COVID19 and Emotional Wealth

At this time in history, there is no one on the planet who does not know what COVID-19 is. It is the pandemic that has swept through every single country, mainly killing people older than 70, or who have pre-existing comorbidity health problems and also unfortunately the frontline workers, taking care of those who are protecting us.

Today, 08 June 2020,  there have been 406 165 deaths of which 120 000 people have died in the US, 40 000 in the UK alone. 

We have been bombarded with more than a trillion pieces of information about the corona virus on how to sanitize our hands, maintain social distance and why we need to stay inside. However, within all of that we have not received much information about how we may protect ourselves from the mental and emotional impacts that this will have on our lives.

But there are two accelerated changes that COVID-19 has brought to humanity in less than 8 weeks:-

• Digital Transformation

• Emotional Response in Society

The digital transformation is taking place through forced change, as we have all had to adapt to conducting our lives via digital platforms such as Zoom meetings. But what is happening to our emotional and mental health?

Emotional Uprising

We are seeing how people worldwide are fed up of keeping their emotions in check as the latest brutal police killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, recorded live on a cellphone, has the #blacklivesmatter movement spilling from digital awareness, to the streets and back to online digital fights with people claiming that #alllivesmatter too. 

We have not yet truly begun to see how digitalised grief is going to change the way humanity behaves in the future. We are beginning to see that people are no longer afraid to display their pain.

The emotional wellbeing of people in the world is set to become one of the greatest changes that we will see as corporate businesses begin to realise, how these soft and fluffy aspects of our lives, are actually the drivers of their business and will determine just how successful their companies are going to be in the future, following the transition that will take place in the wake of both the COVID-19 pandemic, and the institutional transformations resulting from the impact of George Floyd's death. 

Emotions in the Workplace

Employees will choose to work with those companies that provide the ergonomic chairs as well as the laptop, and leave those who believe that it is simply enough to provide connectivity to the enterprise meeting rooms. The company that understands that by offering flexible working hours, an employee will be far more effective and productive when they are not preoccupied with wondering how to give 8 hours office hours, 6 hours of homeschooling, 3 hours of cooking and 3 hours of housework, without burning out.

Dealing with the emotional outbursts of employees who are grieving from having lost loved ones,  or terrified of losing their homes because the COVID also created loss of primary revenue, will require leadership skills that the majority of executive leaders have been refusing to acquire over the last decade.

These are the so called "soft-skills" that enable us to build resilience, listen and hear others, and show that we truly care. Here is an idea of what some of those emotions may be.

• Empathy - Listen to hear others
• Vulnerability - We are all human, let others see you when you are not okay
• Acknowledgement - See others where they at - their pain is never trivial

Out With the Old

Many leaders are at a stalemate with their employees, since the traditional approach of intimidation when faced with low productivity, will no longer motivate employees who have had to go far beyond the call of duty during the lockdowns to ensure banks, mines and big corporates could continue to provide essential services.

Organisations, where leaders "jokingly" say that "We are probably all gonna die of COVID-19!", when the team is asked "What new skills or hobbies do you thinkyou will have gained after the lock down is over?", will find their employees seeking opportunities elsewhere as the digital world opens then up to a world they had not previously had any exposure to. This is a true story, where this head of a critical business unit, then repeated the statement in the meeting, thinking that no had heard, knowing that I had just lost my brother-in-law to the disease 5 days before and dismissed her response by saying it was just "silly expression", after I made a request that Leadership kindly show more compassion, especially given what was to come.

Nope! This type of behaviour ain't gonna happen no more. People have had enough of bottling their feelings and want to be heard before being able to move forward with accepting the inevitable changes taking place.  

Open the Dialogue

A new type of leader is required to support humanity through the massive upheavals taking place, and which shall continue at this accelerated pace, going forward. The continuous changes will begin to take its toll on our mental and emotional health. We need to equip our leaders with the proper tools so that they can hold the space for themselves, each other and then their teams. A little like when the Air Hostess tells us to first put the oxygen masks on ourselves, so that we are then equipped to take care of others.

Unfortunately, we must brace ourselves for an increase in suicides;  absenteeism due to major depression and a rise in mental health related issues unlike anything we have seen before. There are solutions and specialised people coaches, that live their lives to serve and empower others. These are the life and business coaches who deliver the behavioural and cultural changes to organisations, whose budgets are the first to be cut, time and time again. And who are contracted to fix cultural and leadership challenges in organisations, "but don't touch my leadership team!".

Developing Emotional Wealth

And so it is time to change with way we teach and learn. It is time to change how we lead, first and foremost ourselves, and then those whose wellbeing our corporate values profess to care about. And it is time for us to learn how to invest in ourselves, so that we may develop our Emotional Wealth. 

There is a need to create places for real dialogue around the things that truly matter to people. This is where the coaching "cafés come in. They are informal but facilitated, intimate groups of people who are supported by coaches well versed and experienced in dealing with the people side of change, and who have the ability to hold the room for people to share whatever is on their mind in a safe and secure manner.

These coaches have years of experience and the psychometric tools to support the personal emotional growth required for every single person to get through the ravages that the pandemic is still to bring.  

We are the type of coaches that are needed as partners to the Wellness Industry, and collaborators to the OD and L&D sectors of HR. We are aware of the need to equip the Human Resources teams with the emotional resilience to support their leaders during the continuous business transformations over the next 24 months. 

We are also there for entrepreneurs, small business owners and the person who just does not know where to get support to build their own emotional wealth.

To find out more come to the Heart Stuff Café events, where people share what's on their mind and where we all wear our hearts on our sleeves.

Schedule a Heart Stuff Café event for you, your peers or your team via our website at Embracing Change.

I'm Joan Laine and I develop Compassionate Leaders.