An employee comes to work in emotional pain.
They’re distressed and distracted by some personal matter.
Could be anything – family illness, relationship ending, friend passed on.
Now we have to manage, and it can get tricky.
Of course, our first step is to listen with our whole heart and have compassion.
What then?
It is so easy for us to want to fix the pain that is before us.
Everyone’s heart is hurting and we’ll naturally feel an urgency to make it better.
And (here’s the tricky part) in that moment we can easily lose sight of our responsibilities to manage on behalf of the co-op.
In an effort to show support we can end up making promises, over accommodating, making decisions on behalf of the employee, lowering standards…
In other words, trying to take charge of the wrong things.
Our job is not to manage the complexities and heart aches of our employees’ lives.
Our job is to be present amidst the pain of the moment, listen, and provide compassion.
Then gently move forward with education about options, possibilities, and accommodations for the employee to consider and decide.
Here’s two phrases that are really useful in these kinds of situations.
“Let me see what is possible” and “Here is how a situation like this is handled (then options are provided)”.
These phrases don’t have us fixing things for the employee but lead in the direction of options and education.
When someone’s life goes ouch, we naturally rush to aid but if that means letting go of the rudder of leadership, greater consequences are then at stake.