Covid-19 measures have had an unexpectedly positive effect on the mindset of employees
Management Drives has seen a change in the behaviour of people in a crisis
Zeist, 16 July 2020 – During the intelligent lockdown, the vast majority of employees worked more effectively and with more focus than in normal circumstances.
They showed utterly different behaviour than usual under high pressure or in a crisis.
Management Drives has observed this and has measured the professional drives of some 400,000 people and guides teams from almost all AEX companies.
The Management Drives method is known worldwide for its colour language in which the logic of different employees is typified in six colours.
For example, someone who is predominantly blue attaches great importance to structure and protocols. Or someone might be yellow or orange, which means that that person is analytical or result-oriented. As a manager, you can take all of this into account if you know the colours of your team members.
Team members can also be more understanding of each other.
In a “normal” stress situation, people often exaggerate their strongest traits
CEO Stephan van der Vat of Management Drives said, “what we have always seen up to now is that people in stress or crisis situations sometimes started to display different behaviour than their natural behaviour.
nd that those behaviours are often then exaggerated.
The MD profile of someone who has more blue could mean that they’re no longer just well organised, but they may become strongly controlling. Someone who has a lot of yellow and orange drives in his/her profile will over-analyse and become somewhat opportunistic.
During the corona crisis, with forced working from home and other limitations, it appears that people express this “mindset” in a positive way. People are now taking a positive approach to the aspects of the work that they normally “reject”. This gives them more focus and helps them become more productive. This also applies to all colours. It is the first time in the twenty years of our existence that we have seen anything like this.”
Employees embrace their hidden desires
According to Van der Vat, the cause for this change in trend lies in our “hidden desires”. “People are now exhibiting the behaviour they usually hate. Their hidden desire is to show this anyway. This crisis seems to have provided the preconditions to allow them to show it. People work more remotely, often at home. As a result, there are few interventions, and there is less in the way of group dynamics.”
Guaranteeing positive behavioural change after the lockdown
The question is, of course, whether these positive changes can be maintained after the relaxation of the measures and when everyone returns to the office. Van der Vat explains, “if we do nothing, I foresee that people will quickly abandon this behaviour and revert to their old patterns.
We must use the momentum in which we can convert that hidden desire of employees into truly sustainable behavioural change.
Which is why we’ve developed a targeted programme to achieve this.”
Click here for more information about the Management Drives Covid-19 Impact Programme and take a free personal scan.