Do your first-line managers know?

Your first-line managers are your first line of defense against misinformation and rumor.

They’re the ones to whom employees look for critical information.

• How are you managing employee safety?
• What are the new processes for performance evaluation?
• Can employees be reimbursed for home-office expenses?
• Are there flextime options for parents whose kids are learning at home, instead of in school?
• What about non-parents – what options are available for them? (This is not a trivial point; people without children can and will get resentful if they feel excluded from consideration. No question that parents have a hard time right now, but don’t forget your child-free employees; they’re stressed too.)

These are just a few of the many questions your first-line leaders are being asked.

Have you provided them with the answers?

Everyone is stressed. Information – reliable, consistent information – is essential for managing and reducing anxiety. Ensuring that your first-line managers have answers to the questions your employees are asking simply makes sense, both from a standpoint of compassion and from the perspective of productivity and the bottom line.

After all, the less stressed and more informed your workforce is, the better they’ll be able to focus on their jobs.

Need tips on training your first-line managers? This video might help: Leadership Development without a budget.

Another video to help with the challenges of these times: Leading Through Uncertainty: a call to action.

Did you download the Glossary of Terms yet? It’s an extensive (but always incomplete and growing) list of terms relative to many of the challenges of these times.