Covid-19 has created a unique planetary experience. Never before have we all shared such a loss of liberty, certainty and control.
Although there has been an incredible loss of life; the magnitude of the emotional impact may never be truly realised.
We all have a personal relationship with the lockdown. The lows and indeed the highs. For many, it has been a revelation; a chance to step back from a life that was riddled with unchallenged beliefs and habits and connect again with what really matters.
For some that has been an enlightening process, for some terrifying.
We have all lost something during the lockdown, but many are unaware of the cost.
When we experience trauma, our brain protects us by hiding away the painful parts of it into our subconscious until it has passed. It’s a coping strategy that means that we can carry on living our lives in the face of extreme hardships.
These moments are however still stored within us, and unless they are processed, they will pop out at times and in ways that are beyond our control.
They may surface through irritability, anxiety or even depression. They can manifest as physical ailments and disease. They can induce lethargy and lack of motivation but almost certainly lead to an instability that for some, rocks their very foundations.
We all are swimming in an emotional soup. We cannot help becoming affected by the energetic maelstrom that the virus has created. And when the whistle is blown and we all go back to work, we cannot expect for it to be business as usual.
Everybody returning to work will have been deeply impacted and will need to be looked after in ways they were never looked after before.
Your teams will need a chance to process together so they can reconnect with each other with a new awareness of who they are and what’s important to them.
Without creating the space and the safety for such explorations, you are guaranteeing fallout.
This emotional soup needs to be cherished and held. It needs to be acknowledged and embraced.
When your teams can talk about what’s really going on for them and know they are not alone or being judged for not having all the answers; we can start to move forward together into a world that will never quite be the same.
Our programming means that deep down we don’t like change. We cannot help but viscerally react to it as a potential danger and therefore everyone is primed now to see the bad instead of the good.
Leaders need to step forward and help make sense of it all and create the opportunity for us all to be fragile and vulnerable as we rebuild what should be, much stronger relationships and businesses.
Get this right and not only will your people feel loved, supported and energised to be back, but they’ll continue to find new ways to shine in a world that’s likely to keep changing for some time to come.
Don’t miss this opportunity. It will never come again.
Our Team Re-Set Program is designed to create the space for people to process their unique experiences and re-connect as a team that’s raring to go…
Find out more here: https://www.uppingyourelvis.com/files/Team-Re-Set_2020.pdf and get in touch to chat about how it could help you or your people…
