The human guide to WFH: 6 lessons for leading remote teams
At this stage, most tech companies have successfully transitioned to remote work. And most people’s newsfeeds on LinkedIn during the last six months were flooded with work from home guides and tips. But many of these guides forgot to focus on the most important aspect of working from home: the human factor.
On our latest Startup Central — NY, Liis Saar, Director of CX Tools & Systems at FabFitFun, Max Yoder, CEO and co-founder of Lessonly, and Lindsey Kugel, Director of Partnerships at Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI) discusses what it takes to be a good team leader, the reality of remote work, and why keeping it real is so important. Here’s what we learned.
The importance of watercooler moments
It’s time to unlearn the idea that taking extra time to schedule catch ups with coworkers is a waste of time. Mixing work time with personal time may look like a burden, but in reality, it greases the wheels needed to get things done as a team. When someone is having a human moment people support them. When a level of trust is established, the hesitation to reach out to a team member for help is reduced.
“Building personal relationships feeds into the sense of comradery. It’s easier for someone to pick up the slack if needed or work together and be more productive as a team,” says Kugel.
Water cooler catch-ups are important, a normal day at the office includes casual interaction and side conversations that break up the day. This kind of friendly banter not only builds relationships, it gives people a sense of what’s going on in the company and what everyone else is working on.
Stop putting perfectionism on a pedestal
Human beings are vulnerable. We crave comradery, interaction, and appreciation to keep us motivated and moving forward. At the end of the day, we’re not perfect. We make mistakes as we learn and that is what makes us whole and who we are as individuals.
“Perfectionism is a plague of modern culture. Perfection forces us to hide the parts of ourselves that don’t map to a perfect thing. It forces us to reject that we’re human,” says Yoder.
“The alternative to perfectionism is wholeness,” says Yoder. Being able to acknowledge that people have qualities that are average, below average, and above. Self-awareness supports the wholeness of the organization. Being vulnerable makes a person relatable. The times when leaders are vulnerable are the times when they get the most support.
“Effectively, wholeness is saying I am a human, therefore I will do human things. I will forget things. I will interrupt, and I can apologize when I do it. I will be a full person and I’m not ashamed of it. Especially now,” says Yoder.
Give your people props
Appreciation rounds and positive feedback all lead to an increase in morale. People like being acknowledged for the good work they’re doing. A pat on the back (even if it’s a virtual one) goes a long way.
“It’s a way of getting all the feel-goods, and finding out the things that are going on because someone is being appreciated for what they’re doing, a project that they’re on,” says Kugel.
Ask questions, share feedback. Rinse. Repeat.
There’s never been a better time to overshare. Sharing before you’re ready is encouraged and helps clarify doubts around a task. Beware the curse of knowledge. “If I know something, I assume you know it too, which means I’ll under explain and leave out important details when I talk. If we know that it’s human bias, then it’s our responsibility, not just a nice to have,” says Yoder.
The feedback loop is crucial to understanding. It makes people feel empowered and useful and teaches us that there is more than one way to get something done.
Good leaders learn
Collaboration leads to learning and makes team members feel like they are part of the solution. Effective leaders know that simply reading something doesn’t change behavior. In order to really learn, we have to take what we’ve read and apply it, which is done through practice.
“We should remember that leaders learn the answer, and there is a difference between learning the answer and knowing the answer. Leaders learn the answer by balancing some level of certainty and uncertainty. We’re certain we can get something done, we just don’t know how yet, ” says Yoder.
Make time for life
One of the biggest challenges of working remotely is managing a healthy work-life balance. We no longer have a commute to break up the start and end of the workday and being constantly connected can cause boundaries to blur.
“A lot of people are pouring themselves into work so we had to be clear and persistent around the message that ‘you have to take time off’ just like you would take time off in normal times. There’s nowhere to go but that doesn’t mean that we can’t be unplugging,” says Yoder.
The shift to digital has accelerated more in the last ten months than it has in the last ten years. These shifts have forced us to adapt the way we communicate, especially as managers and leaders. But a packed Zoom meeting doesn’t have the same energy as a packed office and we’re beginning to understand the importance of communicating often and effectively. And remembering to remain human should be at the core.
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