Nikhil Shahane, global vice president of people development at TechnipFMC, recently had a revelation because of the attitude of a woman brewing coffee at Starbucks. The worker was “so cheerful and positive,” he said. “It was that small moment of interaction that was really inspirational for me.”

“People are always talking about senior leaders, but inspiration comes from every person in the organization,” Shahane told Matthew Kitchen, moderator of a panel discussion during From Day One’s Houston conference.

But for that to happen, company leaders need to inspire workers through day-to-day things, says Sarah Ziemer, senior vice president of employer sales at Mobe.

“It’s about helping managers know how to balance empathy with accountability, and compassion starts with asking, ‘How are you doing?’’’ she said.

Helena Deal, vice president of human resources at the Hess Corporation, added that it’s also important for managers to pause and give employees a chance to fully answer that question and listen closely to what they say.

“It may be that everything went wrong on the school run or picking something up or we’ve got a lot of people here dealing with aging parents, young kids at school and various things like that,” she said.

Dealing with Times of Crisis

The feeling of being valued as a whole person rather than just an employee is particularly important during a time of crisis, such as the pandemic, says Cheryl Nienhuis, director for the health and welfare programs at Mayo Clinic.

“I think we’ve really experienced a lot since the pandemic and there’s a lot of burnout,” she said. This is particularly true in the healthcare field, where employees faced a huge increase in workload, staff shortages, and even assaults by patients, according to Nienhuis.

In response, Mayo created a culture where “it’s OK to walk away” for 10 minutes to get coffee or take a walk if you are overwhelmed, she said.

It can be difficult to convince people, especially healthcare workers, to take breaks, says Ziemer. She said when she was working for a fitness company, she encouraged her mother, an OBGYN nurse, to take a class there or get a massage to get away from the stress of her job.

“She said, ‘I’m helping women in labor. I can’t leave this to go get a massage,’” Ziemer said.

That’s why it’s a good idea to build break time into an employee’s workday. If they are on Zoom calls all day, “give people a window to use the restroom, to get some water,” she said, noting this also gives them time to process what was discussed during the previous meeting and come back refreshed for the next one.

One example of a workplace crisis is a company being sold. Deal said when the Chevron purchase of Hess was announced last year, “people were sobbing, they were tearful. We’ve now got this prolonged time of anxiety and tension in the organization.”

Internal messaging within a company is critical at times like these, according to Deal. “When people have misinformation, that creates gossip,” she said.

When a company is emerging from a crisis, it’s crucial for leaders to understand that employees may be forever changed by the experience, says Kelly Oliphant, vice president, HR, talent and organizational development learning with Memorial Hermann Health System.

“I think there’s a misperception around what resiliency is,” she said. “Resiliency is not your ability to bounce back. You might not actually return to where you were.” That’s why giving employees space to show their vulnerability and share their struggles is key.

“I think that actually builds resilience,” Oliphant said. “It’s about being able to talk through the story of how you grew and how you’ve evolved.”

The Quiet Quitting Phenomenon

Over the past few years, some employees have been setting boundaries at work, leading to buzzwords like “quiet quitting” and “bare minimum Mondays” and creating a conversation about how American work culture needs to be more humane, Kitchen says. He asked the panelists for their insights on this topic.

“Quiet quitting” isn’t exactly a new concept, according to Oliphant. “We’ve been talking about levels of engagement for a long time,” she said. However, what’s different now is that workers are developing the mindset that they don’t owe their employers discretionary effort. It may be that they want to direct that effort toward their personal life instead.

“How do we as organizations embrace when people need to pull back and give them the resources and the space to honor that in the moment, they need to spend time with their families?” she said.

Leaders shouldn’t be judgmental when employees want to pull back, says Nienhuis. “We don’t know their story. We don’t know what’s really happening behind the scenes other than what they’re sharing with us.”

Shahane says it helps when employees have a sense of psychological safety at work “so they can open up and share their concerns.”

One way TechnipFMC created this safe environment is by having an event during Mental Health Awareness month where a few people talked about personal stories. This encouraged others to do the same. “We got to know our people much better during the past two years than ever before” he said.

Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.