It’s been three years since the most sudden and transformational event in workforce history. Industries were challenged to survive a world incapable of doing business as the pandemic swept across the globe. Some industries, like healthcare, needed to be augmented beyond their limits. Others, like travel, were shut down completely. Every facet of the security industry was deeply impacted. Faced with a crisis, leaders were quickly and aggressively judged on one skill: their decision-making ability.
It was expected that industry leaders were able to assess and respond to risks in proportional and appropriate ways, but businesses faced unprecedented challenges and some were more successful than others. Organizations are now managing a workforce that is fragmented by dozens of individual, remote working locations. It’s necessary for companies to create work environments in which employees trust leadership, believe in the mission and values of the organization and feel a deep sense of contribution and personal impact. Reflective leadership, along with a consistent and open communication strategy will help to create a collaborative and high-performance culture as businesses continue to rebuild and adjust to new conditions.
Prioritizing reflective leadership is an acknowledgement and reminder that leadership is a deeply emotional responsibility. Considered the key to a relationship-based organization, it requires a commitment to leadership growth, a skill demanding dedication to both self-awareness and self-reflection.
As a workforce, we need to allow leaders to be vulnerable, to reflect and assess their past experiences and decisions without judgment. Providing a space for leaders to say: “looking back, X would have been a better decision and here’s why,” or “that was an incredibly difficult decision to make, but after spending some time reflecting, I still believe I made the best decision with the information I had at the time and here’s why,” can be a powerful way to foster trust between leadership and employees. It also provides a unique dialogue about professional growth and development at all levels of the organization.
Humans are naturally curious and employees often have a healthy curiosity for understanding how leadership makes decisions. The unknown circumstances that lie ahead have required businesses to make difficult decisions about their operations. Establishing a strong mission or set of core company values is one of the best ways to build a united workforce with a strong sense of purpose and brand identity.
While managing through uncertainty, the mission and vision of the company act as a north star – ensuring each department and cross functional team is working towards common goals and shared milestones. However, without a strong communication strategy, the culture and trust within an organization will be severely compromised.
Ensuring the organization is aligned with the company’s strategy not only helps maintain morale during difficult times, but it is also the best way to have your employees keep leadership accountable. By utilizing transparent and reflective communication, organizations encourage employees to rally around a common goal and understand how leadership evaluates situations and arrives at solutions.
Most impactfully, this motivates employees to empathize with the complexity of both large and small-scale business decisions. Creating an ongoing cadence of open, vulnerable and reflective communication will help strengthen the infrastructure of your business and showcase a consistent commitment to working on and in the business, as we rebuild after the last few years.
This article was originally published in the March edition of Security Journal Americas. To read your FREE digital edition, click here.