To be honest, writing and sharing anything has been a difficult task the last few weeks. With the world in chaos, it’s hard to sit down and write about management tips. But I observed a trend this week on Twitter that I thought I should address.
I don’t know if you noticed, but almost everyone and their company released a how-to work/lead remotely guide. So many of them focus on creating and measuring productivity.
Yeah, so we’re all working from home now. But the focus is all wrong.
It isn’t about being productive from home.
It’s about how lead in crisis.
I don’t mean to sound extreme, but I don’t think we should be measuring productivity in the middle of a pandemic. Parents are at home juggling teaching school, meal time, random fits, an unusual amount of meetings and probably so much more. Is that even a fair context to be evaluating their performance? Absolutely not.
Now isn’t the time to focus on productivity. Now is the time to focus on people.
Find meaningful ways to check-in with the people on your team.
Now’s not the time for status updates. Checking in on their needs is understanding their context and how you can support them in it. Ask:
- How can I best show up for you right now?
- What kind of flexibility would help you right now?
- What’s surprised you about working from home?
- How are you investing in your resilience right now? How can I support that?
Emotional check-ins have to go deeper than “how are you” because I don’t think many of us know how to answer that right now. Here’s a few to try:
- What’s changed for you today?
- What have you learned about yourself or your family this week?
- What are your top three emotions?
- If you were to name this chapter in your life, what would you call it?
Remind them what isn’t changing.
When life feels upside down, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by it all. Create stability where things don’t need to change. (And side note: now’s not the time to completely revamp all your team meetings and processes.)
Connection doesn’t have to be another zoom meeting.
I’ve heard a lot about “Zoom fatigue” this week, and the sudden increase in people’s meetings and screen time. It’s not only about work, but also personal life. So here’s some things you can do to build team connection without adding *another* zoom invite:
- Send each other physical care packages in the mail
- Design tennis (it’s asynchronous)
- Remote babysitting schedule (teach/entertain your teams’ kids for 30 min)
- Shared Spotify playlists (remember mix tapes?)
- Send them a plant
- Make a craft with instructions for their kids
- Play an asynchronous game (remember words with friends?)
- Share your favorite/current recipes (and post pictures of what everyone cooks!)
Know the mental health resources available to your team.
I also want to remind managers to know what resources you have available through your organization for counseling and therapy. Often you’ll have programs accessible through your health insurance. Check with your HR team. It’s a resource everyone should know they have and should be encouraged to use during this time.
Take care of yourself.
Finally, as a leader your team is looking to you, and you’re taking care of them by providing guidance, reassurance, and stability. This can be exhausting. Who is taking care of you? Make sure you’re getting what you need to stay resilient through this time.
Remember: you can’t give what you don’t have.
Mia Blume is the CEO of Design Dept., an organization that offers leadership development for designers, by designers. Join her in real talk around the challenges we face as leaders today at upcoming workshops:
- Remote Management on April 16, 2020 (3.5 hours)
- Resilient Leadership on April 17, 2020 (3 hours)
- Leading Change on April 24, 2020 (full day)
