The Truth about Crisis and its Multiple Facets
The COVID-19 crisis has given an additional push to re-evaluate every situation, most of which need to be balanced by being resilient.
During times of disturbance or chaos, sometimes people hurry to try to solve or to overcome the stress of the crisis. However, the idea of resilience is to first identify whether it is a ‘stress,’ ‘pressure,’ ‘burden’ or ‘a crisis that can be handled.’
You must have read, heard or realised that — hasty decisions are often wrong decisions! More often than not, we find ourselves in situations where we are tempted to decide or react almost on a REFLEX. Decisions are either made by evaluating the situation or the circumstances, which may be or may not be in our control.
While taking decisions, at times it is wise to consider a balancing act and juggle between our urge to “want” and “have”. The circumference of “want” is big but “have” encompasses a bigger radius. For instance, even during the lockdown, I want to travel for a holiday. On the other hand, I have to pay attention to my health and wellbeing first. I feel a reframing technique is one of the best tools to be resilient. A robust method to control thoughts in the mind is the goal of winning the crisis. Arriving at such a stage of resilience is a journey and there is no quick fix.
Consider another case, the pandemic has shifted the parameters by which companies are evaluated. They not only have to turn over a profit in their businesses but now their performance is assessed on a vast range of criteria, which include employee morale, motivation level, empathy and inclusiveness, wellbeing, support and flexibility, resilience and so on. In other words, companies no longer have to be only equated on financial numbers but also foundational levels like Supportive Leadership, an INVOLVING & ACCEPTANCE CULTURE (IAC) and empower teams on decision making capability.
IAC always promotes mutual respect, togetherness and diverse perspectives and helps an employee reflect upon themselves to achieve the best in their highs and lows. Companies play a major role in promoting building resilience at the workplace and cultivating mental agility. This is a learning we’ve experienced with our team at dentsu World Services during the past few months as the pandemic engulfed the world.
As a Human Resource professional, I have immense regard for leaders and organizations that operate from a zone of high emotional intelligence (EI) and strengthen the cultural fabric and morale of the teams. This year onwards, let’s pledge our contribution towards building a resilient workplace to empower our workforce for future challenges.
Author: Priyanka Dutta, Head — Human Resources, dentsu World Services.
