For most of you in a formal or informal leadership role, working remotely provides a new set of challenges. How do you keep your team together? And how do you hold people accountable when you can’t see their work? How do you keep yourself together and on track? All the basics of good leadership come into play with some slight additions.
Communication becomes even more important now. You used to catch people on the fly during the day to check in, and give or get information. Now that has to be more intentional. It’s important to understand your co-workers’ needs and preferences for communication. They become even more exaggerated in a remote environment. Those of you familiar with our T.E.A.M. Communication Styles® know that some people get their energy from the engagement they have with others, and some prefer to focus more strictly on the task. It’s important to connect by phone and video (where possible) with the first group (E & M styles), while email may be the preferred mode for the second (A & T styles). Take time to check in with everyone to see how much phone contact they’d like. It’s a good investment of your time.
Some people have set up more frequent team meetings by Zoom and have included some brief time for personal sharing before getting down to business. Others have scheduled “water cooler time” for people to drop in and chat about non-work topics. Or meet for virtual lunch or coffee to chat. The key is to maintain connections person to person. If you frequently collaborate with others, you might want to set up drop in times for people to join you for brainstorming, problem solving or project coordination discussions.
For people who used to ask a lot of questions or need a lot of information (“A” style), take time to check in with them to see if they have questions or concerns. Some people may be more hesitant to bother you when they can’t just drop in and they may end up going in circles without the information they need.
The other key element to remote leadership is how to hold people accountable? Most people are very conscientious, appreciate the ability to work from home safely and will return the favor by getting their work fully complete. It’s best to begin with that assumption and start from a place of trust. Check in with your team regularly to see how they’re doing and ask them to tell you about how the work is going and how their “home office” is working out. As you hear their reports and respond to their questions and concerns you should get a feel for how they are performing. For those performing well, but sure to let them know you appreciate their dedication and hard work. Let them know you’re available to help them as needed and for them to let you know if they run into any difficulty. Keep the positive feedback flowing on a regular basis.
As you listen to some people, you’ll either hear an admission that they just can’t keep up due to the stress of working remotely, or you’ll get a sense that they are not staying focused throughout the day. It is challenging to work from home. Some people will need to share computer time or a quiet room with their spouse, partner or roommate. Others will have to manage child care duties, home schooling, and other household tasks during the work day. See if there are ways they can do some of their work at different times to better manage these challenges. Some people live alone and the stress of isolation can make it difficult to concentrate. Others will have high risk family members they are worried about or friends or family who are seriously ill. And the overall extraordinary nature of this crisis will effect some people’s emotional stability.
First, be a good listener. It means a lot to people who are stressed that you’re willing to just listen. Hold off on giving advice. Don’t try to cheer them up (this often backfires). Instead, actively listen, repeat back what you hear and let them know you fully hear their concerns, fears, and frustrations. Sit with it a bit and then, when they’re done sharing, ask what you can do to help them. If they feel too overwhelmed to come up with ideas, then it’s time to offer some suggestions. Be sure to give them choices, not just one solution. Be sure to check in frequently to help them get and stay on track.
Finally, there are some people who may be goofing off and taking advantage of the situation. You’ll hear them report little progress on work and little anxiety about distractions. For these people you want to be clear about what you expect from them in terms of quantity and quality of work produced. Unless directed otherwise by your leadership, don’t focus on the number of hours worked. There’s no way you can truly verify this anyway. Focus instead on the work produced and where they’ve fallen short. Make sure they fully understand your expectations. Then ask how they feel about them. If they feel they are not realistic, talk them through a problem-solving process. Be supportive and encouraging. Let them know what you see as their strengths that will enable them to successfully work through this. Ask them how you can help them accomplish more. Let them know you’ll be checking in regularly to see how they’re doing and how you can help.
You want as much as possible to take a supportive and motivational approach since it can be difficult to closely monitor someone’s work. The more you can connect with them in a positive and supportive manner, the more likely they are to want to work productively for you. You may want to share with them some of the progress others are making and you might even want to do this at team meetings. Not to embarrass anyone, but to show them that others are pitching in and by inference, you expect them to do so as well. Don’t share anything negative about anyone’s performance at a team meeting! But it’s ok to ask each person to give a brief report and share any successes they’ve had adapting to remote work.
If you’ve had some successes you’d like to share, we’d love to hear about it. If you have some challenges you haven’t been able to resolve, email me and I’ll try to give you some suggestions: alan@kriegersolutions.com