The Queen of Hearts: The Confessions of An ‘Accidental’ Leader

I didn’t purpose to be in the space that I find myself in.  God plucked me from the path that I had set out for myself & set me on an alternative journey. At the start it all appeared somewhat ‘accidental’ but I know now that it was no accident, rather His design, His purpose for my life… 

So now that I am here, these are my confessions…the lessons I am learning about being a woman in business, building an empire, one brick at a time… 

“Teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.”  
~ Patrick Lencioni 

Covid-19 is an unprecedented challenge for organizations and their leadership teams around the world. How can you help your team to weather the storm & come out ahead on the other side?

Be Human & Create A Sense Of Psychological Safety 

Connect with your people. We haven’t had a public health crisis of this scale in our lifetime, and it will need both HEAD + HEART to successfully navigate this crisis. Yes – as a leader is it imperative that you keep calm but that doesn’t mean not showing emotion or compassion.  

When a crisis hits the deepest and most needful parts of our human nature kick in – we want security, warmth, food, absence of pain. The lower eschalons of Maslow’s hierarchy. Without the basics, teams can cease to function. 

As each of us experiences the distress of the coronavirus pandemic in unique ways, and as we redesign remote workplace cultures around those nuances, a key concern threads our experiences together: in addition to threatening our physical safety, this pandemic is a threat to our psychological safety.

Research shows psychological safety is a key component of collaboration: the more safety a team experiences, the more likely they are to collaborate effectively.

This is especially true at this time where teams may be working remotely, and it is not the norm.

Align Communication

Not everyone has the same idea of communication.

Take the word ‘responsive’, for example. You might see responsive as replying within two days, whereas for someone else it could mean a response within two hours. Those are both entirely reasonable views, neither is right or wrong. When you don’t hear from your colleague for two days, you may be dealing with an innocent case of poorly aligned expectations.

Align how, and when you communicate. The more uncertainty there is around communication, the less likely communication is going to happen as you would like it to.

Have Fun Together

Work is more than just work. Besides taking care of your tasks and obligations, employees also bond, spend great times together, laugh and cry and share moments of their lives. This isn’t all lost in remote work, but it’s significantly more difficult to keep these moments alive. However, it’s not impossible. 

Your remote team needs to have ways to bond about things unrelated to work. Set up a virtual watercooler – for sharing non-work-related and just-for-fun content. In addition to keeping those distracting cat GIFs and weekend recaps out of work collaboration channels, it also helps reduce the feeling of distance between team members and create a sense of community.

Whilst these tips won’t solve all your problems, they will get you on the right track. Well-functioning teams will be critical to making it through the coronavirus crisis and then thriving after.

If you would like support to help you enhance teamwork & empower your team to collaborate effectively, send me an email.

Stay safe. 

With Love, 

The Queen Of Hearts
Mucha Mlingo
| Six Seconds EQ Practitioner | Master Trainer & Facilitator | 
| Award Winning International Keynote Speaker |