I remember it clearly. It was Saturday, March 14th when the email arrived. We would all now be working from home, the office was closed. At the moment, it felt overblown; I was one of those individuals who thought the world was overreacting due to some strange blend of rare-event bias, negativity bias, and pervasive herd mentality. This past month has proven me very wrong. Toilet paper memes tragically transitioned into watching the deaths rise and rise. I can’t count how many times I’ve since heard the word “unprecedented”. I now agree with that word, every time. This entire experience is unprecedented, and it makes me anxious.

Shock and Sensemaking

The coronavirus pandemic is a work-life “shock event” in that it is characteristically disruptive and novel (Morgeson, Mitchell, & Liu, 2015). It’s disruptive in that it has undermined any sense of continuity we had created for ourselves from our “old world” (Hoffman & Ocasio, 2001). It's novel in that we don't have a rule-book to fall back on, no personal "lessons learned" to use as a guide (Withey, Daft, & Cooper, 1983). So we’re left trying to make sense of the pandemic’s impact on every aspect of our lives but, due to these shock-event attributes, that requires more psychological, emotional, and physical resources than we have (Crawford, Thompson, Ashforth, 2019). 

Staying productive while working remotely and while juggling additional family obligations would be difficult in the best circumstances. Pairing these demands with crisis-related resource exhaustion is a new and serious challenge, both professionally and personally.

The Allure of Agency

I have been trying to dig into my anxiety: what’s behind it? There are a myriad reasons to be anxious right now and I’m sure we could both make a similar list. Yet, I believe that, behind each item on that hypothetical list, is the loss of agency. For a long time I’ve been sailing along as if I am the captain of my own ship, the lord of my decisions and outcomes; but the new Coronavirus reality has grabbed the wheel and taken control.

Lack of agency creates in us a baseline of anxiety. It’s not necessarily the overwhelming kind of anxiety as much as it is an uncomfortable, subliminal reality that lurks beneath the surface and whispers, “you don’t know what will happen with your family, your job, your fill-in-the-blank today, next week, in three months.” Take that anxious baseline and stir in some of the overt stressors of our new reality, like trying to conduct a glitchy virtual meeting with 25 people while your children scream for you in the background...times are hard.

What We Need Now

We need better communication software, new Slack channels, 9am stand-up meetings, standing desks… wait, wait, wait. Sure, those might be important, but I’ve been asking myself what we really need and I’m going to offer you a new starting point: affirmation. All those corporate slogans “we’re stronger together,” “we’re a team,” “we not me”... they’re corny, but they have a semblance of truth. If you’ve ever been part of a highly effective team or group (in or out of work), you know what I’m talking about. Well… the virus just broke up the band. We’re not longer together-- at least not in the ways we’re used to.

Steven Covey, in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People says, "Next to physical survival, the greatest need of a human being is psychological survival: to be understood, to be affirmed, to be validated, to be appreciated." This is more important than ever because, more than ever, we’re isolated and apart. Appreciation is an antidote; it brings us back together. Not only does it help us feel better, but research shows that appreciation increases employee engagement, employee effort, and job performance.

Is Recognition Really That Important? We Have Work To Do!

There is plenty of evidence that recognition and appreciation are great for a company. Research shows that recognition and appreciation increase employee engagement, employee effort, and job performance. People are struggling. Companies are struggling. The survival of many companies are contingent on how they respond, and, by proxy, how their people respond to this crisis. Due to the psychological isolation stemming from social distancing, many people are struggling to stay engaged (Let There Be Health, 2020). One thing managers can do is create a "recognition-rich" environment in which we acknowledge and praise the individual contributions and extraordinary efforts people are making in the midst of anxiety and blurred lines between work and home. The goal of engaging in recognition and appreciation is not to infuse "positivity" or a false sense of security; the goal is to build stronger relationships and establish a sense of community.

How To Do It

The most important--and most overlooked--component of showing appreciation is to make it immediate and personal. Though it is good to congratulate a team or organization on overall effort, research shows that providing personalized affirmation in the immediate aftermath of a moment of excellence is the most effective. Personalized affirmations account for who someone is, what s/he did, and how her/his performance impacted you personally. Here’s an example: “Erika, thanks so much for the way you ran that meeting yesterday. We’re all still adjusting to these Zoom calls and you rolled with the technical glitches like a pro. But most importantly, I think we all left feeling heard and that was largely due to how you made sure everyone had time to give input, not just letting the usual people dominate the call. Your sense of equity is admirable. I know running meetings wasn’t really part of your job description before we all went remote, but you’re really rising to the occasion and I’m grateful to have you doing it.”

In addition to personalized words of affirmation, Gary Chapman and Paul White in their book The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace explain how to best show appreciation while working remotely--a new reality for most of the workforce. They noticed that remote workers most value Quality Time as a language of appreciation. By Quality Time they are not referring to how long or frequent your virtual meetings are. Rather, Quality Time refers to the attention you give each other both related to work as well as beyond work topics. This attention is best embodied by leaders and colleagues creating psychologically safe environments in which team members can collaborate and relate to each other about what they’re going through. 

So, set up your basement office, buy your new microphone headset, get wired in...and discern opportunities to authentically affirm your colleagues. When you notice someone doing something well, say something immediately after the encounter. Your affirmation will speak volumes. Organize virtual happy hours and “drop by” for a quick video call with your colleague. If you’re a manager, lead the way towards a culture of affirmation and recognition. This is our starting point. This is how the band gets back “together”... while staying socially distanced, of course.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Project Rework wants to hear from you! How are you practicing affirmation from afar? Share your experiences and feedback on the LinkedIn, or over email. If you learned something new today, share this article with a colleague or friend.

References

Chapman, G., & White, P. (2019). The 5 languages of appreciation in the workplace: Empowering organizations by encouraging people. Moody Publishers.

Covey, S. R. (2004). The 7 habits of highly effective people: Powerful lessons in personal change. Simon & Schuster.

Crawford, W. S., Thompson, M. J., & Ashforth, B. E. (2019). Work-life events theory: Making sense of shock events in dual-earner couples. Academy of Management Review, 44(1), 194-212. doi:10.5465/amr.2016.0432

Hoffman, A. J., & Ocasio, W. (2001). Not all events are attended equally: Toward a middle-range theory of industry attention to external events. Organization Science, 12(4), 414-434. doi:10.1287/orsc.12.4.414.10639

Let There Be Health. (2020, April 3). Your Brain On Social Distancing: Loneliness & Isolation During The COVID-19 Coronavirus [YouTube Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAbQSqU3Ofg

Morgeson, F. P., Mitchell, T. R., & Liu, D. (2015). Event system theory: An event-oriented approach to the organizational sciences. Academy of Management Review, 40(4), 515-537. doi:10.5465/amr.2012.0099

Withey, M., Daft, R. L., & Cooper, W. H. 1983. Measures of Perrow’s work unit technology: An  empirical assessment and a new scale. Academy of Management Journal, 26: 45–63