Leadership is never an easy task. Add the
current pandemic situation and very easily feelings of being overwhelmed, and
things spiraling out of control become unmanageable. As a woman in leadership
position, and a self-proclaimed feminist, I have been reflecting on what ‘‘feminist
leadership’’ can look like during these uncertain times and want to offer the
following principles for both leadership and followership alike.
Self & Collective Care
Working remotely more often than not means
you are clocking more than your 40 hours quite easily. Burn out is therefore
more eminent amongst teams than before and women especially report feeling
guilty about taking time off for themselves. We all know that if you are
exhausted, your performance and productivity levels can be affected, so take
time off if you need to. Practice your boundaries, log on and off work for the
hours you need to, take lunch and health breaks, exercise and model this
behavior for yourself and for others. If your company can afford it, consider
taking collective time off work together or institutionalize game nights or other
fun ways of meeting virtually as a team to collectively care for each other and
yourselves. A great resource we are utilizing as a team at my workplace is the Shine
App for our daily
self-care and meditation.
Empathetic Leadership
The strongest way to build relationships is
to be genuinely curious about the people you lead and work with. I call this
seeing people! In these difficult times as a leader you must truly see people.
Your colleague may be going through a loss in the family, a partner being laid
off or uncertainty in their employment status. These circumstances will evoke
emotional and mental responses and will ultimately affect how they show up to
work. Empathetic leaders are trusted leaders.
Heaven knows you cannot lead teams if
people don’t trust you, and in any crisis trusted leaders are the best bet to
keep the boat afloat! So, before you get started with that kickoff meeting,
check in with how your colleagues and peers are doing. Truly be present, be
flexible, listen and ask how you can be of support to those who need it.
Encourage ‘‘camera-on’’ practices to help people feel more connected and get
comfortable with holding space for yourself and others. Encourage 1-1 meetings
with teams and consider peer support groups. At WIAN, we recently introduced a buddy
system and we are excited to practice holding space for our colleagues in this
way.
Transparency
As a rule of thumb, keep all teams informed
and in the loop. In a crisis, any good leader will increase the cadence of team
briefings to ensure anxiety levels are kept in check and that the teams’ trust
in the leadership and in their employer is unwavering. This is not the time to
make false promises, update on what you know and check in for team concerns
which you should address when you have more clarity. Be believable, be credible,
be trustworthy and be clear. A truly feminist leader will check in with both core
and support teams. Many organizations have cultures that often leave interns,
junior roles and support staff out of the conversation. This is not the time to
keep updates classified, but rather lead with transparency, compassion, and
humility.
We are living through unprecedented times. As a leader you may be called upon now more than ever to make hard decisions at this time. I leave you with Maya Angelou’s words ‘I have learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel’. I trust that you will be a feminist leader as you navigate this crisis.
