Five Tips For Remote Leadership During a Pandemic

We are living through a time of confusion, uncertainty and anxiety. These emotions exist both in our personal and professional lives for the same reason. A global pandemic is a societal event that tests everyone. This is a time for leadership. In normal circumstances being a leader is a tough job and in 2020 the demands on leaders not only increased they changed in their nature. Here are five things for leaders to emphasise while leading people through this crisis.

1. Be Genuine in Your Communication

As uncertainty increases leaders need to communicate with more sincerity.  Let’s assume that senior management are communicating using internal communications channels. Is this enough? No, there is a need for genuine personal two-way communication between team members and their leaders.

Communicate with your team members daily. Check in to see how they’re doing – both personally and professionally.  Of course, ask about work related tasks, projects, challenges etc. but also enquire about other aspects of the person.  This could be about how their football team are doing, whether they brought their dog for a walk that morning, a box set they’re bingeing on or whatever else they may have going on.  Working from home can blur the line between what’s home (a place they want to be) and what’s work (a place they have to be).   Working from home, even in a packed house, can be lonely.  Be flexible in your approach and seek to make that connection.  Some things to consider:

• Slow down the pace of your communication – make more time for conversation by shortening meeting agendas. Encourage your team member to contribute and be an active listener 
• Assess team morale during team meetings – if possible ask for the team’s cameras to be turned on so you can observe their body language.  Maybe you’ll observe a team member who is having a tough time and you can reach out to them
• Work to identify fun topics that engage the whole team during meetings
• Conduct skip level chats if they are relevant to your team structure.  They can be invaluable in gathering feedback, allaying fears and assessing morale. If they aren’t relevant to you then invite your manager and/or leaders from other departments to attend and chat to the team
• Vary the content and format of your meetings to keep people engaged. Some approaches will work and some won’t – keep trying different things
• This isn’t all on you – delegate some of the work, rotate the meeting chair, note taking and that meeting’s non-work conversation topic
• Always, always, always ask for feedback on how you are doing. Be genuine, listen and act on the feedback

2. Focus on Priorities

If ever there was a time to focus on the essentials it is now.  Your organisation’s changed circumstances may mean that there are new priorities.  Utilise your team’s objectives to identify what the priorities are.  If the objectives need to change to align to new/revised priorities then change them quickly.  This will help to motivate your team by applying their energy on things that make a difference.

• Initiate a review of the team’s objectives (these should be similar to your own) with your leader – confirm what is a priority and what isn’t
• Review each team member’s objectives and align them to the confirmed team priorities
• Team meetings should then be built around what’s a priority – this will make each team meeting relevant to the whole team
• Continue to adapt and refine objectives/priorities as the situation and organisational needs change
• Reinforce priorities regularly with individual team members and the whole team

3. Look to the Future

As I write this conversations in my home are turning towards Christmas.  2020 is beginning to draw to a close and the time to prepare for 2021 has arrived.  Leaders need to be conscious that certainty and clarity will not be in abundance as they try to plan for 2021.  Be open about this and discuss it with your teams.  Ask them to visualise what they would like 2021 to look like and then as a group focus on what parts you can influence.  Humans feel uncomfortable when they cannot exert influence over their environment.  This visualisation exercise will challenge your team to be creative in how they can positively influence their future.

• Prepare for performance reviews – bring team member’s objectives up to date and start informal discussions about performance against those objectives
• Be pragmatic when assessing performance – 2020 has not been a normal year and performance assessments need to be flexible to acknowledge that
• Challenge your team in 2021 – be prepared to set stretch objectives, identify opportunities for continuous improvement, personal development and solutions to problems experienced in 2020
• Influence organisational priorities – a key component of a leader’s role is to positively influence.  Maybe your team has an idea for a new product or service that with your influence the organisation might invest in

4. Personal Development

Each new year typically starts with a commitment to personal development that wanes as the year progresses. Working from home could be a great excuse to sideline personal development in 2020.  Fortunately there are lots of technology resources available to support virtual learning and development.  As a leader it is important to continue to place an emphasis on your team’s personal development.  The areas for development may have changed because of a change in circumstances or organisational needs but there will be development needs nonetheless.

• Work collaboratively with team members to update their personal development needs for the current year and next year
• Engage with learning and development teams within your organisation to assess what learning opportunities might be available
• As a team, research and assess online development resources (e.g. Linkedin Learning)
• Be flexible – consider expanding beyond the traditional learning and development topics to include areas of personal interest like learning a new language or skill (you could knit Christmas beanies for the team) 
• Reinforce with each team member the commitment to execute their personal development plan and demonstrate achieving their learning objectives

5. Bring Personal Well-being into the Conversation

Personal well-being is a tricky topic simply because it is personal.  So, why should a leader care?  That’s simple, because true leaders do genuinely care, on a personal level. Also, leaders intrinsically understand the link between personal well-being and motivation and in turn motivation and personal performance.  Thankfully a lot of employers have also identified this link and well-being is a topic companies take an active interest in.  So, how does a leader bring personal well-being into the conversation?

• Initially seek support from within your organisation as to what resources might be available and how to approach the subject
• Devise some initial topics and introduce them during team meetings.  An example could be the importance of exercise when working from home
• Gauge the level of self-care being practiced during individual team member meetings – how stressed do they feel? Do they have any quiet time in their day? Are they reading or taking exercise?
• If needed suggest some easy well-being practices that team members could try. An example is to close your eyes and sit quietly for 10 minutes or just to get outside for a stroll
• Recommend some useful resources within your organisation or something that may be freely available online
• Continue this conversation and make it a routine component of meetings with team members

Summary

The true measures of a leader are whether they have followers and why those people follow.  Real leaders care about their people and in turn people gravitate towards leaders who care. As humans we have a natural tendency for caring and by adopting some simple practices this tendency can be extended into the workplace.   The global pandemic has tested our approach to leadership in many ways.  Leaders in turn must adapt to these new challenges. 

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