The Rise of the New Leader
Why establishing psychological safety is the secret to post pandemic
Leadership success.
So, the vaccine has been rolled out and the war on COVID is all but won, life may now begin to take some tentative steps towards normality (whatever that is). Though we all breathe a collective sigh of relief that many of our businesses and jobs have survived these tumultuous times, the question remains to be answered.
What exactly is "normal" in the workplace now?
As our careers have evolved many of us have developed a vision of what a good boss looks like. In fact, some of us have even studied ‘leadership & management’ and are steeped in the theoretical but somewhat idealistic leadership & management principles and practices of our time. We have been taught that a good leader / manager will see the potential in their employees and will nurture that raw talent to fulfil the best of their abilities. We are taught that staff are more than just a number or a role, but an asset.
However, leaders / managers are, above all, just people themselves and despite the best of intentions the reality is that we have the good, the bad and sometimes the downright disastrous within our organizations. The trouble is, as a business, you can't afford to allow poor leaders / managers to jeopardize the overall strength and health of your workforce, and this is just in `normal times`.
In years past, companies traditionally promoted their best and brightest to positions of increasing seniority based on how successfully they managed their individual responsibilities. Top performing Sales Consultants into Team Leaders, successful Team Leaders into Sales Managers, Sales Managers to Regional Managers and so on. In other words, most companies valued and recognised technical excellence above all else. This made sense for a while; however, the pandemic has exposed the glaring omission in this logic i.e., that people leaders / managers must be highly skilled at leading / managing people first and foremost, not roles.
The last 12 months have been tough for all of us meaning that leaders / managers have had to focus, many willingly, some reluctantly, on employee wellbeing & wellness on a scale never previously seen before. Although many companies embraced wellness with employee pleasing tactics such as heavily discounted gym memberships, fresh fruit on tap and cycle to work schemes, few have truly focused on employee wellbeing.
Wellness is only a part of the whole wellbeing story. Whereas wellness centres on the practical things you can do to create a greater sense of wellbeing, wellbeing itself requires a much broader definition. It's about how you feel, how you manage stress and how you deal with your emotions. It's essentially about how balanced your life is, physically, emotionally & mentally.
But why now?
Why the focus shift away from tactical wellness initiatives to strategic wellbeing?
It's simple.
2020 was the perfect storm of social, political and economic tumult which has led to a demand for more inclusive, socially minded and flexible workplaces. Simply put, it’s what today’s employees not only need, but what they expect. And with the pace of change unlikely to slow anytime soon, businesses need leaders / managers braced and competent to weather and ride the storms.
A report, published in September 2020 by Benenden Health, surveyed over 1000 non- furloughed UK employees and over 1000 employers, across a variety of sectors, organisation sizes and geographies. It found that nearly 60% of employees' mental health had suffered due to work, however only 24% would confide in their boss or HR about their mental wellbeing. This poses a problem because as leaders / managers we can only manage what we know. If employees are reluctant to be transparent about their mental health concerns, then it's difficult to provide them with effective support. The consequences of this are not insignificant. Data taken from the January 2020 Deloitte report on “mental health & employers: refreshing the case for investors” estimated the cost of mental ill health to employers to be up to £45 billion each year. This is comprised of £7 billion in absence costs, £27-29 billion in presenteeism costs and £9 billion in staff turnover.
The post COVID estimates will be significantly higher.
The BMA reported recently that mental health concerns since the pandemic have increased from 1 in 10 people in the UK affected to 1 in 5. Mental wellbeing has been significantly challenged, with the number of employees reporting positive wellbeing having almost halved during this crisis according to the Hays May 2020 Wellbeing Matters report which surveyed 16,000 professionals to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on wellbeing:
- Only 25% of younger workplace demographic reported positive wellbeing.
- Only 37% of managers reported positive wellbeing.
- 40% said that they didn’t have access to a work support network.
- 38% stated they were more distant with their colleagues since lockdown.
These employee wellbeing problems and their knock-on effect on workplace productivity could largely be avoided if our leaders / managers embraced the characteristics that create psychologically safe working environments. Those leadership / management traits that inspire trust and transparency in our workforce and which allow us to identify and support employees in need.
So, what are these skills that the new leader / manager must embody? They are those human-centric skills such as compassion, communication, resilience and emotional intelligence. Leaders / managers who are equipped to tackle sensitive and often controversial topics that impact their staff's wellbeing, even though these issues may originate from outside the workplace, will be able to steer their teams most deftly down the messy road to post-pandemic recovery.
It's time that leaders / managers stop hiding behind a shield of professionalism and act with compassion. After all, business leaders are people managers and people are any company’s greatest asset, not processes. And although it can be messy, complicated and uncomfortable at times, it's necessary that business leaders /managers show that they are people too.
Opsis have developed a range of modules focused on how to identify and then transfer the learning from the global pandemic into our organizations - including the strategic Wellbeing & Wellness of all staff.
These modules come under the umbrella of
Reflect – Reset – Renew
It’s time to Reflect – Reset and Renew your focus on strategic wellbeing….
For more information click here
or email us at
Neville Naylor and Ngozi Weller Opsis Consulting
