On Feminist Leadership during a Pandemic

 

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.

 First Published by The Women in International Affairs Network- By Kate Kiama