Leadership in difficult times

The last few months have been difficult for everyone, the world has gone through difficult times and, as always, leaders have stood out in the different sectors, leaders that we take as an example to motivate and follow.

Emotional and social competence serve as essential components of effective leadership, particularly the kind of business leadership needed to navigate the uncertainty we currently face. Amidst the turmoil, entrepreneurial leaders have an outward focus and a growth mindset that enables them to work collaboratively with others to solve complex and undefined problems in order to create new opportunities and solutions, using their social and organizational skills. emotional, promoting a positive emotional climate, satisfying the needs of trust, security and connection with its employees and the general public.

The traditional qualities that were associated with leadership such as intelligence, strength, and experience are rarely mentioned anymore, of course, they are important traits, but in this new reality it is emotional and social competence that makes a significant difference.

To produce a series of positive business results, it is necessary for the leader to have an emotional commitment related to the performance and commitment of the managers, the positive emotion  boosts employee job performance, reduces employee turnover, and helps our employees thrive in times of uncertainty, leading to reduced internal noise employees face caused by workplace stress and negative interactions Emotionally competent leaders promote productivity, creativity, openness, and collaboration.

We are facing current crises, the financial consequences of a pandemic, change of work to home office, among others. To lead our teams effectively, business leaders must pay attention to the emotional climate of organizations, so we share recommendations for leaders today:

Communication is always key, and more so in times of uncertainty, employees need and want to be right about their leaders, keeping our collaborators up to date makes them feel included, they really value continuous communication from corporate leaders.

Being connected from afar takes an emotional toll on employees. Now more than ever you have to maintain a commitment to employees, make them feel close despite digital "distances". Frequent contact with employees can help managers identify when morale is low and offer stress-reducing techniques. Communicate with empathy and ensure that employees are united despite the situation, virtual meetings, internal emails, are some of the attention that can be given to our work community.

Effective entrepreneurial leaders take care of their employees and their physical, mental and emotional health, provide spaces for employees to process their stress and emotions, to work through their struggles and thus avoid burnout, make it clear that employees are important and that they are also humans who need to let off steam from time to time, allowing them to express themselves helps them process what they are going through, encourage transparent dialogue with managers and increase employee confidence in the organization.