The old saying “Change is as good as a holiday” is not a good one right now.
It surely does not apply to most people in the middle of a pandemic. What is happening is not the holiday equivalent change we wanted.
Many businesses, staff and families are sadly doing it tough. These environmentally imposed changing work circumstances for many employees, including so many working from home, is naturally creating undue stress. More to the point, it is creating amplified stress.
With this crisis style stress comes changing behavioral expressions from colleagues and leaders that are not surprisingly trying their best in uncharted waters. Through no fault of their own they are exhibiting natural emotional reactions to unique circumstances. These may not be the behaviors that we are accustomed to experiencing from a leader or a colleague. There could very well be an intensity of behaviors from the normal. There could be changed behavior, or there could be some individuals which may be acting totally opposite to what we would normally expect.
These are times we want to be more deeply in tune with our personality styles and the personality styles of those we interact with. It is extremely helpful to be more aware of how those that you work with want to be treated (versus treating them like we would want to be treated ourselves). The inability to adapt, at least partially, to mixed personalities during this time can create even further undue stress with unintended results.
Effective communication is paramount, but it is only as good as being able get messages across. The first step to building stronger communication is awareness.
By identifying how we are similar and different, we can make cognitive choices when interacting to create stronger, more engaged relationships. In other words, we can make thoughtful responses rather than emotional stress addled responses.
Now more than ever is time to strengthen relationships, to increase adaptability and to develop better and more harmonious working relationships.
Assessments and coaching about how individuals’ respective styles and how each, with the in-depth knowledge of the other’s behavioral preferences, can optimise interpersonal and professional workplace outcomes is something well worth considering.
The likes of an antero HR DISC Collaboration Report that presents the key features of the interrelationship of any two individuals, highlighting side-by-side the likely areas where they have both similar and dissimilar perspectives and behavioral tendencies can help with dealing with change and stress.
I’m sure we would all agree change is not always as good as a holiday, but adapting more effectively to change can make our work lives easier until we get that holiday.