Being a Newly Promoted Leader in the midst of the Pandemic
Humanity above all
Frankly speaking, everyone hates their boss, leaders, supervisors or whatever you name it. So, when you have the moment to be a leader, please don’t be a boss you don’t wanna work for.
That happens for me a month ago. I was promoted to be a supervisor, handle some company’s clients. To help me doing my job, the company hired a admin support.
She is not a fresh graduate. In fact, she is two-year older than me. She have worked for sometime in a bank, but now she will be helping me in asset management industry doing some kind of administrative tasks.
Bank and asset management is different in nature but some activities are similar. Basically, what she does is completing due diligence and doing some spreadsheets. Along the way, I will let her to get involve transacting more complicated products. It is a bit struggle to mentor someone new, especially during pandemic like this.
In my country, Covid-19 positive rate is so high. Day by date, the rate hit another all time high. Night by night, there are ambulances busily crossing the street. It is so dangerous to not stay at home. Government event made a restriction policy just to ensure people are staying at home. Company was told to let employees work from home. Schools was told to let students study at home.
That’s why my company implement 100 WFH policy, and that’s why I and she are communicating through messaging app and Zoom. That’s best part, internet speed in my country is not that good. Connection can lost easily. Like when it’s a heavy rain, the internet can shut down for more than half hour.
It is common when she disconnected in the middle of the meeting or a call. I can do nothing about it. But, unconsciously, I grew my distrust to her. I am being a micromanaging boss. I told her what to do, inch by inch. When she didn’t reply my email within one and half hour, I will call her and demanding her email.
It turns out that she was taking care of her sick mother since the beginning of her employment.
I was unaware of that. I keep sending her work papers. I following up to her about work. I am being insensitive as hell.
Few days later, her mother passed away. She said sorry to me for being absent for some time.
I burst into tears. I was so sorry for her. I regret everything I did to her. It was an unforgettable day, the day I become the most evil human on earth.
Become a More Humane Leader
For the record, I am not a leader after what I did. I am a jerk leader. Don’t be like me.
A leader, a boss, a supervisor is someone holding a serious responsibility. You are now accountable for the work of your entire organization and careers of your employee’s livelihood as well. You may not realize it, but you are also now directly impacting their health and wellbeing.
That’s why I am sharing you this so that you don’t be a jerk like me:
Trust People
Believe it or not, work from home make the boss distrust their employees.
I am just like that, distrusting my junior. But, you can be not like me. Work From Home (or anywhere) and flexible working hour will become a thing after the pandemic. It will become a massive trend, and more people are prioritizing it maybe over salary and other benefit.
Giving trust lead to delegating some works. As a leader, there will come a moment for you to delegate. You must trust that they can do the work required to be successful and that they will involve you at the right times.
There is a risk of course, meaning some projects will fail but it is a learning experience worth to try. As a leader, you need to provide room for your team to grow. You can’t always be the safety net, and you shouldn’t be.
Being an effective, humane leader requires knowing when to trust the team and when it is ok to fail. When you give trust to your team, you are more likely get trust and respect in return.
Get Involved Accordingly as Needed
Leadership is different than being a team member. When you are team member, most likely you were very hands-on and being deeply involved in all of the details.
That is not the case if you are a leader. You won’t have enough time to be deeply involved at all steps of the work.
I did not realize this when I was promoted into leadership. I thought that my presence is that important so that she can work well. I thought my presence will make her feel useful and stay better informed about everything my company was doing.
I later know that it is a joke. That was totally counterproductive.
As a leader, you give the direction, but let the team figure it out toward the goal. When you’re present, the team decision is at your hand, not the team. When questions come up, they ask you and they automatically think your recommendation is the best. The process slows down and good ideas evaporates.
There are enough bad bosses in this world. I was one of them and I don’t want it anymore. I promise to become a better boss and so do you.
The world doesn’t only need a great leader, it also needs a more humane one.
