"Happy New Year! Finally, am I right? Wait. Noooooo! From retrenchments, to pay-cuts, to working-from-home, 2020 was no joke. But it seems like we’re gonna be stuck in this reality for a while. This week’s author, Shobana, sheds some light on how leaders can provide an objective, no-judgment space to speak up. Let’s get it!”
by Shobana Chandran
The COVID-19 crisis is making demands of CEOs that very few could have predicted and in many ways, is redefining leadership.
Every person, business and country is impacted by this pandemic and are all at different stages. The uncertainty is unparalleled and without a cure for the health crisis. This is our short-term future.
According to a recent KPMG survey that was done, it has pushed executives at the world’s largest and leading companies to act with decisiveness.
Overall, the pandemic has forced leaders to dramatically realign their priorities by accelerating their company’s digital transformation and ensuring their talent pipelines can adapt to new demands.
After interviewing hundreds of CEOs, first in January and then again in July and August to see how their perspective changed, KPMG found that executive leaders are acting fast and firm, with many following a similar playbook that reaches across their entire business:
70% are redesigning office spaces and expanding work from home policies out of necessity.
75% are investing in technology to make sure their teams are connected and equipped.
80% are reevaluating their corporate purpose, their reason for being.
(Source : The Pandemic makes Leaders Focus on What Matters, Bill Thomas, Leadership,August 2020)
These are truly dramatic and relatively universal shifts across leadership circles, none more telling than talent shooting to the top of the list of risks CEOs were concerned about in only six months. Because companies have had to rely on technology and accelerate their own digital transformations to confront the challenges the pandemic caused, they need the talent to match this change to fully capitalise on the new investments and meet demands.
It also makes sense that COVID-19 has prompted CEOs to meaningfully re-consider purpose as a key driver of corporate success, for both today and the future.
CEOs recognise that companies have a role in tackling the critical global challenges facing society.
The pandemic has accelerated the call for societal change and made CEOs re-evaluate their purpose.
Together, it’s a lot to do for any leader, especially on an expedited time frame.
"Leaders are concerned about the people - where they work, what tools they are using, and why they do the work. Everything is on the table."
Personally, being part of the Leadership group in my company, we had to reevaluate our workforce and sadly, create a retrenchment list.
Many staff were temporarily laid off and asked to accept a pay-cut with reduced working hours and days.
Even us leaders were not exempted from that either. We suffered a huge cut in our salaries for three months.
With many steps taken to best suit our financial state, it still didn't entirely free us from the financial crisis we were in when they announced the CMCO recently.
Even more steps were taken to reduce the workforce and at the same time implement methods to increase budgets for appropriate technology to facilitate work.
As leaders, we are responsible to fill in the gaps wherever we are needed. Many times we are buffers between the management and staff when decisions are made.
We are also often the bearers of bad news but at the same time, motivators to uplift the spirit of our staff.
2020 has really pushed us leaders to a challenging yet demanding platform. Many of us have had to unlearn and learn leadership strategies.
In this whole chaos of the pandemic, strategies and actions were taken to suit the market’s need and to comply with the government’s protocol for health and safety. As leaders, attending to the needs of our workforce were probably the last on our ‘to-do list’.
It is always appraisal season nearing the end of the year. Even with last year being one of the most challenging years for the workforce yet, alas, appraisals had to be done.
"One way we leaders can make our staff feel important is through the questions we ask during their appraisal. Many of us do not have the liberty to promise them yearly benefits or rewards in the coming year, but one gift we could provide is the ability to speak up and for us to listen when they do."
The questions listed below can be used during an appraisal.
But if appraisals have already taken place at your company, there is no harm getting your staff to answer them anyway through a simple Google survey - of which most of us are quite the experts now after a year of practice.
It gives both the appraiser and the appraisee a chance to communicate and be heard.
Here are some questions you can ask:
1. This year has had its own share of opportunities and challenges. If you were asked to reflect on your journey at work this year, what image would you associate it with. Please attach the image you have in mind.
It is never easy to reflect, but through this question, we are enabling our staff to reflect on the year and to summarise their frustrations, achievements, struggles in the form of an image. Picking an image that best summarises themselves (eg: a bull cart, or a sponge) will enable them to express themselves and for us as leaders to understand them better.
2. If you could reflect on your performance at work this year and could describe it in ONE word, what would it be?
The key word in this question is ‘performance’. This question requires the staff to self-evaluate themselves. Many are not given the opportunity to self-evaluate themselves. Being able to self-evaluate and to sum it to ONE WORD requires a lot of thinking.
3. What would you say was your contribution to the company this year, other than fulfilling your role stated in your contract and Job Description?
Many a times, the answer I have received from staff for this question would be something that is already expected of them as a member of the company. This question requires staff to reflect and think beyond their Job Description. As an appraiser, our role here is to probe staff to think further - how much has a staff gone ‘out of the way’ to be a team player in achieving the company’s goals and values. Don’t be surprised – you may hear of stories that you weren’t even aware of.
4. There were many challenges we faced this year as a company. What would you say was your BIGGEST challenge this year?
We may assume that we know the BIGGEST challenge our staff would have faced this year. But this question allows staff to prioritise their challenges, and state what was their BIGGEST challenge – it may not even be related to work!
5. How would you rate yourself when it comes to embracing changes?
6. How would you rate yourself when it comes to flexibility?
7. How would you rate yourself in adapting to new situations?
For this, allow your staff to rate themselves 1 being the lowest, 5 being the highest. I must admit, when I asked these questions, I had pre-evaluated my staff, and was surprised to see their own self-evaluation! Through various probing questions, it was a pleasant surprise to see how staff evaluated their flexibility and adaptation ratings. As leaders we tend to evaluate based on the results of changes and decisions taken. As staff, they evaluate themselves at the point of hearing those decisions. This is where it leads us to hearing them out on why certain results were not as how we had imagined them to be.
8. Many steps and decisions were put in place to help us as a company to face this year's unprecedented situation. In your opinion, what do you feel could have been done differently?
No one has the perfect solution, or action plan for any crisis. Many a times, the leaders have a say to what happens, while those who are not in a position of leadership may not. This is a good time to hear their suggestions – after all, everyone is part of the company so everyone should have a say!
9. What is the one thing you would do differently in the near future when it comes to adapting to new norms?
Here is another self-evaluating question again. This is to better prepare them for the unexpected in the near future, should something occur.
10. This year, just as any other year, has served as a learning curve for all of us. What has this year taught you personally?
This is a simple question to enable staff to express what they have learnt from this year’s unprecedented situation.
11. There are many lessons we can all take away from the various experiences we have had this year. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
A humbling self- evaluation process is needed for everyone, including us as leaders. This is a question for everyone in the company.
12. Thinking beyond our role and job description is an important mindset to have in order to achieve greater heights in life and at work. It takes many great minds to come together to achieve success in the company. In your opinion, how and at what capacity do you think you can better serve the brand, the centre and the company?
Here is an opportunity to hear the staff availing themselves for areas beyond their Job Description. It is a good time for us as leaders to tap on the talents we have, should there be a need to restructure the company.
Here’s an important note for appraisers.
As leaders, we tend to think we know all the answers our staff have for each of these questions. However, it is important to always keep an open and objective mind when receiving and hearing their responses.
Avoid assuming and judging at any point during an appraisal.
These questions are not solely for us to evaluate our staff but to get our staff to re-evaluate themselves.
As leaders, our role to motivate our staff to do better, to understand better and to perform better, remains.
“Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations."- Peter Drucker -
By Shobana Chandran
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