In the last two years, we have survived a global pandemic, significant social unrest, dramatic climate change, a highly polarized political environment, and tremendous economic instability and loss. Within large and small, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, the result of all this change has been strategic uncertainty and total exhaustion. Still, we keep hitting the “power through button”, referencing the work of Brene’ Brown, with the hopes that we can make it through one more day.
As winter slowly moves toward spring, the real question for us as leaders and managers is a simple, yet powerful one: What can we do to restore hope for the future?
I first began thinking about this subject during the late spring of 2021. During most executive coaching sessions, people shared about the overwhelming number of problems they were still encountering at work. Month after month, they reported to me that they felt pummeled by the challenges and risks caused by COVID. Some days, they just wanted to roll over and go back to bed rather than face another day where they could neither predict nor influence all that was swirling around them.
One particularly difficult problem has been the number of people leaving jobs and the resulting staff shortages. To compound this, there are even fewer people applying for these open positions. Those who remain are burned out trying to cover all of the open hours. With turnover rates of front line staff continuing to climb and front line supervisors feeling overwhelmed, we are seeing a massive convergence of compassion fatigue and decision fatigue. The result is that we are making decisions and choices from a place of depletion, and the outcome has been costly on so many levels.
After considerable reflection, I believe there are three keys to restoring hope for the future, namely people, purpose and joy. Margaret Wheatley in her book, Turning To One Another: simple conversations to restore hope to the future (Berret-Koehler, 2001) writes, “People are the solution to the problems that confront us. Technology is not the solution, although it can help. We are the solution - we as generous, open-hearted people who want to use our creativity and caring on behalf of other human beings and all life.”
The key for us as leaders who understand that people are the solution is to make some very specific choices as leaders. Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams with Gail Hudson in The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide For Trying Times (Celadon Books, 2021) understand this and offer the following insight: “Hope science has identified four components that are essential for any lasting sense of hope in our lives - and perhaps in our world. We need to have realistic goals to pursue as well as realistic pathways to achieve them. In addition, we need the confidence that we can achieve these goals, and the support to help overcome adversity along the way. Some researchers call these four components the “hope cycle” because the more of each we have, the more they encourage each other and inspire hope in our life.”
Recognizing the importance of the hope cycle, we as leaders can help people create those realistic goals, help them find the pathways to achieving them, build their confidence along the way, and give them the support they need to overcome adversity along the path. The future may be challenging but our choices are clear. We need to invest time and energy into our people while rediscovering purpose and joy in our own lives at work and at home.
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