Anxiety worldwide is ramping up to never-before-seen levels. That’s why you need to use the time you have in meetings with your team and your customers to allay their fears and give them a judgment-free space to express themselves. In other words, start every meeting and call with a personal update section.
Yes, every meeting and every call.
This is true whether you’re talking with a prospect, a customer, a colleague, a boss, or an employee.
This isn’t just fluff or pretending to care because it’s what you should do.
This kind of communication is crucial during a crisis for three reasons:
- It gives context to people’s words and actions
- It allows you to understand their capacity and output throughout this crisis
- It puts you in the right position to give the people around you the support they need
Let me explain how we made this shift in communication at Close and how we’ve benefited from it.
We Made 2 Major Changes in the Way We Communicate Here at Close
I will be honest: I’m not a fan of small talk. I love meetings to be short and focused, and until now, our meetings at Close have always been straight to the point.
But we’re living in different times. That’s why you need to add questions like these to every call:
- How are you doing right now?
- What’s your anxiety level?
- What are your current worries about friends, family, or the world?
- What’s changed since the last time we talked?
These questions are must-haves in this kind of environment.
Remember that the world situation is changing daily (or even hourly). That means the people around you are in a constant state of change. If someone tells you today that they’re fine and not worried, by Monday, that might be a completely different story.
"The key to treating burnout is to catch it as early as possible. Listen and look out carefully for early signs of the three symptoms (fatigue, negativity, and ineffectiveness).", said Will Mersh from Spill, a startup that's helping businesses address mental health among their employees
The key to treating burnout is to catch it as early as possible. Listen carefully for early signs of the three symptoms (fatigue, negativity, and ineffectiveness).
Here are two ways we’ve changed our communication norms at Close to better adapt to this situation:
1. Adding the Personal Update Section
All our meetings now begin with a personal update section. When the different teams gather to discuss work, they start by discussing how each of them is doing personally. This comes before we discuss work updates and company issues.
For example, when I meet with our leadership team, each member gives a personal update. That means I can see how each person is doing, offer a listening ear, and provide necessary support during this difficult time.
2. Encouraging Regular Check-Ins
I’ve asked everyone in the company to connect more frequently to see how we’re all doing.
When someone is struggling, you may not notice it from the outside. And quite frankly, you can’t expect them to reach out for help when they need it. When someone on your team struggles, they’re more likely to retreat into themselves than come to you for help.
Add to that that many teams are suddenly working from home, and you’re flying blind. You can’t see how your people are handling the situation, and you can’t provide them with the support they need.
So, check in on people more frequently and practically than you normally would. If you’re a manager or a CEO, you must encourage these check-ins with your team. However, every single employee of every single company can take this advice to heart and check in more frequently to see how their coworkers are coping.
With these two changes, we’ve seen four significant benefits that you’ll definitely want for your team.
4 Reasons You Should Make the Same Changes
1. It’s a Bonding Experience
When you start each meeting by discussing personal updates, your team bonds.
Doing this allows us to understand each other better and humanize each other.
For example, if someone on the team is experiencing an especially stressful experience due to this global pandemic, you’ll better understand why they’re slower than usual responding to messages or were short with you on the phone.
When we bond by sharing personal updates, we see that everyone on the team is human and that we’re all in this together.
2. It Allows People to Verbalize Their Internal Pressures and Worries
This is a huge reliever of stress and helps you win the emotional war. By providing a judgment-free space to express concerns, you allow your team to relieve some of the pressure built up in their lives over the past few weeks.
3. It Allows People to See They’re Not Alone in Their Worries
Many times, we feel that we’re alone in our situation and that no one understands us. However, that is almost always a false assumption.
For example, speaking with the leaders at Close, I discovered we all have similar worries. Although we aren’t as worried about ourselves or our immediate family, many of us are worried about our parents, our grandparents, or other extended family and friends who may be unprepared or in a higher-risk group. We didn’t realize this was a common concern on the team until we discussed it.
By sharing our updates, we found strength in a shared concern and felt more camaraderie with the team.
4. It Sets the Foundation to Talk About Work in a Place That’s More Stable, Calm, and Focused
Don’t sit there and pretend that the world is normal and everything is business as usual.
By starting our meetings with a personal update, we’ve acknowledged that we’re not fine but doing this together.
Work is not a bubble completely disconnected from what’s happening outside or in our personal lives. The world and our situation are impacting us more than ever, and it will impact our work. That’s why talking these things out beforehand helps our team focus more on the work.
This is my advice to CEOs, managers, and teammates: Sync up, catch up, and connect with others before you talk about work.
When we take the time to care about each other, we make the world a better place (even in a crisis).
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