If you are currently thinking ‘where do I go from here’ or ‘what now’ you are not alone. The hope of a big bang return to normal have been replaced with a future more about rebuilding and change than a glamorous return to anything we have previously known.
So why start with compassion?
You may be seeing changes in people who were previously your star performers. Start with compassionate performance management and fully explore the reasons why this might be, and what support this person needs that they didn’t need before. Be open minded to consider the reasons behind the change their behaviour. They may be juggling family commitments at home, have experienced a bereavement, or are generally feeling burnt out and isolated from the effects of lockdown.
More redundancies are inevitable this year; you may well have to make more difficult decisions for your business to survive. Compassionate downsizing does not mean avoiding these difficult choices it means taking time to consider the environment and backdrop these employees will be facing if redundancy happens, being more creative than ever before in thinking of alternatives. And most importantly, enabling employees to leave with dignity and support, whilst they face an unexpected future.
Strong employee engagement scores are proven to link to strong customer satisfaction scores. More now than ever before, if you treat your employees with compassion & build it into your employer branding it will translate to more satisfied customers. It was no accident the big retailers changed the angle on their Christmas marketing campaigns significantly in 2020. From the previous promotion of the perfect Christmas, with money buying joy; they shifted toward kindness and compassion.
And finally have compassion with yourself – whatever business challenges you are facing and whatever difficult decisions you will tackle this year, allow yourself some compassion too. We are all facing this brave new world together.
