Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, American workers were struggling to reach their full potential. In a national survey we conducted of more than 14,500 workers across industries in 2017, approximately 85% of them said they were not working at 100% of their potential. In fact, only 15% of workers said they were. Moreover, 16% of respondents said they were using less than 50% of their potential. What was keeping the vast majority of workers from using all of it? And what was empowering the minority of people who reported that they were able to do so? In that research, we identified organizational, interpersonal and individual factors that contributed to a person’s capacity to do their job most effectively.
When the pandemic hit, with all its uncertainty and anxiety, we revisited our research and began interviewing nurses at a large university hospital. We learned that the factors helping (or hurting) employee effectiveness that we identified earlier became even more important in a time of crisis. The insights we gleaned can help organizational leaders and managers to boost employees’ potential—even in times of crisis.
In our survey of 14,500 US workers we learned that employees report working to their full potential when:
• They are clear about what they are expected to do;
• They are willing to ask questions and feel safe doing so;
• They are not overwhelmed with rules about how the work has to be done or with unproductive meetings;
• Their organization supports creative problem-solving and provides rewards and recognition for jobs well done;
• Their supervisors notice and acknowledge employee feelings, and understand how their decisions will impact employees;
• Employees see purpose and meaning in their work and are committed to their organization.
Importantly, this list combines personal, interpersonal and organizational factors. An individual’s mindset is just as important as the support that the person receives from supervisors and the organization as a whole.
Looking at nurses’ experiences in hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic allowed us to test our understanding of how these factors shape workers’ job experience. During the first wave of infections, much was unclear—what kind of masks offered sufficient protection, when to intubate patients, how to weigh the countless new risks people faced. Many nurses felt they couldn’t perform at their usual skill level or make relatively simple decisions at bedside because of the uncertainty.
In one interview, a nurse shared an experience about asking for time off. The supervisor agreed that it would help manage her exhaustion and stress, but her request went against hospital policy about allotted paid time off and the request was denied. The nurse was forced to keep pushing forward despite being emotionally and physically exhausted, and unable to do her best work. Other nurses said they were not comfortable speaking during meetings with nurse educators. They described their discomfort about asking nuanced questions or more details about how to perform new procedures.
Despite this, we did see that many nurses, managers and institutions were finding ways to succeed. First, as messages from scientists and hospital leaders became clearer, nurses became less anxious about what was expected and were better able to take care of their patients. Second, supervisors encouraged nurses to consider ways they could creatively provide comfort to families, who were not able to visit ill patients at the time. Some nurses decided to paint hearts and place them in their patients’ palms, eventually sharing photos of the initiative with the patients’ families, who repeatedly mentioned finding solace in this small act. Third, emotionally intelligent supervisors were able to support employee growth, helping nurses reframe feedback and offering them coaching.
The nurses we spoke with discussed seeing their jobs as a calling and deriving pride and fulfillment from the knowledge that their actions eased patients’ pain, helped the healing process and sometimes saved lives. One nursing leader described intentionally reminding herself of the commitment to her calling to serve both her patients and staff every morning.
During the pandemic, the organizational, interpersonal and individual factors we identified shaped how effective nurses were in their work. When nurses had clear expectations about how to perform their jobs from the hospital leaders, they were also more likely to connect with their sense of purpose as healers. When supervisors supported creative problem-solving and helped manage challenging feelings, nurses were indeed more resourceful and pushed themselves to work to their full potential. These lessons can provide guidance for managers and other organizations to best support their employees.
In our experience guiding organizations through significant changes, we have found that focusing on the granular details of employees’ days can reveal ways to reduce bureaucratic, redundant and unnecessary activities that get in the way of a person’s work. Building trust rests on employees seeing how supervisors and organizational leaders care about their work-related concerns and well-being. To truly develop trust, managers should solicit input from employees at every level of the organization, acknowledge employee ideas, understand how their decisions influence employees’ experiences at work and communicate why some ideas cannot be accepted. Asking for input and communicating a response to it leads to employees feeling heard and not feeling dismissed by pat explanations of budget shortages or other standard replies.
Leaders should work to develop and practice their own emotional intelligence skills in order to perceive, use, understand and manage emotions better. During the pandemic, acting in emotionally intelligent ways means acknowledging employees’ heightened anxiety and assuring them that being overwhelmed under these circumstances is not a sign of poor skills. Supervisors who act in emotionally intelligent ways will create a more positive work climate, have employees who are able to grow in their jobs and be more effective.
In the best of times, many employees do not work to their full potential. This should be a call to action. Our potential is like an energy reservoir, and when some of it is drained by unmitigated stress, less is left to fuel work performance. To mitigate these productivity-sapping stresses, managers should consider employees’ experiences through the lens of the factors we identified above. Productivity and well-being at the personal level will enable productivity and success at the organizational level.
Zorana Ivcevic is a senior research scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, where Robin Stern is associate director. Andrew Faas is a management consultant.
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