Week 1: Leading in a virtual environment

blog, covid19

Leading in a virtual environment: Some lessons from the first week of working from home:

5 things for a leader to think about when working remotely.

  • How do you look?
    • You are ‘at work’ so think about what people can see in the background of your video call – it can be distracting or send subliminal mixed messages. Microsoft Teams has an option to automatically blur the background so people can focus on your face, Zoom allows you to add a plain or uploaded background to your call.
    • Wear your typical work clothes on a video call to give a familiar impression to your team
  • What do you say?
    • Run virtual meetings to a familiar pattern, avoid everything sounding like a crisis – don’t induce panic
      • chair the meeting with more direction than normal to keep everyone focused
      • use a clear agenda and encourage preparation to keep everyone focused
    • Take control of the meeting – keep people on subject and ensure everyone has a chance to speak
    • At a time of uncertainty don’t be afraid of admitting what you don’t know but try to keep this bounded – and help to reassure people by talking about what you can control as a team
  • How do I lead my team?
    • One to one meetings are more important than ever – keep to an agreed schedule and hold them by video call rather than mobile phone if possible to allow more expression and to help you pick up on emotional responses
    • Take more time than to listen to your team members – how are they dealing with the change – what might push their buttons
    • Be practical – leaders are about more than just listening – they are about doing too – have a series of practical suggestions that you can offer in a consistent way
    • Use your own experience – how are you keeping focussed – what are the important tasks that you are investing time in
    • Find and share small pleasures – good news stories – tales of small action having positive impact
  • How do I influence stakeholders?
    • Set up new communication mechanisms that can work smoothly for the months ahead
    • Be positive and look for opportunities in the crisis – remember the old Chinese saying that in Crisis there is both Danger and Opportunity
    • Keep to a project schedule
    • Be professional, don’t get drawn into a spiral of despair, share lessons
  • How do I measure my own and my team’s performance?
    • Any previous sets of performance metrics may well have been overtaken by events but that doesn’t mean all measurement is out of the window
    • Create a quick balanced scorecard for the week – and then the month ahead.
      • In that period what would success look like in terms of: Finances; Operations; Customer contact; Staff / Self-care;
    • Check your team’s emotional state
      • Review after video calls – what’s not being communicated effectively in the new media yet – are we only talking task and missing out on informal and personal communications
      • Ask for feedback on what you are doing the leader in the new arrangements and set some metrics for yourself as result.