I’ve learned a few lessons this year about remote teams, building culture, and how to get work accomplished during times of change. I thought it would be helpful to share tips on how to guide teams through times of transition, whether it’s about consciously choosing change or adapting to new circumstances. Even recruitment firms need to keep their teams happy! Here are some tips to help.
Get Talking — Communicate
As a leader, you may not feel like you need interaction, but your team may need it. Weekly Zoom meetings are not enough to keep people peppy and motivated. Stay in touch with your team individually, whether it’s a return to cell phone calls to get off the computer, a special Slack channel, a shared group, etc. Slack channels can be fun, too (shoutouts, announcement, company wins, fun photos). The personal has become the professional, since we are in our homes most of the time.
Progress Over Perfection
As long as you are moving in the right direction, adopt a mindset that values progress over perfection in order to maintain your sanity and keep business moving forward. Encourage teams to break big goals down into small steps and celebrate progress! After all, our teams are relying on us to continue to lead the way forward. We must adapt in order to allow more flexibility, patience, and resilience.
Importance of Rituals
Continue rituals such as one-on-ones, team lunches, post mortems, happy hours. They can be easily adapted to a remote work context. Here are some ideas you can incorporate or offer up to your teams.
Learning Circles & Increased Employee Engagement
Type: Real-time, fun and practical, on the regular
Time: 30-60 minutes
Tools required: Video conferencing, presentation materials as needed
It’s easy to get so caught up in executing your work that you forget to expand your learning, especially when you’re working from home, alone. Remote work can be isolating if you don’t make a point to connect with your team on a personal level.
How it works: Choose a topic related to your work that you want to learn more about. Find colleagues who share that interest. Each month, gather over Zoom to have someone in the group give a short presentation to share. Extend your learning circle to anyone in the company and it can be part of your culture – shared learning.
Personal User Guide
You’ve heard of a User Guide when you buy a new product or download software, but what about the personal User Guide for…you? This is meant to help people work best with you and each other. For example: Do you like to frequently update Slack so people know where you are? Is that the first place people should look when they have a question for you? In lieu of sitting together or being in a shared space, a User Guide can help improve communication by shedding light on how people work best and inviting people to connect in ways that are more in alignment with the team members. It can also be a fun project for team members to create their User Guide – let them be creative, show off their messy desk, their dog, newest plant, etc. Once completed, share with the team and consider people presenting it to one another.
Evangelize the Vision
Because many of us are not gathering together, it’s important to continue to evangelize your company’s vision as a way to keep people connected to the company, its purpose, the work they do every day. This is a motivator, a reminder of the employees value and what you are building — together. It’s not about memorizing the Vision line from the company website. It’s about living the values as a leader and embodying the vision. Get the team excited.
Maintaining a company culture and keeping employees motivated is challenging during regular times. At times like these, where we are dispersed, it’s even more challenging. Dig deep, get creative, and above all, communicate.
Sources:
Atlassian, Medium, Entrepreneur Magazine
How to Improve Remote Teamwork
