How Leaders Meet Followers’ Critical Needs During COVID-19

Humans experience the worldabout 30%
rationally and 70% emotionally. Effective bank executives and directors would be
well served by remembering that during this time.

Right now, many of those emotions tend toward fear and uncertainty. While what you as a leader communicate is important, how you do it and how it makes your people feel is crucial for effective leadership. Gallup has found that most critical emotional needs of followers – be it employees or customers – are trust, compassion, stability and hope. Yet, many banks are starting with deficits in these areas

Trust: Predictability In Unpredictable Times
Right now, employees are not only looking for honesty and clarity – they’re also watching intently for behavioral predictability. Leaders can’t predict the future, but they must be predictable. It’s hard to trust an erratic leader.

But bank leaders may be starting from a trust deficit. Most bank employees didn’t trust their leadership before the COVID-19 pandemic. Gallup research shows that just three in 10 financial services employees strongly agree that they trust the leadership of their organization, and just two in 10 say leadership communicates effectively with the rest of the organization.

Most banks are
prioritizing employee and customer safety, which is necessary for trust. But
employees are wondering how a health and economic crisis will affect their jobs
and how leadership is making decisions for the future: the principles they’re using,
how they conform to the organization’s purpose, the outcomes they’re aiming
for.

Don’t shy away from
difficult topics like layoffs or pay. Clearly lay out the scenarios and the
decision criteria. Make firm commitments in critical areas wherever possible. Just
as weather sirens indicate when people should be on high alert, companies
should do the same. Otherwise, employees will live and work in constant
anxiety.

Compassion: Loud and Reinforced
This is the time to show care. Your employees are juggling new responsibilities, fears and problems. They need to hear their managers and leaders say, out loud, that they understand, that the company is behind them and that everyone at the firm will get through this new situation together. They need to feel genuine compassion.

However, bank leaders may face a deficiency here as well: only three in 10 financial services employees strongly agreed in pre-pandemic times that their company cared about their well-being.

Compassion should also be boldly practiced
through a bank’s policy decisions. The commitments, support and sacrifices
executives make to keep employees, customers and communities whole are a
reflection and demonstration of their priorities. Put bluntly: verbal
compassion without policy compassion is insulting. Real compassion changes
things – when the pandemic has passed, how you treated employees and companies will
be remembered most.

Stability: Psychological Safety Without Tunnel Vision
There are two elements to stability, the practical and the psychological. Providing practical stability means making sure employees have the materials, equipment and technology they need to work under rapidly changing circumstances.

But the core of stability is psychological security – the need to know where a company is headed and that one’s job is secure. This is why executives must clearly define, communicate and act on their decision principles, especially when it comes to employment and pay.

Leaders need to provide
a sense of normalcy to prevent tunnel vision. Not every conversation needs to
be about COVID-19. Regularly communicate progress and accomplishments during
this difficult time so that it doesn’t feel like the world has completely
stopped.

Hope: The Most Precious Asset During Turmoil
Hope sits on the foundation of trust and stability. It pulls people forward and invites them to participate in creating a future that’s better than the present.

Leaders should view hope as precious capital. Hopeful workers are more resilient, innovative and agile, better able to plan ahead and navigate obstacles – valuable assets in good times and bad. Tell people what you want to achieve this week, this month, this quarter – and why you’re confident those goals can be reached.

Change The Lens
Amid the chaos and uncertainty, when employees are looking to you, know one thing for sure: You don’t have to have all the answers. But you do need to know how to meet your followers’ four basic needs in every plan, action and communication.

Remember, the employees most vulnerable to the ripple effects of COVID-19 are often the ones closest to your customers. Your people are looking to you for trust, compassion, stability and hope. Their eyes are on you – will you rise to the challenge?