Helping clients navigate a new hybrid world-The Experts Weigh In
We recently published an article entitled “Sticky Situation – Helping clients navigate a new hybrid world” written by Victoria Trabosh, CDC, CEC; Suzi Pomerantz, MT, MCC; .and Craig Carr, BCC, PCC, CPCC.
The Situation:
I’m coaching a leader who is struggling to bring back the culture and morale of a pre-pandemic office. The lack of impromptu connections means that most conversations are transactional vs. relational. What coaching does this leader need to navigate a new hybrid world?
Here’s what one of our experts, Suzi Pomerantz had to say…
Look forward, not back. There are some aspects of organizational life that are permanently altered because of the pandemic. Culture and morale are in that category. Some portion of your workforce has been hired during the pandemic and may not have met coworkers in person yet.
You cannot go back to the same vibe that existed pre-pandemic, when everyone was in the office every day. Now most organizations are either predominantly virtual or have some partial requirement for in-office time, but for the most part we are not going to have everyone in the office at the same time all the time ever again. The flow of relationship spontaneity has been eroded.
So, begin by coaching this leader to expand their awareness of this stark reality. Help them to mourn the loss of the previous culture. Help them to move through the stages of grief and get to a more generative place of possibility. Help them to let go of the struggle to bring back something that isn’t coming back. Help them to focus on what they want to create for the future.
- What did they love most about the pre-pandemic culture and morale?
- What aspects of the previous culture did not work?
- What is possible in the new hybrid reality that wasn’t possible before?
- What aspects of the prior morale are worth regenerating in the new reality?
Then, focus your coaching around the relational aspects. Does this leader need to develop more empathy? How might the leader foster more meaningful relationships with each staff person, and how might the leader cultivate the space and opportunities for more meaningful relationships between others in the organization?
What activities can the leader sponsor that will create value for being relational over transactional in every conversation? What structures or tools can the organization put in place to support and honor conversations that are not purely transactional, but generative, or relational, or energizing, or profound?
Coaching is a great place to co-create with your leader client who they want to be as a leader, and what conversations they need to design and instill in the culture to shift from a purely operational, transactional focus to the culture they will need for the new hybrid workforce of the foreseeable future.
Help your client to envision and create a new culture that integrates the best of what the organizational culture and morale were before with the current reality and move toward a future possibility that is even better than what was previously imaginable. What might that look like?
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