Where do we stand?
The Covid-19 pandemic is persistent. It drags on and hardly allows for a breather. And it sets records in numbers - by that I don't just mean the number of infected individuals, but rather the number of employees working from home. Everything that doesn't involve human interaction was sent to home offices back in March and now with the second light lockdown. Off to the home desk. The rest remains as usual. As usual? Hardly! That's exactly where the problem lies: No preparation, no experience, and distractions at their best. But now we are here and must learn to deal with the situation.
What challenges must the leader face? The work remains the same, but the teams work at a distance, spatially dispersed. What's missing are the brief discussions in hallways, quick checks on progress, and collaborative brainstorming in conference rooms. Technology is supposed to compensate, with a stable internet connection being the basis for effective work. This presents entirely new challenges for you as a leader. When each team member works alone at home in an individual atmosphere, the feeling of fighting alone for a cause quickly arises. Suddenly, the question of purpose arises: What am I actually doing this for? There is a risk that employees will increasingly detach and disengage from the organization or the team. A sense of isolation and uncertainty sets in. The new task of a leader now lies in clearly and unequivocally communicating and anchoring the mission and vision of a team's work. Answering the why and assigning each team member a piece of the red thread, a piece of the whole. Building trust among each other becomes your new main concern as a leader. You should reduce your need for control and instead advance trust. Easier said than done, I know, yet nothing new. Let's be honest, how exactly can you as a leader control the work enthusiasm of your employees in the office? Procrastination is just as possible at the office desk as at the home desk. And there's one more thing - the "best" for last: media literacy. Literally overnight, a stable internet connection and reliable hardware became the basis for successful work. But that's not all, as the dependency on the "new" information and communication technology also revealed new conflict potentials and difficulties. Exchange via different media requires different communication rules due to the different filtering effects of the media. When talking on the phone, I can't see my counterpart. Well, in video calls I can. Yet, gestures are often not clearly recognizable even here. In an email, a described situation can often seem more extreme than it actually was, or irony may not be recognized... All these peculiarities require context information, each medium pursuing its own strategy. Therefore, one of the most essential tasks of a leader of a virtual team is successful communication in conflicts, performance evaluations, agreements, and feedback. The role of a leader's example extends to their media literacy. Suddenly...
What do the employees need to learn? Another leadership task is to train employees to support and advance them in the novel work in home offices. Too late, you think? Of course, back in March this year, you and your teams were thrown into the deep end and obligated to work from home overnight. Yet, I still advise you: Row back a bit and approach the home office project in a structured manner once again. The past few months can serve as valuable experiences and be very helpful in employee training. Where were the particular difficulties? Then, you should pay special attention to these topics. What was easy for you and your team? Mention it commendably and express your pride. Various areas of employee training could include the following: Media usage and application training: Yes, media literacy. Certainly one of the essential issues in daily home office work. Someone drops out of an online meeting, a cloud document suddenly goes missing, misunderstandings arise in chats or emails... Each medium has its specific advantages and disadvantages and requires certain behavioral rules. As a leader, you should assign a specific medium for each type of task and provide fundamental explanations on how to work with it. Self-organization and time management: Support your employees in organizing themselves. Many processes and rituals are already clear and established at work, but at home, it's a different story. Especially in the current times of home schooling, perhaps the children are still at home, disrupting not only your employees' routines. Address current difficulties in the team and provide techniques for time and work organization. It's not easy for anyone, so you should show understanding for those who take longer to adapt to the new structures. Conflict management: In addition to previous points of contention in your daily work, conflicts arising from media usage are now added. The crux is to resolve media-induced conflicts through these same media. A vicious circle? Not if, as a leader, you have clarified the formats with the various communication media. Lead by example and demand detailed context information to make communication as clear as possible. You must also provide your employees with the tools to handle media-induced conflicts. Intercultural training: This point is particularly important for internationally distributed teams. It involves learning how to deal with different cultural demands, time differences, and conditions. But even in a milder form, we find individual conditions in various work formats and structures within locally distributed teams. Therefore, you should establish core times and formats with your team. Find a common denominator for collaborative work that all team members should adhere to. For example, a regular meeting or office hours for each employee... This is the compromise that all employees should make to be able to work in their individual contexts. Language development: This point refers to the competencies for written communication. Correspondence via emails, chats, shared online documents will increase in the home office, as spontaneous exchanges in the hallway or office are no longer possible. As a leader, you must set the style and lead by example to avoid future conflicts.
And what is all of this based on? On trust! Reverse the familiar saying: Control is good, trust is better! Trust is built through a one-sided advance. As a leader, you must provide this. The basis is an anchored vision, a shared understanding of the goal of the work. If this goal is clear to all employees, you can delegate tasks and trust in their completion. Important: Remain part of the whole and keep the red thread visible to all. So, advocate clearly for the common goal. This is an initial step in building trust. A second step is your expertise, as not only should you trust your employees, but your employees should also be able to trust in your skills. Highlight specific skills of your employees and establish contact persons for various issues. This way, you make it clear that each team member has an important and irreplaceable place. Personal skills also play a big role in daily interactions. What are you particularly good at, what do you do in your free time? What fascinates your employees privately? Creating commonalities also builds trust. If someone thinks the same way I do, I am most likely to confide in them. As a leader, create connections between your team members. Another step in building trust is through the classic points of reliability, predictability, and transparency. Especially with distributed teams in the home office, it can quickly happen that everyone does their own thing and loses connection to the big picture - and also to the team. Therefore, as a leader, you should focus on adhering to these simple rules. Ensure fixed meeting times, lead by example, provide enough context information for various tasks, establish core working times and availability times. Set different media formats for different content and ensure their accessibility. You are essentially setting up the virtual conference room where each team member can take their place. Always. Leading in the home office has become a new discipline for every leader in this country, especially due to the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. But it's not rocket science. Remember, you are all in the same boat. There is no way out, and projects still need to be realized. That's the current situation. Communicate as clearly and transparently as possible and keep every behavior rule, no matter how obvious, openly visible. Embrace small conflicts and crises, as they will ultimately lead to smoother remote work and maintain personal contact with your employees. You are all going through a tough time, which is easier to bear collectively than alone, even if we have to keep our distance.
