Working from Home- Revolution during a crisis

Working From home

COVID-19 has changed the style of our work. The ongoing tension of the pandemic has challenged all the organizations to a Remote work Revolution. As the pandemic has engulfed itself around the world, more and more companies have encouraged the strategy of working from home. Everyone seems to embrace this culture now.

Apart from the hospitals, police and all important sectors, every industry has come on a halt. Government protocol on staying at home has however not been accepting by masses but still, we hope this would flatten the curve of the pandemic.

Unsettling events like COVID-19 create an acumen of jeopardy that can put management and executives tasked with leading change directly in a struggle with their own intellects’ essential needs for safety and stability. In these times leaders need to be open, flexible, and adaptive, to the situations.

Here is what Leaders can do to support your team during this crisis:

1. Communication: Employee behavior is one of the most difficult challenges. Working from home sometimes makes them feel that they do not have deadlines. So completing projects on time, effective communication plays a major role. Collect responses from multiple sources and summon the to-do list every day.
2. Protocols for completion of projects: The Corona virus scare has disrupted the normal working pattern and team dynamics. Leaders or Managers, need to clarify the team objectives, their individual roles, to complete the assigned projects on their stipulated deadlines. The leaders need to draft each team member’s role amicably and prioritize the goals, to ensure they complete the work assigned.
3. Schedule the meetings: Regularise work standards by holding meetings whenever required. Make the invisible visible. Ask your employees to join Skype calls or hangouts or whichever medium your company uses to have a healthy discussion on important topics.
4. Empathy: How do you encourage communication if your employee is sick, and the pandemic has mounted itself on him. Show Empathy and gratitude towards that employee. Make sure you talk to them and show them you still care and everything is all right. Similarly, working from home, combined with the fear of infection can create panic among the employees.
5. Be Present, Visible: During a crisis, leaders should be accessible. Because it’s not always possible to walk around your facility and talk to colleagues in person, let employees know how they can best reach you with status updates and questions. As companies grapple to cope with the evolving crisis and how to cope with their total workforce working remotely, A leader outlines optimism.
6. Tools: Working from home has its challenges. Provide tools for scheduling and guidelines on “connectivity” to minimize early morning or late-night meetings. Global virtual teams especially need clarity on when they should (or should not) be available, including on weekends and local holidays. The leaders have to make sure they equip the employees with the latest technologies and all necessary modes of communication to make this sail a smooth one.
7. Resilient Leadership: Teams need a strategy for communicating digitally, and leaders must adopt effective managerial roles and meetings remotely. Leaders need to access the untapped potential which is often overlooked at the table. Building the right resilience they can allow employees to buffer against automatic reflexes to threat and create social norms that reward flexible, open thinking, needed to keep up and thrive during volatile times. That’s why Sinclair says, resilience — maintaining equilibrium under pressure — is among the most important skills for leaders at all levels to master.

We all are entering a digital culture, with newer platforms that are changing the old business work style. This pandemic may have caused lots of unbearable pain to the masses, but as we move ahead, we can see the change it has bought. Adapting to such a change makes the leader “A Visionary”.

A leader’s attitude is contagious. Leaders are dealers in hope. Even in extreme uncertainty, a buoyant, can-do attitude keeps employees motivated.

“Go Into the world and do well; more importantly, Go into the world and Do Good,” Minor Myers —