One minute, you’ve got your team on track, with the train moving forward in the right direction, and the next minute, a virus called COVID-19 has derailed that train. Your progress came to a halt, and you don’t even know if the train track is still in place up ahead.  This is a familiar scenario for pretty much most of the world right now.  We have no guarantees for the next weeks, months, or even years on how business will continue and what that will look like. 

Will working from home be the new normal, with shared office spaces for once a week meetings?

Will we go back to working from an office until Winter hits again, and the possibility of another lockdown?

And how do you manage a team in this setting, continuing to drive progress forward without bulldozing over your workers as they adjust to this new, scary environment?

As a manager, this is a new scenario to face.

Your company may have frozen new hires, new projects, and new ideas altogether as it processes how to adjust to the effects of COVID-19. You may be in the stressful position of needing to prove the worth of both your job and those of your team members. You may need to pivot to learn how to bring them together, once again, in a unified fashion towards a common goal.  But how can you really do that at a distance?

Maybe you’re the type of manager that likes to do walking meetings, where you check in quickly on your way to the water cooler.

Maybe you’re the type of manager that works well on a team where quick “pop up” meetings can be done in a matter of minutes as you communicate and gather feedback on an issue that doesn’t warrant a large gathering. 

Or, maybe you’re the type of manager that sits back with an open door while your employees grab you as they need to talk. These are all strategies that managers can use to feel connected to their teams, and these options may no longer be available in the remote work environment. Right?

Actually, you’re sort of wrong. They may still be available, but will look a little different. There are a variety of communication tools that allow you to make your presence known, and provide an open invitation for your team to reach out. You can have those face to face video calls, schedule small group chats for everyone to chime in, and set specific office hours where anyone can reach out.

• So, you have communication taken care of, but how do you motivate your employees?
• How do you track progress?
• How do you push your team forward in the right direction, while proving they’re still very valuable in such a shifting environment? 

You’re in the right place, for a start. First off, one of the best steps to take is to assess your team in this new environment, and find their strengths. We have just the service for you!

You may have team members who thrived at being the leader in the office, but under the new circumstances, they play a better role helping to implement ideas that others have developed. Or, maybe your wallflower in the office has now surfaced to being a game-changer in the comforts of what they feel is a more secure physical space at home.

The truth is, working remotely can surface new habits and experiences for employees that they may not have otherwise discovered. Now, you can discover this with them!

We have a great tool for evaluating people “where they’re at” and uncovering those new strengths that have surfaced in a remote work environment. You get to see where they stand compared to each other, and where your team – as a whole – has areas of power, and areas needing improvement. This is a great exercise to help your team reconnect in these trying times, and refocus on becoming more unified.

Your team members get to speak to our experts to better understand how to use those strengths for the collective good. In turn, your team members will better understand how they are functioning in their remote environment, and figure out how to apply their strengths to projects that propel your team forward.

While other companies fall behind in productivity, you can take the reins on readjusting and prove your aptitude and flexibility in a time when efficiency matters the most.

Let’s face it – remote work is more of a certainty now than it ever was.

One of the best ways you can change with the times is to evaluate where your team stands, unite their efforts, and move forward together in the right direction.