Are your employees among the 95% of workers that favor some form of remote working?
Or do you manage the one-third of employees that work from home?
So you’re the Boss – what do you do?
Marina’s Masterclass – coming soon.
Learn more at www.businessworks.ie or call 01-653 2144
#returntowork #leadership #employeeengagement
According to a recent Forbes Insight, 85% of people say they build stronger, more meaningful business relationships during in-person meetings and conferences. It is your responsibility as the business leader/manager to create an atmosphere in which everyone can reach their full potential and, it is your responsibility to keep the team on track. It’s easier to deliver on Company Strategy when you have the key results clarified. Lead the success of your Company take to be an effective leader and achieve great results so you make it happen.
Step 001: Define the overall goal / key result of the business. It is critical that everyone on your team is aware of the bigger picture and overall aims of the business. This is especially true when looking at your employee’s involvement in achieving their goals. People who set objectives are 10 times more likely to succeed than those who don’t. As a result, setting a corporate objective with measurable metrics is the way to go and an excellent approach. Then, find a location/platform where you can share this information with each employee. With that in mind, you can then match your company’s aim with the individual goals of each team member. Writing down a goal enhances your chances of achieving it.
Step 002: Assign tasks based on the strengths of each team member. It is critical to play to your team members’ talents and strengths for them to be happy and productive. Employees are 61% more engaged if their supervisors focus on their talents, according to a Gallup poll. This means people feel better when they are doing things that they excel at, and they perform better as a result. Make sure you understand your team’s strengths before assigning responsibilities to achieve great results.
Step 003: Presenting and Delivering the Results. Harvard Business Review reports that 95% of people say face-to-face meetings are a key factor in successfully building and maintaining long-term business relationships (Forbes 2021). Business Leaders of Ireland, in the new world of work, it is vital that you ensure your team meets in person. If there is a platform for sharing ideas, teams have greater chemistry and produce better results. Managers should use an appropriate brainstorming method to develop ideas among their teams. This will engage employees while also giving them a place where they can share their ideas and listen to their colleagues’ ideas. There are many advantages of brainstorming and exchanging ideas such as simply gaining new ideas, solving issues, and improving your team’s overall performance. Additionally, brainstorming may be used as an “idea bank” where anybody can participate. As a result of this “idea bank,” for example, might lead to process, operations, and product innovation.
Step 004: Improve the Work Process Continually. Using a weekly check-in technique will enable your team’s work process, faults and difficulties to emerge. It is important to make ongoing changes in your process to obtain the best outcomes possible. It’s a good idea for a manager to check in on everyone on a frequent basis to see how they’re doing and if they need a little encouragement to get over a major obstacle. This may be done in the form of an online status update or by speaking with each team member separately.
Step 005: Motivate and encourage your team. People are emotional creatures and creating objectives and assigning tasks based on their strengths enhances the likelihood of success, yet this does not diminish the need to encourage them. The beginning and end of the process are the greatest moments to encourage and motivate your staff. People can become stuck, and it is recommended that they be reminded that they are moving in the right direction to complete their tasks. They should also be made aware that they have an important role in the result.
Step 006: Provide feedback and acknowledgement for accomplishments. Provide comments and acknowledgements to your team members. People are recognised to be more motivated by these two factors than by money. Providing regular feedback makes everyone more pleased and keeps them motivated.
To sum it up, creating and discussing objectives with your team is a great place to start if you want to ensure that you get results. Make sure that the appropriate work procedure has been implemented for your team and encourage everyone to improve. You can offer the essential tools as a leader, but the team is ultimately responsible for the results. Make sure you keep them motivated by providing feedback and encouraging them. Following these six steps should ensure a positive outcome.
For more information: Business Works Suite 103, 9 Pembroke Street Upper, Dublin 2
Tel: 01-653 2144 | Email hello@businessworks.ie
According to a new report from Ibec this week, ‘Employers are to place greater emphasis on workplace wellbeing as a result of the pandemic’, with 65% of organisations citing a dedicated team or individual responsible for wellbeing, versus 44% in 2020.
The IBEC Wellbeing Barometer report, which was revealed as part of its virtual Keepwell summit, says a survey of 242 HR professionals found there was a very high level of support for wellbeing at the senior leadership level in their organisations (81%) and that 44% of organisations have explicitly called out wellbeing in their overall business strategy in 2021, compared to 26% last year.
So while it’s a welcome move for employees, but what does it actually mean for a post-pandemic workforce?
Considering an additional statement, also released this week from Ibec, saying a four-day working week was ‘not realistic’, with the Government to seek proposals from the research community on the social, economic, and environmental implications of reduced working time, you have to consider,
“Is ‘an emphasis’ on wellbeing enough to give employees that ‘life/work’ balance, we all so clearly crave?”
Despite the unrivaled disruption of the 2020 pandemic, business leaders now have to try to return to some sense of ‘normal and begin to focus on growth and profitability, while also navigating the change in the landscape – with employees looking for a better way of living and working.
And why wouldn’t they?
One employee I spoke with has swapped his 6 am start and 2-hour commute for a morning walk to school with his children, and he’s still at his ‘desk’ for 9 am.
Another says ‘the focus on living to work is over, we should be working to live and despite the clear negatives of Covid 19, it did show us that balance is possible’
And, according to the Eagle Hill Consulting report, ‘The employee Tsunami is coming’ as workers are making post-pandemic plans which could soon result in a significant turnover.
Commenting on the report, Sharon Higgins, Ibec Director of Membership and Sectors, said: “In the new world of work that is emerging in the post-Covid landscape, attraction and retention of talent has never been so important. Mental and physical wellbeing initiatives will increasingly become a major factor in individuals’ decision on where they work.”
She added, “This is reflected in the fact that 74% of those surveyed expect an increased focus on management skills in managing employee mental health over the next 2 to 3 years”.
And therein lies the solution. While ‘Wellbeing’, ‘life work balance’ or a ‘4 day week’, might be attractive to staff post-pandemic, training and management skills will actually be the thing to keep your workforce robust into the future and will naturally benefit employees’ wellbeing
Very often there are communication challenges, most especially as the reality of the new hybrid remote working hits home, and learning how to give and receive “feedback” to improve communication and enhance teamwork will benefit both sides.
Increased communication, taking responsibility, and creating a positive culture all benefit employees well being. Employees must work, leaders must lead and business must profit, or the entire system fails.
While the well-being drive is all very well, the challenge for CEO’s and Boards is achieving targets and increasing business performance, while remaining agile and adaptable, and attractive to staff
Accountability gaps, communications gaps, and performance gaps .. even a skills gap in leadership, can impact a team in a negative way and no amount of incentivised yoga classes are going to fix that.
If a business is truly focused on employee wellbeing then it is crucial that the building blocks of positive accountability, communication, and clear and achievable expectations are set.
This will empower employees to be fully engaged and focused. Which will benefit their mental health and in tandem the business objectives, the team culture and in general build a better work environment.
This is not another thing to do in your business, it is a way to do it.
So we should absolutely applaud the changes in the approach to mental health and wellbeing in the workplace and we should be eager to invest our time and money into the initiatives that benefit our workforce.. but let’s just sense check that our intentions are pure and that the foundations are properly in place upon which to build a robust and happy workforce for the future.
For more information on how you can build a positive, accountable, and engaged team contact marina@businessworks.ie
We provided some tips on best in class Time Management tips and techniques for you to download and put into practice!
Michael Hickey is an expert in launching optimising Pharmaceutical brands through his vast experience in leadership, strategy, management, and execution.
He recently spoke with Ruairi Keran in an interview where they looked at different elements that were affecting the Pharmaceutical industry and what large organisations can do to combat these challenges.
See video and transcript below.
Remote work has become the new norm as COVID-19 forces companies across sectors to temporarily close their doors. For many individuals, that means redefining the line between work life and home life when the two suddenly seem to have merged.
Frontline employees and leaders alike are now educating children while answering emails, setting up “offices” at dining room tables, and relying on laptops over professional desktop devices. This sudden shift has left many leaders asking, “How do I manage my teams from afar?” For those of us used to hosting impromptu brainstorming sessions, quick cubicle conversations, and other face-to-face interactions on a daily basis, it’s normal to find managing a remote team to be uncomfortable, daunting, and even ineffective — but it doesn’t have to be.
Leaders shift and shape cultural beliefs during times of calm and moments of crisis. But how do they show up differently as leaders to drive desired cultural beliefs when “showing up” looks completely different?
Here are three straightforward, effective steps for managing company culture from afar:
Visibility and clear, consistent communication are vital when managing a remote workforce. Replace phone calls with video chats, send company-wide communications daily rather than weekly, and make the “why” behind desired cultural beliefs more apparent than ever before.
Amidst the current climate, these cultural beliefs have become more vital than ever before. Some organisations are well into the flow of hosting weekly fireside chats discussing the status of the company’s operational updates as well as catching up on what’s going on each others lives.
Employees ideally are encouraged to ask questions, share ideas, and simply just connect. These highly transparent conversations foster a greater sense of community among the remote team while underscoring the need for out-of-box thinking and innovation at this time.
Before diving into your virtual team meetings, ask yourself, “What belief do I need my team to hold by the time they leave this discussion?” When working remotely, your “face-to-face” time with employees is limited, meaning it’s important to be intentional about the time you have together digitally.
Effective leaders step into a meeting and own the results they hope to achieve. They say, “Let’s maintain our 95% customer satisfaction rating during this disruption.” Or, “Let’s improve warehouse staff safety efforts by 10% amidst this health crisis.” Then they outline how these goals can be accomplished, leveraging the virtual tools at their disposal to visually and impactfully depict the elements within their team’s control.
For example, we’re seeing leaders across sectors using digital whiteboards and interactive presentations to engage their teams and boldly communicate their goals. This guidance, particularly during times of chaos, provides employees with a clear picture of the company’s current objectives and sets the tone for future engagements and initiatives.
Every virtual meeting is an opportunity to create new experiences — whether through storytelling, feedback, recognition, etc. — and intentionally cultivate your company culture. There’s no question about it — the shift from the city office to the home office is challenging.
Many of us have had little time to prepare and, like our employees, we’re redefining new routines and best practices. But remote work doesn’t have to mean your company culture suffers. Through bold, consistent communications, clearly defined organizational objectives, and the intentional cultivation of experiences, we can create healthy, meaningful company cultures from any location and for any period of time.
Marina Bleahen, is a leadership, culture and engagement expert who with her team at Business Works Consulting deliver virtual Culture and Accountability training programmes.
Representing Door International Training and Consulting in Ireland, with exclusive rights to offer Partners in Leadership programmes. Partners In Leadership work with half of the Fortune Top 50 companies and have just been nominated as a TOP TRAINING 20 Company 2020, Training Industry is the most trusted source of information on the business of learning, the Top Leadership Training List is based on thorough analysis of the capabilities, experience and expertise of leadership training providers.
