Читать книгу Move to the Edge, Declare it Center - Everett Harper - Страница 19

In the core of my 2016 letter “Company Talk about Police Shootings, as Target and CEO” I acknowledged my own painful emotions after the killings of Philando Castile and Alton Stewart.²⁸ I hoped to create space for our employees, to feel theirs. In the two days after May 25, 2020, I felt the same emotional, exhausted haze from the footage of the murder of George Floyd. It was a reminder: I'm still a target, and I'm still a leader. I wrote this in my blog:

We are a different company now, five times larger across 20 states, maintaining ~55% she/her pronouns, 35% BIPOC, and 23% LGBTQIA+ folks among the 125 professional staff. We've navigated the challenges of scaling a distributed company, while staying connected through crises like #metoo, detention centers, and now COVID. I remain impressed that most of our fundamental distributed connection practices were conceived, designed, and executed by Trussels, whether individually or in affinity groups and facilitation guilds.

Despite this, I've learned how hard it is for employees to claim time to be human, especially in the last few months. We've been programmed with so many powerful messages that “good employees are quiet employees,” that it takes repeated, insistent invitation before people will admit the emotional turmoil and burnout underneath. Only then will they respond to the nudge to take a 5‐minute meditation, a 20‐minute walk, a 50‐minute virtual therapy, or an 8‐hour PTO [paid time off] day.

There's a lot of overdue talk about “taking care of your people,” sparked by how to keep employees connected during the pandemic. The idea that we are human seems to be intruding into our work consciousness. There's greater awareness and access to mental health resources as well as the recognition that psychological safety is a fundamental premise for great performance. The leaders I admire are addressing the new reality with new tools, whether it's communicating a layoff or helping people adjust to working from home. It's hard, emotional, necessary work for leaders.

And then there are days when it's harder.