Bill Plante Chair in Leadership & Media Integrity, Loyola University Chicago
Freedom Forum Fellow in Women’s Leadership
For those accustomed to working in a newsroom or classroom, the switch to working from home seemed instantaneous, even miraculous. How did people make the shift so fast, so inventively, so cooperatively?
They drew on their session of mission, their adaptability, and frankly, their desire to have jobs.
Now, they’re doing the best they can with what they have, likely a hybrid mixture of employer-supplied tools and whatever they already had at home — laptops, tablets, phones, bandwidth, software, work space, and office supplies. Many are sharing those essentials with other family members who also need them for work and school.
It’s a juggling act, but good enough for now.
But “now” is looking like a long stretch ahead. It’s important for leaders to recognize the increasing strain that “good enough” will cause.
In the rush to keep the journalism flowing safely there wasn’t time to discuss, much less negotiate, the mix of time and tools this would take.
That’s why it’s important for leaders to remember that people carry a ledger in their heads. They know the value of personal property they’re using for work, the professional tools they wish they still had at their fingertips, the extra hours they’ve spent coaching colleagues who needed tech advice, and odd hours they may be working as they juggle family needs.
They think the “give” side of their ledger is pretty valuable. You are responsible for the other side of that ledger, making sure the “get” side evens things out. That’s the real magic of management: knowing how to balance the ledger, as best as humanly possible, with each member of your team, so they feel that what they get is as good as what they give.
