To find new ways to thrive amid the new Delta variant, future-focused leaders challenge assumptions, acknowledge that characteristics and circumstances of the virus are subject to change, and work to fulfil their complex responsibility to protect their people, customers and communities – and do it all while continuing to grow and be profitable.

The highly contagious variant is causing infections and hospitalisations to rise again in many developed countries, especially communities with low vaccination rates. With modest global vaccination rates, new variants could continue to develop. As the virus evolves, employers have evolved their strategies to manage risks while driving performance.

These four sets of actions differentiate future-focused leaders with a common theme around adapting to the constancy of change:

1. Monitor and evolve vaccination policy. Vaccination remains the only proven way to prevent serious illness, hospitalisation or death from COVID-19. Employers can make it easy for their employees to get vaccinated by communicating the importance of vaccinations, providing information on how and where to obtain them, and offering time off. Prominent companies such as Google, Facebook and Disney, as well as many healthcare and education employers and others, have since adopted vaccine mandates. Physicians expect this trend to build with additional vaccine availability and data around their effectiveness.

2. Apply continuous learning to workplace safety enhancements. Future-focused leaders stay aware of interventions limiting the spread of COVID-19 as they become available. Actions that have proven effective include vaccines, testing, mask-wearing, handwashing, social distancing, ventilation, and decreasing employee density through remote work or staggering work schedules in areas with high transmission rates and cases. As virus knowledge and experience evolves, leaders are presented with more opportunities for effective health and safety initiatives.

3. Focus on wellbeing and resilience: Future-focused leaders recognise that healthy, resilient employees drive healthy, resilient organisations. The pandemic has had a detrimental effect on physical, emotional, financial and social wellbeing. Employees reported feeling disconnected and the deterioration of workplace social connections created productivity and stress challenges that hampered performance. Financial wellbeing decreased for many of us due to economic challenges. Future-focused leaders encourage regular wellbeing care. They also focus on efforts to drive resiliency through consideration of workload, time off, counselling, behavioural and mental health and caregiving assistance, financial wellbeing support, as well as continuous training and development.

4. Increase certainty through physical and psychological safety. Leadership strategies and expectations changed materially in 2020 and likely will never return to what once was called “normal.” As employers reopen workplaces amid the Delta variant, frequent, accurate and culturally appropriate communication helps employees feel confident that their employer genuinely cares about safety and wellbeing. Future-seeking leaders promote psychological safety in several ways, including clearly laying out the efforts they are making to keep the workplace safe and articulating how and why they decide it is the right time to reopen worksites. They also explain why they are modifying policies (such as around vaccinations or testing) or sunsetting previous approaches. They engage in the practices of “net talent gainers,” leading with practicality, compassion, and transparency in concert with long-term vision, emphasising dignity at, in, and from work, and making work culture safe, inclusive and equitable.

For many years, leaders talked about agility, sometimes as an ingrained strategy and sometimes as a soundbite. Future-focused leaders know that agility, resilience, and sustainability are essential for competitive advantage and produce positive impact on business outcomes.

This article was written by John M. Bremen from Forbes and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.