Our business deal with the importation of technological product for the telecommunication industry. Therefore, it should not be a problem for us to work remotely during this restriction order time in Malaysia. But how about other businesses?
Are you ok? Keep calm and Carry on! We create these guides as advised by Harvard Business School Professor, Tsedar Neelay. He had spent two decades helping companies learn how to manage dispersed teams.
1 Get the infrastructure right
Make sure you have the necessary hardware and software to carry on your usual job purposes. If you not, discuss the problem with your company. They should have a proper solution or proper arrangement to make sure a safe distance is practised among their employees. At home, arrange your workstation at the most convenient place.
2 Be ready psychologically
Take a shower, take your morning coffee and dress up as fabulous as usual. Do the same norm as you are normally doing at work, except your workstation is now next to your bed. This way, your brain is not too surprised by the isolation.
3 Virtual meeting at least once a week
Decide what portal or apps to use to meet and greet all your team members. Decide the frequency, daily, weekly etc Make sure all your team members can use the portal or apps and especially make sure they can join the meeting.
4 Keep the conversation with your team members
The purpose is to keep the motivation and sense of belonging of your team, at high. Besides, you can see if your team member is OK or just pretending to be one.
5 Trust your employees
The only way to trust someone is to trust them! Trust that your team can use their time wisely and accomplished tasks assigned to them. Break the task into batches for easy checking. Ask your team to prepare the daily task and you can check it before the day’s end.
6 The leader must be more visible
As working remotely is getting to be a norm, organizations must accept the changes that this trend will bring, including the negative side such as demotivation. That’s why a leader must be more visible now either via video or voice message, to encourage, check on staff, explain and give them hope or confidence that things are still good.