Has the era of workplace care finally arrived?
In the age of Covid, emotional intelligence in the professional world is no longer a mere fashion but a real necessity.
While an announcement of reconfinement hangs over us, the deleterious atmosphere of the Covid 19 pandemic does not spare our professional lives, quite the contrary.
From the colleague who refuses to come to the office, terrified at the idea of endangering those close to him, to the one who, on the contrary, suffers so much from the lack of face-to-face interaction with his colleagues that he borders on depression, everyone reacts differently to this crisis.
For team leaders, managing the needs of everyone can be a real headache, especially since they have their own feelings. It is therefore necessary to find the right balance between "self-care" and the "care" offered to the members of one's team. Otherwise the risk of psychosocial damage at work becomes real.
For if there is one thing that everyone agrees on, it is the universal nature of this crisis. No one is spared by the anxiety-producing nature of this pandemic, from entrepreneurs to CEOs of multinationals, in the private and public sectors, and at all levels of the hierarchy.
In this context, those who consider care and emotional intelligence as mere accessories are forced to rethink their copy. Building on the momentum they have been experiencing for some years now, all HR players and incubators are multiplying foot calls on the subject, online seminars, etc.
So care at work, how does it work?
What's great about emotional intelligence is that once the right reflexes are adopted, it has an immediate and lasting impact not only at work, but also outside. It's the first thing to highlight about this science to motivate all employees to train in it.
Emotional intelligence can be summed up in a panel of what we call soft skills (aka soft skills) which are essential: admitting the impact of our emotions on our work, knowing how to recognise them, accepting them and regulating them if necessary, developing our empathy and communication.
For some people these soft skills are innate, while for others they require a real work on oneself. And this upgrading of all the members of a team has the significant advantage, if successful, of creating a climate of trust within the company. A two-way trust between managers and employees, where everyone shares the same common goal and feels free to be themselves. Or the unicorn that we are all looking for, right?
Of course, some managers and company directors play this card in interviews (job interviews or annual interviews) just to show off. But the masquerade doesn't last long, and the consequences of this pious wish without concrete application sooner or later become apparent: resignations and burn-out in series, important turn over, lack of investment of the employees, etc. When we know that a burn out costs a company an average of 12 600 € per year and per employee, and that this phenomenon concerns 10% of French people, the observation is inevitable: the pain of being at work is expensive.
Fortunately, all you have to do is recognise the problem and look into it to fix it. And as life is well done, there is no lack of content on the subject. We recommend first and foremost the episode of the excellent Work in Progress podcast, but also the webinar by the great team at The Family or the tools developed by Sheryl Sanderg Lean in's organisation.