Singapore is one of several countries In Asia that have been hit hard by the coronavirus. Although it was one of the first countries that acted aggressively in taking action to limit the number of individuals entering the country, it has experienced a recent surge in Covid-19 cases since the beginning of April, when it had just 1,000 cases. Almost 90 per cent of the new cases are among migrant workers, many of whom live in cramped dormitories.
I contacted several of my former executive MBA students there to find out how they as well as their employers are adjusting to the situation. I was especially interested to explore with them whether one of the concepts we had discussed when they took my course on Global Leadership – global mindset – would be relevant in this situation. You might ask, how would global mindset even be relevant these days, when managers are worried about conserving cash, protecting their staffs, navigating remote work, managing their stress levels, and paying attention to their own family’s situation? I wondered this myself but thought I would ask some of my students, who had learned through my course and my recent book (Henson, 2016) about the four elements of global mindset (which can be easily remembered with the acronym FACE): flexibility, acceptance, curiosity, and empathy. In brief, flexibility is about adapting and being resilient; acceptance is about bring open-minded and not judgmental; curiosity is about an eagerness to learn; and empathy is about seeking to understand others’ perspectives - putting yourself in the other person’s shoes.
It seemed to me that more than ever, managers today need to show even more flexibility, acceptance, curiosity and empathy to thrive in this current environment. The following are some examples from some of these students, all of whom are executives with major global responsibilities for their respective firms. For one student, flexibility means making adjustments to the way he conducts business and manages his team, which is spread out over the Asia-Pacific region. Since he and his team are now working from home, this means that “conference calls have become more straight to the point and getting the solutions more quickly … (since) they are more free in their home environment.”
Another example comes from a second student, who said that she has learned to accept workers’ situations and accommodate the disruptions to their schedule: “For example, I have had to be flexible and accepting when co-workers have to cut short a meeting to take care of their kid at home, or when a kid makes an appearance on the WebEx/ZOOM meeting, or you hear the kid yelling in the background.”
For a third student, who was recently assigned to start a new subsidiary for her company after it was acquired by a Japanese firm, acceptance means being open-minded about the Japanese way of doing business, and getting rid of some of her preconceived notions about the Japanese, especially the one about “Japanese only like to work with other Japanese.” It also means recognizing the Japanese norms about having to come to the office every day and then working with her Japanese team to help them better embrace the new normal of working from home.
For a fourth student, curiosity means taking the time to talk to each of her nine direct reports to find out how they are coping, how their families are coping, and what she and their company could do to better provide support for them.
And for a fifth student, empathy means getting to better understand the plight of some of the less fortunate in Singapore, especially those with lower incomes and the more vulnerable. When ordering groceries, for example, she is now very conscious of not overstocking or hoarding. She also tries to put herself in the shoes of her team members who are parents to try to understand how difficult the situation may be for them as parents:
“In such times, expecting the same output and productivity from the workers becomes somewhat unreasonable and extremely stressful, so one needs to be flexible and accepting here. Another area for empathy is recognizing that the working-from-home arrangement may have a huge psychological impact on some staff and (so I) need to check in with them on a personal level once in a while.”
So there you have it; being flexible, open, curious, and empathetic seems to be helpful for at least some managers and leaders these days in coping with the current situation we are all facing. I think this mindset also helps to create a culture of compassion in organizations, a capacity that Professor Jane Dutton (Dutton et al., 2020) writes about as especially important in times of trauma:
“Unleashing compassion in the workplace not only lessens the immediate suffering of those directly affected by trauma, it enables them to recover from future setbacks quickly and effectively, and it increases their attachment to their colleagues and hence to the company itself.” (p.26)
A compassionate response is what the Deans of a medical school demonstrated when they recently gave their students their personal mobile numbers and asked them to write their numbers on their arms and to call them should anything happen to them if they happen to be participating in any protests.
So here are two questions for your reflection:
1. As a manager, what one or two actions can you take immediately to show either your flexibility, acceptance, curiosity or empathy to your staff who are working from home?
2. As a business and global leader, how can you show more compassion to your staff, colleagues and customers? Remember that you have many opportunities every day through your “micro-behaviors” to show compassion – to show that you care - and this will go a long way towards building an engaged and committed work force and culture.
Dutton, J. et al. (Summer, 2020). Leading in Times of Trauma. Harvard Business Review.
Henson, R. (2016). Successful Global Leadership: Frameworks for Cross-Cultural Managers and Organizations. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
