Holding Space in a Zoom World
I’ve been surprised by the amount of good counsel that’s flowed into my inbox these days: either I’ve gotten more discerning, or the crisis is stimulating a lot of hard and generative thinking about how to productively adapt.
The theme of these articles linked here might be described as “working and leading effectively through the pandemic” and a few ideas stand out to me. The first is the importance of setting and maintaining boundaries, as the intrusion of work into personal time has ramped up radically as many of us spend our days on Zoom calls from the spare bedroom while children, spouse and pets clamor for our attention.
Another is the need for leaders to provide a "holding environment” for their teams, the “safe space” or psychological safety that I touched on in my last note. Everyone is anxious, and for good reason. No one has the answers or knows exactly what to do. And yet, the groups and work teams and organizations that we lead crave a sense of being held, listened to, cared for, and find it hard to function (and easy to dysfunction) in the absence. Yet that sense of safety can’t be absolute, disconnected from the reality of a global pandemic, and has to be authentic even though the leaders themselves are anxious and uncertain. It can be a very tricky balance.
With all the new demands on so many of us, it’s easy to be overwhelmed, and when that happens we grasp at anything we can to make ourselves feel better. “If I could only do more, things will be under control”. No, they probably won't. This overfunctioning is one of the default modes of the high achiever. Our powers to control events in a crisis like this are limited. It’s OK to feel what we feel - which for most of us is a lot of anxiety - and not try to “cure” it with the “manic defense” of panic working.
And we need to take care of ourselves A number of these articles touch on the need for good self-care: sleep, exercise, attention to one’s mental health. “Put your own oxygen mask on first” is good advice when you’re on the ground too.
Let me know if you find something useful here. Stay safe, and thanks for what so many of you are doing to keep the rest of us safe.