Five Essential Tips For Leading Remote Teams In Times Of Crisis

With the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, immediate adjustments needed to be made to how people travel, how they deal with a health threat to themselves and their families and how they work.

The world was quickly thrust into a global crisis. Different regions responded at different speeds and with various counteractive measures. Self-isolation, travel bans and quarantines were some of the initial response measures. And then came more serious lockdowns, with educational institutions closing their doors and the beginning steps reducing workplace congestion by working from home.

Almost overnight, schools became online learning platforms, and remote work became the norm.

Amazingly, major changes were able to be implemented at lightning speed. In regular times, these kinds of changes would take time due to processes: debates, meetings, planning sessions, steering committees, revising policies, change processes and so on.

In this crisis, the health and safety of staff is a top priority. Organizational leadership and their workforce immediately galvanized to do whatever is necessary to ensure health and safety and get people set up for remote work. So if most of your teams are shifting to remote work, here are five things to think about to preserve culture, manage teams effectively and ensure productivity.

1. Keep up team morale.

Moving from an office environment can be extremely challenging for people who are not used to it, so make sure to keep up team morale and engagement through the workday. I highly recommend having a daily 15-minute huddle to connect virtually, with cameras on, where each person shares nonwork-related ideas, like how they’re dealing with the situation, what they’re finding challenging and what tips they can give each other to make it easier.

2. Overcommunicate.

Make sure to overcommunicate anything that is work-related, information about how the crisis is affecting your workplace, what measures you’re taking to keep the business afloat and what the key areas of focus are. Even if you don’t have all the answers to challenges you’re facing, if people know what you’re thinking about and how you’re thinking about the situation, it helps them feel a sense of control.

3. Encourage structure.

As the manager, help your team keep boundaries and maintain a structure around their new work environment. Just because they’re working from home, it doesn’t mean they’re always on. Having a routine, taking breaks in between and creating some separation between work and home is important for staying healthy and productive.

4. Provide support for technology.

Some people may not know how best to use technology, especially if they’re not set up for it. A few of my clients needed to buy laptops for their employees to be able to work from home and to ensure access to Wi-Fi with a secure connection. Don’t assume that people have all this available to them or that they know how to set themselves up. Get the IT team to be available to take staff through a step-by-step process and ensure they feel capable to continue working this way from a technology perspective.

5. Keep an open mindset.

There are likely going to be many challenges, mistakes and false starts in the process of transitioning to working remotely and using technology. Be patient and supportive. Provide a forum to discuss difficulties and what can be improved. With an open mindset, every experience is turned into a learning opportunity, so that when this crisis is over and the next one comes (and it will), we will be equipped to deal with it even more effectively.

This crisis has brought challenges and stresses on a scale that many of us have not experienced before. Perhaps what we can learn from this, looking ahead to the future world of work, is that we can be flexible with our work environments. The agility of the organizational response gives us a lot of confidence for handling future crises. We now know that we can give people more of a choice, encourage quality of life and let people work from home, based on their needs and what works both for them and their business.

What are your thoughts?

This article was first published on Forbes.com on 22 April  2020

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