What Makes Teams Successful During a Crisis

Originally Posted June 30, 2020

Times of crisis seriously challenge effective communication and collaboration. When emotions are running high and logic is lagging behind, our default ways of handling things take over, for better or worse. Now if you're being honest with yourself, which of the below groups best reflects what is happening to you and your team in these COVID times?

Group 1: The bad gets worse

Group 2: The good falls apart because it was unstable to begin with, or

Group 3: The great gets even better

Let's talk about #1. If things in your organization or on your team were bad to begin with it seems pretty obvious that any additional stress from a crisis will make it even worse. Management is fixated on maintaining productivity and focus at the expense of recognizing that their employees are human – experiencing a wide range of emotions and circumstances during this crisis. Leadership in this group isn’t placing any value on emotional literacy and compassion. Team members therefore revert into inward-looking individuals consumed by fulfilling their physiological and safety needs that aren't being met (thanks Maslow).

This disconnect from the team blocks effective communication because there is a general sentiment of “Who cares? I just need to do what I need to do.” Tensions run high, confusion abounds, mistakes are made, and people are frustrated yet unwilling to use effective communication to work through these issues. Instead, you see withdrawal (a top sign of being totally checked out) or negative conflict (costly and damaging to the organization). Productivity nosedives despite management’s best efforts to micromanage (because hey, that micromanage default kicked in even if you logically know by now micromanaging is counter-productive). Every day is a slog.

Actually, a lot of this probably already existed before COVID. Nothing is worse than adding confusion and chaos on top of apathy. All sorts of things contribute to this mess - poor leadership being the primary driver. The good news is that rising above this is possible! It takes hard work and commitment, but making a commitment to effective communication is the most powerful step you can take.

Group #2. Now maybe you've realized you fall into the second camp - everything seemed good when things were calm but now all the cracks are showing. Your teams are finding it difficult to communicate clearly with each other while working remotely. Things are taking way longer to get done, and the team isn’t really functioning as a team. The physical togetherness in the office masked the lack of team cohesion. Now mismatched expectations abound, but no one is stepping in to provide clarity.

There is an increase of both withdrawal and negative conflict. I wouldn’t be surprised if many are thinking “Why should I give my time and energy to this organization during an extremely stressful time in my own life when I don’t understand why certain things are or are not happening?” Leadership needs to provide transparency around top-level decision making. This is critical for employee engagement at any time, and especially during times of crisis. The best managers are being tested, and executive leadership isn’t setting them up to be successful in this time of uncertainty.

You hope you can get back to the office and back to "normal" as quickly as possible. You assume every organization is experiencing this right now as they navigate these unprecedented times. But that's not the case. Because we have...

Group #3. These tough times have brought out the best in people who are dedicated to effective communication. If you’re here, you feel lucky to be surrounded by people who care about the soft skills of EQ and . This group is engaged in ongoing constructive dialogue, oftentimes mitigating issues before they even arise. People are happy and productive. Work product hasn’t missed a beat, and employees are able to continually adapt to the changing circumstances even if the company is enduring significant hardship.

Recent examples of this include the approach taken by AirBnB and Carta leadership when they announced significant layoffs. Both CEOs handled an extremely challenging situation with clarity, transparency, heart, and acknowledgement. The leaders in group 3 didn’t get here alone.

They’ve read the research from the likes of Harvard and Daniel Goleman to know that emotional intelligence (EQ), and thus effective communication, is what sets apart successful companies from flailing and mediocre ones. They have worked hard to make emotional literacy and effective communication their defaults. These superstars have used every resource at their disposal including coaches, books, podcasts, seminars, and more to master how they can truly connect and communicate with others, and it's paying off.

You know the difference if you are part of a team managed by a #1 or a #3. And if you are the one managing the team, hopefully you’re doing everything you can to be a #3. If you identify with groups 1 or 2, it might be time to do a complete manager and team assessment to evaluate how to boost employee engagement and collaboration. If you aren’t sure if you need this, check out if you’ve fallen victim to one or more of the below damaging myths that make managers de-prioritize EQ and effective communication:

1. It’s a soft skill that’s not very important for real work

2. It doesn’t have a place in the workplace (e.g. it’s unprofessional to address emotions)

3. It can be placed on the back burner while more pressing issues are dealt with

4. It can’t be learned

5. It’s impossible to get everyone on board

6. It’s not a good use of dollars

These myths have been disproved in the progressive workplace where companies like Microsoft have turned around their corporate culture through a commitment to EQ and effective communication. The reality is that any organization who doesn’t fully embrace prioritizing EQ and effective communication will never live up to its true potential. Treating your employees like people reaps extraordinary results. Groundbreaking, I know. You hired great people - your employees are likely your biggest expense. Boost that ROI by investing in a culture that values and supports them.

While COVID is timely, the question of corporate culture is evergreen. The biggest mistake you could make for your organization is to hope the issues you’ve seen will resolve themselves once things get back to “normal”. Normal doesn’t exist anymore, and your teams are relying on you to make sure they are thriving during times of calm and crisis.