uncertainty for people as they come into a working environment. If a leader says, ‘Oh no, I understand it. I’ve got this under control,’ it won’t work because no one can believe that. Be honest about the limits of your knowledge and understanding while at the same time giving people confidence that they’re in capable hands,” he says.
This is an excerpt from 8 Experts on Navigating Work Disruption. The eBook was generously sponsored by Workfront.
