Nesha Pai of Pai CPA: Five Things You Need To Know To Successfully Manage a Remote Team

… Don’t assume everyone is ok. It is probably even more important to do frequent check-ins on zoom and find out about their home life. Do they have young kids to take care of? Ask the questions about how their home lives have potentially changed and how you can help. Also, make sure everyone has a quiet place to work with proper equipment. Many people do not have workstations or equipment at home because they had it at the office and had no need. It is important to give grace and be flexible in this circumstance.

As a part of our series about the five things you need to successfully manage a remote team, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nesha Pai.

Nesha Pai is the founder of Pai CPA, PLLC in Charlotte, NC. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from NC State University and has held her CPA license since 1996, after passing her first attempt at the exam as a senior. She began her career and cultivated her passion for helping businesses within the world-renowned accounting firm Arthur Andersen, and later within multiple, privately held Fortune 500 companies as a business consultant, relationship facilitator, and accounting analyst. She realized she had a strong pull towards the small business and entrepreneurial sector.

Since starting her own firm in 2011, Nesha has continued nourishing her vision by launching a podcast series, ‘Piece of the Pai,’ that focuses on successful entrepreneurs sharing their business insight. In January 2020, Nesha published her first book “Overcoming Ordinary Obstacles”, which won the award in the Multicultural Non-Fiction category by the American Book Fest. She has been a Charlotte resident since 1993, and was named as one of the Top 50 Most Influential Women of 2020 in the Mecklenburg Times.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. What is your “backstory”?

Spending my entire accounting career in a male-dominated industry in the south really did not afford for me to have great mentorship or anyone championing me. I noticed that my personal consumer preferences coincided with my professional preferences and I became passionate about supporting the small business sector. In 2011, as a single mom, I pulled a “Jerry Maguire” (referencing the Tom Cruise movie) and walked out with one big client to start my own firm, Pai CPA. I was under the leadership of a mediocre boss who didn’t want to give me a raise (after having been there for 5 years) because of the mom-gap in my resume. I had decided to stay at home to raise my son for 6 years prior to re-joining the workforce and he used that as a reason I did not deserve a raise, because “I was not where my peers were”. I decided that I would start a remote-based accounting business and hire stay at home moms, the largest untapped labor force.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

I picked up a well-established country rock band from Austin, TX (Reckless Kelly) because the drummer is from the Charlotte area and his business manager found me on LinkedIn when they were looking to leave their accounting firm out in Los Angeles.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I don’t think I ever had a funny mistake but I know that my biggest mistake was undervaluing my abilities and pricing. As time went on, I realized my intelligence actually surpassed accountants/partners in big firms. I found very large errors on their part, when clients left them and came to me.

What advice would you give to other business leaders to help their employees to thrive and avoid burnout?

Leaders need to make sure that their staff are taken care of by not only paying them well, but making sure they take time for self-care and care of their households. Even though there is no real work-life balance, as life is one continuous stream, it is important to take care of our mental health and make sure our staff is as well.

Ok, let’s jump to the core of our interview. Some companies have many years of experience with managing a remote team. Others have just started this, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Can you tell us how many years of experience you have managing remote teams? 11 years.

I started this when I walked out of the last firm I worked for. Interestingly enough, I was not taken seriously by colleagues and also asked “how I was making money” doing what I was doing.

Managing a team remotely can be very different than managing a team that is in front of you. Can you articulate for our readers what the five main challenges are regarding managing a remote team? Can you give a story or example for each?

1. Team Motivation — Team members may lose motivation in working in a non-structured work environment, especially with distractions at home.
2. Team Bonding — Team members feel disconnected from the team because they are not able to be down the hallway or converse in a break room or go to lunch together. They may feel isolated.
3. Secure Workspace — It is harder to make sure that everyone has a safe WiFi environment and that sensitive data is secure when it is on their remote workstations.
4. Daily Support/Feedback — It is hard to see how someone is progressing on their job/project until they actually finish it and they do not have someone down the hall they can go to and get feedback from.
5. Proper Equipment — Not everyone will have the same equipment as you so it is imperative to make sure that whomever you hire actually has what you need to get the job done

Based on your experience, what can one do to address or redress each of those challenges?

Make sure you know up front, during the interview process, or even after hiring, that your staff is using proper equipment and software to protect sensitive data. Also create a policy around how to conduct business on their personal workstations (what is acceptable and what is not when working).

Weekly Zoom meetings to check in and ‘see’ each other is crucial. We go around the room and ask the staff to share a ‘win’ personally or professionally from the last week and keep it positive. We also talk about any challenges anyone is having so that they feel supported in the group. Make sure there is someone on your leadership team that can handle team issues as they arise and that the team knows there is an ‘open phone’ policy to pick up the phone and call.

We also have a workflow software that we use during working hours and it allows us to communicate internally so we are able to connect on projects and talk back and forth on specific clients or issues that arise.

It is big to have in person events. We have quarterly team outings where we all get together for some fun, whether it be a sporting event, nice dinner, or day on the farm or at a spa.

In my experience, one of the trickiest parts of managing a remote team is giving honest feedback, in a way that doesn’t come across as too harsh. If someone is in front of you much of the nuance can be picked up in facial expressions and body language. But not when someone is remote. Can you give a few suggestions about how to best give constructive criticism to a remote employee?

If you can talk to them on the phone (easier for domestic remote employees), that is ideal but if they are international, email may be your only option. I always start with what they are doing well and then go into what I see as an issue for improvement or address something they are not understanding. Always start with a positive to build up their confidence; it will be much easier for them to take anything that they are not doing correctly and they won’t be on the defense.

Can you specifically address how to give constructive feedback over email? How do you prevent the email from sounding too critical or harsh?

I always start with something kind or positive and then ask them questions about what I feel is needing feedback. For example, I will ask them if they got all of the information they needed from the client or did they understand the assignment. This allows for a more open and honest discussion.

Can you share any suggestions for teams who are used to working together on location but are forced to work remotely due to the pandemic. Are there potential obstacles one should avoid with a team that is just getting used to working remotely?

Don’t assume everyone is ok. It is probably even more important to do frequent check-ins on zoom and find out about their home life. Do they have young kids to take care of? Ask the questions about how their home lives have potentially changed and how you can help. Also, make sure everyone has a quiet place to work with proper equipment. Many people do not have workstations or equipment at home because they had it at the office and had no need. It is important to give grace and be flexible in this circumstance.

What do you suggest can be done to create a healthy and empowering work culture with a team that is remote and not physically together?

Weekly Zooms, starting with positive discussion is the biggest. Also sending intermittent incentives like gift cards or flowers can go a long way.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I already have something in motion! I wrote a book, “Overcoming Ordinary Obstacles”, and my mission with it is to help people step into the greatest versions of themselves and walking in their specific life purpose. It is about my own journey as a first-gen Indian woman born and raised in the American deep south.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“The most common way people give up their poser is by thinking they don’t have any” ~ Alice Walker

Up until I walked out of my last firm in 2011, I gave my power away to bosses who did not care about me or my career. I allowed them to define who I was and what my capabilities were. It took me 40 years to realize that no human can define me or what I can do in my life. That was something only God does (or whatever you believe as your higher power).

Thank you for these great insights!