Photo by Pavan Trikutam on Unsplash
Once you have the technology in place and you’ve figured out your critical game plans, the adrenaline that powered up the quick shift can start to fade. The reality of our collective situation is slowly setting in and you may notice a shift your team’s energy and your team connection will be critical as we adjust to living and working through lock down.
Many teams and organizations transformed overnight to remote work and the value (and novelty) of video conferencing is certainly something to be grateful for, but it’s only PART of the solution when it comes to maintaining human-centred connection and strong team relationships.
If you are suddenly managing a team remotely, having key conversations and working with your team to create a communication plan that works best for group realities will be a critical factor in your team’s current and ongoing success.
If you are part of an essential service and managing a team onsite, you might be working under unusual conditions with a stress all it’s own, or you might have some or all of your staff temporarily off work and you want to make sure you stay connected and ready to go when things shift back.
Whatever situation you and your team might be facing, having the right connection strategies could mean the difference between surviving and thriving.
Being intentional and purposeful when planning the timing and content of communication, using a variety of methods for contact will ensure you connect in ways that take care of the work, while addressing your team’s human needs too. These strategies are not isolated to times of crisis, but the need is now amplified and requires more discipline as we quickly adapt to being physically separated and grapple with many unknowns.
To ensure team communication addresses daily work responsibilities and provides ongoing support for people as human beings, your approaches should include ways to:
Acknowledge the team’s reality, accepting how it interacts with work and goals and adapting as needed. Communicating about individual family responsibilities, workspace and technology constraints and general disruption. Recognizing that work pace and productivity might be different right now and helping your team navigate this is crucial for maintaining a sense of security and supporting their overall well-being.
Notice and name emotions, assumptions and concerns that arise, some of which will be typical of the upheaval in routine, but also things that come with sudden isolation and the ever-changing news cycle . Getting these feelings out in the open can reduce some of the harmful physical and mental impact and avoid less helpful behaviours that come from ignoring feelings or hiding them.
Maintain shared purpose, principles and perspective. Keeping the big picture in view, maintaining connection to core values and both team and organization purpose creates consistency and helps the team assess where to focus energy, time and mental/emotional resources and even re-imagine ways of working that balance team and organization needs, even as they change.
Team connection points can be an opportunity to share what’s going on for you as a Manager as well. Your team needs you to be confident and optimistic, but sharing some of your emotions, thoughts and realities makes it safer for your team to communicate their own, so everyone can be aware, responsive and navigate the challenges better together.
As you work with your teams to figure out the best ways to maintain connection over the next few weeks (or months), putting just 1 or 2 of the following practices in place can help keep relationships strong whether you are together or apart:
Weekly 1:1 Check-ins –- dedicated time with each person on the team to speak with you by phone or video conference. Sometimes a phone call means you can focus on the conversation and not the technology, and sometimes seeing each other face to face will be what’s needed most. Agree together on what works best. Set a regular cadence (weekly or bi-weekly). Treat it as a conversation with a simple agenda as a guide:
What’s happening for them – tasks, projects, life in general - the ups and the downs.
What you appreciate about them.
What’s important to focus on. (And what’s not).
What they need from you.
Having a known agenda can help provide structure and consistency but be open to leaving the agenda behind to discuss whatever is top of mind for your people.
Virtual Drop-in – take advantage of video conferencing to have vital face to face time that is primarily social time. Set a regular time daily or weekly where folks can virtually drop into the meeting and chat with each other (do a daily stand-up meeting if you are onsite). Establish themes or a context to get conversations started. Make it a time to share recipes, Zoom tips, parenting stories, or whatever is on your mind. Compare home “office” space and incorporate holidays. Have costume challenges (e.g. try funky hat Fridays). Managers can host or simply kick it off, be present and let the team take it where they want it to go.
Quick Status Update: Have each team member share a 1 sentence or less status update either at the start or end of each day – or any time decided by the team. Agree on one channel for shares where everyone can see quickly (email, internal platform, chat group etc). Here’s 2 ideas:
1 word, picture, emoji or quote that captures their current state.
Finish the same 2-3 statements: Eg. “Grateful for…Challenged by… Inspired by….” or “Celebrating…Need help with… Next focus is….”
Daily or Weekly Briefing – either sent out by email with a standardized subject line or an ongoing document or discussion posted in your digital workspace that provides daily guidance, inspiration and summarizes decisions, actions, and learnings from the team and across the organization. Create a way for team members to comment and share further updates and ensure it can be easily referenced when needed.
Personal Notes– Make time to send 1 email note to 1 person daily - gratitude, observations, inspirations and supportive coaching. Or consider sending a personal card or note by old-fashioned mail each week.
Re-calibration sessions: Set regular check points to review communication process and content (e.g. every 2 weeks) to make sure your approaches are working. Commit to doing this in person via video conference or phone and take an opportunity to help your team address any rising tensions or conflict. You could also set up a specific area in your digital workspace where you can gather team input and use all the ideas above to keep the team up to date as you adjust.
It isn’t an easy time to be a Manager. Your team is counting on you to keep them informed, focused and functioning while you might be struggling with fear and uncertainty yourself. The pressure and responsibility to do this well may feel heavy, but it’s an opportunity to make a difference and show how much you value the people on your team.
You don’t need to have all the answers or know exactly what to do. You DO need to keep communicating openly, focusing on what you do know and discussing together what you can do right now to be prepared for the next steps and the possibilities down the road.
Managers who create conversations, engage their team in finding solutions, build consistent connection habits and create clarity will strengthen team confidence and resilience. The capabilities you build for yourself and your team today will carry forward well beyond the time of Covid19 and help create a whole new future of work.