{"id":3300,"date":"2020-04-08T07:20:18","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T07:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/?p=3300"},"modified":"2021-04-23T12:44:49","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T12:44:49","slug":"four-tips-on-leading-and-managing-your-teams-during-quarantine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/four-tips-on-leading-and-managing-your-teams-during-quarantine\/","title":{"rendered":"Four tips on leading and managing your teams during quarantine"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is no doubt that COVID-19 virus<\/a> has created uncertainties and rearranged the workplace world over. Governments and private organizations across every sector of the world economy have sent millions of employees away to either stay home or work remotely. Hence, leaders and mangers of large, medium and small-scale organizations, without any prior warning or preparation, suddenly find themselves in the position of having to lead and manage their teams virtually, many for the first time.<\/p>\n

Understandably, this move is aimed at minimising human interactions, and thus the spread of the virus that has so far claimed more than 70,000 lives and led to the collapse of millions of businesses globally.<\/p>\n

Leading and managing teams virtually under such quarantine circumstances come with its own challenges when the face-to-face human interaction and the usual typical office environment, have all been put on hold. And for many, including experienced leaders and managers, who have never done this before, the challenge of doing so for the first in these exceptional times, can be very complicated and breath-taking.<\/p>\n

Related article: Are your networks helping your business & career to grow?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In this article, we share with you some of the creative ways you can adopt to lead remotely to ensure that your team remains focused and productive, emotionally and psychologically.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Focus on results and not routines.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It is normal with most office settings where teams have clock-in-and-out times as well as procedures and standards for reporting on assigned tasks plus the \u201ccontrolled environments\u201d within which work gets done. Although it is possible to set and maintain same times when the day\u2019s work starts and ends with your team, when working remotely, the leader should be mindful of the new unique conditions in which the usual office social conditions are completely absent and approach compliance to such new routines with flexibility.<\/p>\n

    Rather than focusing on replicating the usual office routines and times for deliverables, the leader should shift his or her attention to expected outcomes or results and clearly outline and communicate deadlines for submitting such deliverables and when it will be unacceptable to receive such results from team members. That way you allow team members to get their work done on terms that best suit their new home office conditions. Again, to maintain team cohesion, the leader should communicate to the team the best channels of communication for either virtual meetings or for updates and inquiries. Flexibility and focus on expected outcomes, rather than mere compliance to the routines, become a major creative way of freeing the leader to focus on the bigger picture in times of disruptions.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Stay in touch with your team regularly. <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Studies have shown that when leaders maintain regular communication cycle times with their teams, it guarantees effectiveness in building and sustaining morale among the team.<\/p>\n

      Fortunately, today, leaders have various communication channels such as WhatsApp messaging, zoom, skype, emailing, google drive or even texts to oil the thread between them and their teams. As a leader, you should ensure that on a regular basis throughout the quarantine, you can check on the health, emotional and psychological pulse of your team and guard against making it all about work, work and work.<\/p>\n

      This is because during normal office life, it is possible for the leaders to read non-verbal signals and body language, to know and strategize on how best to lead their teams. Unfortunately, this is impossible during quarantine and uncertain times, where you rely on proxy signals such as patterns in the tone of written communication; modulations of voice communication; and any physical gestures during video interactions to make decisions on provision of solution to their individual and collective challenges and distractions.<\/p>\n

      This article will interest you:<\/strong> COVID-19: five ways to stay productive at home.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Create Open and Supportive Discussion forum<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Social distancing being promoted by health experts to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, requires that there are no human interactions. But for decades, some of your best innovative ideas have come from group discussions. As social beings, we all need each other to cope and deal with the stresses of work and life most especially during the most uncertain times. It is therefore, critical for leaders and managers to be mindful of these factors and know, though, that attempting to attend to every team member\u2019s needs personally, will quickly exhaust them and with time their capacity to provide capable leadership for the team will dwindle.<\/p>\n

        To ensure that the organization does not lose out on the creative ideas of your team and also to be able to help the members address their stress needs during such times, leaders should create free and open discussion forums and organize team members into supporting pairs. This will help you develop mutual support groups among the team and help fight against emotional isolation.<\/p>\n

        No business would wish to lose out on innovations as they determine the survival of their business, and as a leader, creating such support forums during this quarantine time helps in maintaining not only the team cohesion but also sustain the emotional, and psychological balance of your team. As human beings we are all hyper-social creatures who long to belong, hence as a leader, your number one responsibility during such quarantine times is to create and promote psychological safety net among your team where members feel included, safe to contribute, and to challenge the status quo, without fear of being embarrassed, side-lined, or punished in any way. When you create and sustain such open discussion and support forums, you signal to each team member that their contribution to the entire organization during such times are appreciated.<\/p>\n

        Encourage members to loosen up and share jokes in your digital meetings such that they do not suffer from depression or other mental illnesses due to sudden change of work environment. Remember, leadership is about people, so make it crystal clear to your team members that your major concern during these uncertain times, is their well-being and not just about tasks and results.<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Be positive, COVID-19 will end <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          One of the core functions of a leader is to stir hope and optimism among the led. Remember, optimism is contagious and when leaders demonstrate hopefulness and confidence in the future, they are better able to influence their teams to find meaning and purpose in work, especially during stressful and uncertain times like we are currently in.<\/p>\n

          The reason why majority of your staff are working from home today is because of the global pandemic of COVID-19. This pandemic has caused a lot of anxiety amongst employees. They are either concerned that maybe they will be laid off because the business is not making money, that they may contract the disease or they have no idea when this will end. As a leader, you need to be in charge and ensure that you dialogue with the team regularly and give them hope. The pandemic will come to an end. This is not the first, though we hope it will be the last. Always know that fear freezes initiative, and ties up creativity but like we said in our previous article, there is always a silver lining in every difficulty. \u00a0Therefore, inspire your team to use the quarantine period as a stimulus for new ideas.<\/p>\n

          Related article: Five Behaviours to help C \u2013 Suit Leaders Manage Complexity and Uncertainties<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

          Inspire your team to come to terms with the fact that excuses in these times will become their seducers, and their doubts, their thieves. Lead your team to know that they don\u2019t need to let the pain of the current imperfect quarantine conditions hinder the glory of their fabulous future and that of the organization. This one too will eventually pass and we shall come out as winners.<\/p>\n

          At HCI, we\u2019ve dedicated all our articles during this coronavirus lockdown and social distancing period to C-Suit leaders, middle level managers and entrepreneurs. To get all of HCI\u2019s content delivered to your inbox, click here\u00a0and scroll down<\/a> to complete the subscription form.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          There is no doubt that COVID-19 virus has created uncertainties and rearranged the workplace world over. Governments and private organizations across every sector of the world economy have sent millions of employees away to either stay home or work remotely. Hence, leaders and mangers of large, medium and small-scale organizations, without any prior warning or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[28,47,160,161],"class_list":["post-3300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-strategic-leadership","tag-covid-19","tag-human-capital-international","tag-leading-and-managing-your-teams","tag-quarantine"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Four-tips-on-leading-and-managing-your-teams-during-quarantine.jpg",1140,400,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Four-tips-on-leading-and-managing-your-teams-during-quarantine.jpg",1140,400,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Four-tips-on-leading-and-managing-your-teams-during-quarantine.jpg",1140,400,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Four-tips-on-leading-and-managing-your-teams-during-quarantine-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Four-tips-on-leading-and-managing-your-teams-during-quarantine-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"large":["https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Four-tips-on-leading-and-managing-your-teams-during-quarantine-1024x400.jpg",1024,400,true],"lshowcase-thumb":["https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Four-tips-on-leading-and-managing-your-teams-during-quarantine.jpg",200,70,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Four-tips-on-leading-and-managing-your-teams-during-quarantine.jpg",1140,400,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Four-tips-on-leading-and-managing-your-teams-during-quarantine.jpg",1140,400,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Ojambo Joel","author_link":"https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/author\/joelhumancapital\/"},"rttpg_comment":5,"rttpg_category":"Strategic Leadership<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"There is no doubt that COVID-19 virus has created uncertainties and rearranged the workplace world over. Governments and private organizations across every sector of the world economy have sent millions of employees away to either stay home or work remotely. Hence, leaders and mangers of large, medium and small-scale organizations, without any prior warning or…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4243,"href":"https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3300\/revisions\/4243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humancapitalinternational.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}