There are a lot opinions about how the Covid-19 pandemic led firms to try and go remote without affecting their productivity. Here’s what leading teams should be like.
The use of tech tools that enable such work efficiently like Zoom was one of the most significant talking points in these discussions; however, not much has been said about the people who use Zoom, i.e., the employees themselves.
Zoom and other such tools facilitate communication and allow firms to work remotely without any issues, but such a change has been drastic for employees and leading teams has been challenging. The tools are there, but there is also a sense of detachment among many employees out there.
Working from home for such elongated periods was highly uncommon before the Covid-19 pandemic began. Still, now, it seems like work from home will become a reality in the business world, and companies need to know how to keep their employees motivated and engaged in such a paradigm while rising to the challenge of leading teams.
To understand how this can be done practically and whether there are any successful models that others can replicate, we reached out to renowned entrepreneurs in different niches and asked them to share their thought on “how to lead a team while managing resources remotely?”
We told them that they could share some great tips, a strategy that worked well, words of caution, or whatever they might deem valuable enough to be shared with others and the community at large.
Here are the amazing responses we got from them for leading teams:
1- Use Technology Smartly
Arnel Dalma CEO At EasyShopOnline Corp
“As an eCommerce store owner, I’ve learned some strategies to manage our day-to-day operation during this current COVID pandemic. 1. Zoom Meeting app is a lifeline. I was able to delegate tasks to our shipping department by utilizing Zoom; this virtual management innovation greatly impacted practicing social distancing, saving time & resources. 2. I’ve discovered the other useful functionality of our smartphones, one is the “Notes” app in our iPhones. There is a scanner feature in it. Everywhere I go, I don’t have to touch the actual receipts or invoices; I scan & save them. This is very useful for persons like myself always “on the go” and practicing social distancing simultaneously.”
2- Keep Employees in the “Loop.”
Heather Yoder
CEO at www.mycustomlogcutting.com
“The biggest thing is virtual meetings, make sure to stay positive with employees, keep them in the loop and inform them of any updates and make sure work progress stays on schedule.”
3- Nail Your Communication
Irina Georgieva CEO and Co-Founder of Enterprise League
At Enterprise League, people are our most valuable resources. Their contribution helps us keep the business platform running and growing despite the pandemic crisis we are currently facing.
As we have been constrained to rely solely on remote working, I have adopted some strategies to keep a quality communication level and recreate the team’s connection remotely.
Weekly checkpoints for leading teams
To keep the organization and productivity of the team to a high standard, I introduced weekly checkpoints. The weekly checkpoints serve to update all team members who have done what, what is being done, and what is to be done.
On this call, everyone summarizes what they have accomplished that week and what is on their agenda next.
Besides the summary, our team focuses on asking questions. Another goal of this meeting is to make sure each team member understands the why of each task. By making sure your people understand the goal, importance, and value of each task, they can see it from the customer’s perspective (be it internal or external customer).
Having a clear understanding of the expectations of the tasks is crucial to ensure you have quality deliverables and minimize faults. This simple tactic has increased our team’s productivity by more than 55% and overall task efficiency by 42%.
Weekly update / Goss talk
The weekly update or goss talk is another tactic that has proved to be seriously effective in bringing the team together.
This call aims to bring back the small talk that happens on coffee breaks, lunchtime, or walking to the elevator. Since the office, small talk is nonexistent, and the humane connection between team members begins to fade, we decided to reintroduce a remote version of it.
During this call, team members can share updates about work and chat about any topic they fancy, such as news, trends, etc. hence the gossip part of the name for this talk. The results have been very positive, showing that this informal, casual chat makes people more relaxed and friendly towards each other. This has certainly decreased the stress level within the team and made working remotely fun and easy to adopt.
In a nutshell, the most important thing remote teams should focus on nailing is their communication. Having efficient, regular communication and ensuring that all team members understand our expectations from them will reduce your waste time and increase your productivity. Therefore, my advice would be to spare no efforts in improving your team’s communication. It truly drives your company growth forward.”