Reflecting back to 2019, those seem like halcyon days, when company leaders knew the organization’s culture, what was expected of its workforce, and how to attract and retain top talent.
In this post-pandemic era, as corporate leadership searches for ways to create balance and get back to ‘normal’, the impacts of the pandemic on recovery are ever present. Productivity and the bottom line will always be major considerations. But how do we re-create and build a cohesive culture when each cohort has a new and different picture of the organization and the role they have in it.
Take, for example, the concept of hybrid working. While many companies were early adopters of the employee hybrid work model, most were taken by surprise in March of 2020 when a fully remote work model became the norm. Now, in Q4 of 2021, can we, and how do we get back to the “good old days” when everyone had a desk at the office? Imagine the stress and confusion. There are those who like being at the office every day. There are those who never want to have to commute to the office again. There are those who’d like a mix/hybrid. But what does hybrid mean? Perhaps it’s working at the office three days a week and remotely two days a week. To some it might mean you show up at the office Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays from nine to five. Some might interpret it to mean you choose three days to come into the office. Some might think two days working from home means working from anywhere you can connect and get your work done. How do managers create guidelines that work for everyone? How do teams build camaraderie when everyone isn’t together at the same time? What if an employee doesn’t like the new arrangement? Will they quit and go somewhere that is more ‘flexible’ to accommodate a preferred work life balance? Organizational leaders are treading water and live with stress as they build a new vision for the future.
There are many articles out there promoting the importance of mitigating and managing all this stress. An easy to learn self-help tool for stress management that continues to gain greater scientific credibility is EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) or tapping. Tapping is based on the ancient Chinese medicine of acupuncture, but without needles! One begins by tapping on a variety of meridian points on the upper body; identifying the specific stress, its intensity, and where it shows up in the body. Through this process the intensity of the stress lessens.
As an accredited, certified EFT Practitioner and Career Coach with a background in organizational effectiveness and leadership training, I am available to teach you how to use this tool to assist you in becoming a more balanced version of yourself.
Please check out the rest of my website to learn more about tapping and to take advantage of my free twenty minute consultation to decide whether we are a good fit to work together.