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Right now people are feeling lots of feels over lots of things. Pandemic. Masks. School. Return to work. Work from home. It’s all so much.
I’ve been thinking about who owns this? Meaning who’s job is it to help *all the people* hold *all the feels*.
My answer: those in manager/leadership positions. For years I start my manager trainings with the same statement.
“As managers you have the best jobs in the world. The hardest, but the best. Because when you’re intentional about creating healthy workplaces, places that empower and support, that empowerment doesn’t stop at 5:00 when they leave. They go out into the community and be better citizens and family members. That’s how you change the world.”
Sure, I’ve always believed those words. But now, more than ever, not only do we need to empower and support our team members, we need to hold their beautiful, crumbling hearts.
It is now our job to hold the pieces.
We need to find solutions and demonstrate flexibility. As managers, our new calling is to create a space for our team members to exhale…to feel the feels.
We need to figure out how to inspire and lead others, when ourselves are most likely struggling as well.
So, how do we do this? Well, here are some tips 
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.1. Manage your mess. Get your own feelings under control. If your team perceives that you can lead through your own emotions, they won’t have faith you can manage them. (Don’t worry, a post on this comes next week!)
2. Your motto needs to be “I will only succeed if I’m focused on the people around me, not myself”. Print this on a shirt. Slap it on a bumper sticker. Write it on a post-it. Don’t forget it.
3. Check in with your team often. It’s time to become the helicopter manager. Increase how often you communicate. Make sure to have 1:1s whenever possible. Ask questions. My favorite: what can I do to support you right now?
4. Remember, you’re dealing with creatures of emotion, not logic…and emotion has reason which reason knows nothing of.
In the end all with be ok. If it’s not ok it’s not the end. Right now it’s our job to help make the road to ok a little bit easier. And that means we hold the pieces of our team’s beautiful, crumbling hearts.