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Abstract

hat’s next in someone’s career, but your team can benefit from reinforcing status. Don’t let up on recognition, affirmation and assurances. Where there are opportunities to learn and develop, create those opportunities on your team for cross-functional development. Help your teams feel that they’re using this time to develop and contribute. For even the most high-performing employees, status is being questioned right now, but you can reinstate it.Certainty This one is a tough one. There were many things we could all count on before Covid-19 — our schools, football, the availability of toilet paper and generally speaking, our 30-day schedules.You may not be able to offer absolute certainty, but you can offer ways to bring a sense of certainty. Where appropriate, you can offer to be a reference for others who you’ve seen do good work. You can offer to look at a resume or connect someone at a hiring company.You can also be as transparent as possible. As having experience in organizational transitions (and by that, I mean a survivor of one), it’s important to tell people what you do know and what you don’t know. It’s better they hear it from you than spend time spinning on assumptions and rumors. I’d also recommend laying out expectations — there was nothing more reassuring than hearing my boss say, “I get it. It’s okay to have not great days right now. Take a break.”On the flip side, individual contributors can use this time to update their resume, evaluate their finances and focus on their health, as a way to get back that sense of certainty.Autonomy Before Covid-19, some companies were opposed to employees working remotely. Sure, there might have been a Friday here or there. However, Covid-19 forced companies, or opposing leaders, to get on-board quickly.I’ve benefited from a manager who gives me autonomy in my day. I make my own schedule, and I don’t have to account for every waking moment. However, I think you’ll agree, this was a whole new level of autonomy. I had zero travel demands, my schedule was open and I needed to re-prioritize my activities.Give your employees permission to take advantage of being at home. Tell them it’s okay for them to organize their work between children’s activities, mental health breaks and getting extra steps in. If they’re getting their work done, it should be okay, right?You can also give them choices of learning opportunities or seek their feedback when deciding w

Options

hat the team prioritizes. Give them choices, in an environment where diversity in choices is pretty non-existent.Relatedness As a hugger who thrives on quality time, I’m struggling deeply with how to maintain my network of friends and coworkers. I can’t hug people or see my coworkers, without perceiving them as a threat to my health. We also don’t know who to trust — have they truly been social distancing? Have they been wearing a mask?Relatedness is key to forming a collaborative environment. In the article in the <a href="https://qrisnetwork.org/sites/default/files/materials/SCARF%20A%20Brain-based%20Model%20for%20Collaborating%20with%20and%20Influencing%20Others.pdf">NeuroLeadership Journal</a>, the author describes the work of neuroscientist John Cacioppo, who found “safe human contact being a primary driver, like the need for food.”We need interaction to create a cohesive working environment. What helps? Your human resources group can setup virtual lunches between coworkers. You can facilitate regular small team happy or social hours. You can even pull from your leadership classes and play a few virtual games to get to know each other better. Did I mention these should be led with your camera on? You can also build your trustworthiness by being transparent with your struggles during this time.What doesn’t help? I’m hesitant to say it, but the large group meetings with all of staff included. I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel particularly connected after sitting in a virtual meeting with hundreds of my coworkers.Fairness We’ve seen a number of triggers to fairness recently — racial injustice, police reform, natural disasters and employee furloughs. All of these can illicit a response from triggering how fair we think life has been in our own realities.Ensure you’re being transparent in the why behind decisions. It’s great to lay out a plan, but not if you leave everyone wondering why. Also, this is great time to discuss equality in your organization and spend time investing in how your organization responds to racial injustice and natural disasters. The more fair we believe our company is, the more likely we are to be engaged in a company’s mission.We’re all struggling right now. I have good blursdays and bad blursdays. We could all use a boost to our SCARF right now, and if you’re in a position to influence that, use it or at the very least, boost your own.</article></body>

Using Your SCARF During Crisis

And no, not the article of clothing

If you’ve never heard of SCARF, not to worry. I learned of this model recently, and I was pleasantly surprised to find something that so logically helped me grasp some sense of control amidst Covid-19. I think we can all agree we are in crisis mode in many areas of our life, but especially as we reel with how to feel engaged and motivated in the workplace.

David Rock in the NeuroLeadership Journal, defines SCARF as a model used to define how status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness activate a reward or a threat response in social situations. Here’s the definition he provides of each:

Status is about relative importance to others. Certainty concerns being able to predict the future. Autonomy provides a sense of control over events. Relatedness is a sense of safety with others, of friend rather than foe. Fairness is a perception of fair exchanges between people.

Social situations look 180-degrees different than they did pre-Covid. Priorities changed drastically, both at home and at work. What’s unique about SCARF is that it offers a way to understand how you can influence human behavior with less face-time in our current environment.

Status We can’t help but think about how we compare to others, especially as many of us are on the potential chopping block at work, or perhaps struggling with the financial uncertainty of our futures. As a leader, either in position or status, you may also be struggling with similar feelings.

Regardless of how you’re feeling, there are individual contributors who do not have the same status as you. You may not be able to directly control what’s next in someone’s career, but your team can benefit from reinforcing status. Don’t let up on recognition, affirmation and assurances. Where there are opportunities to learn and develop, create those opportunities on your team for cross-functional development. Help your teams feel that they’re using this time to develop and contribute. For even the most high-performing employees, status is being questioned right now, but you can reinstate it.

Certainty This one is a tough one. There were many things we could all count on before Covid-19 — our schools, football, the availability of toilet paper and generally speaking, our 30-day schedules.

You may not be able to offer absolute certainty, but you can offer ways to bring a sense of certainty. Where appropriate, you can offer to be a reference for others who you’ve seen do good work. You can offer to look at a resume or connect someone at a hiring company.

You can also be as transparent as possible. As having experience in organizational transitions (and by that, I mean a survivor of one), it’s important to tell people what you do know and what you don’t know. It’s better they hear it from you than spend time spinning on assumptions and rumors. I’d also recommend laying out expectations — there was nothing more reassuring than hearing my boss say, “I get it. It’s okay to have not great days right now. Take a break.”

On the flip side, individual contributors can use this time to update their resume, evaluate their finances and focus on their health, as a way to get back that sense of certainty.

Autonomy Before Covid-19, some companies were opposed to employees working remotely. Sure, there might have been a Friday here or there. However, Covid-19 forced companies, or opposing leaders, to get on-board quickly.

I’ve benefited from a manager who gives me autonomy in my day. I make my own schedule, and I don’t have to account for every waking moment. However, I think you’ll agree, this was a whole new level of autonomy. I had zero travel demands, my schedule was open and I needed to re-prioritize my activities.

Give your employees permission to take advantage of being at home. Tell them it’s okay for them to organize their work between children’s activities, mental health breaks and getting extra steps in. If they’re getting their work done, it should be okay, right?

You can also give them choices of learning opportunities or seek their feedback when deciding what the team prioritizes. Give them choices, in an environment where diversity in choices is pretty non-existent.

Relatedness As a hugger who thrives on quality time, I’m struggling deeply with how to maintain my network of friends and coworkers. I can’t hug people or see my coworkers, without perceiving them as a threat to my health. We also don’t know who to trust — have they truly been social distancing? Have they been wearing a mask?

Relatedness is key to forming a collaborative environment. In the article in the NeuroLeadership Journal, the author describes the work of neuroscientist John Cacioppo, who found “safe human contact being a primary driver, like the need for food.”

We need interaction to create a cohesive working environment. What helps? Your human resources group can setup virtual lunches between coworkers. You can facilitate regular small team happy or social hours. You can even pull from your leadership classes and play a few virtual games to get to know each other better. Did I mention these should be led with your camera on? You can also build your trustworthiness by being transparent with your struggles during this time.

What doesn’t help? I’m hesitant to say it, but the large group meetings with all of staff included. I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel particularly connected after sitting in a virtual meeting with hundreds of my coworkers.

Fairness We’ve seen a number of triggers to fairness recently — racial injustice, police reform, natural disasters and employee furloughs. All of these can illicit a response from triggering how fair we think life has been in our own realities.

Ensure you’re being transparent in the why behind decisions. It’s great to lay out a plan, but not if you leave everyone wondering why. Also, this is great time to discuss equality in your organization and spend time investing in how your organization responds to racial injustice and natural disasters. The more fair we believe our company is, the more likely we are to be engaged in a company’s mission.

We’re all struggling right now. I have good blursdays and bad blursdays. We could all use a boost to our SCARF right now, and if you’re in a position to influence that, use it or at the very least, boost your own.