From a recent survey of leaders about their concerns during this pandemic, I asked” What is top of your list for the next 30 days?’ and the top response, following on from ‘managing THEIR own anxiety’ was…keeping my team engaged.
This is a real concern because for most of us we have gone from having many face-to-face touch points with our team to considerably less. Perhaps you can see how many distractions there are for you working at home. Personality plays a role here. Introverts may be enjoying the isolation, while extroverts struggling. Perhaps there is doubt because you cannot ‘see’ your team working when before you could. Perhaps it’s something else…
When we experience change like we and we hold positions of responsibility to ensure our team are productive and engaged, what holds us is doubt and fear.
Try this….
Schedule a “tap tap” meeting every morning for no more than 15 minutes. A tap tap meeting is where you just tap on issues but don’t do deep dives. Deep dives should be taken “offline” or in our current situation online but in a separate discussion. Preferably over Zoom, Skype, Hangouts, whatever you are using so you can see your people. The tap tap meeting is an opportunity to quickly touch base on what people are working on for the day and any known obstacles to getting this work done. You may not even need 15 minutes. The best tap taps I have been in and seen last about only 5 minutes!
This brings everyone together, you get to see them, people feel heard, and the more people raise obstacles, the more willing others will be. You may need some of the extroverts to get this going. And if you are a team of introverts, I suggest forwarding a couple of dot points in advance that everyone can briefly talk to and feel prepared.
And let your people know that you don’t care if their office background isn’t polished, or professional – this is just to connect briefly.
This will foster your team engagement and not tie you up, or your team, with unnecessary or prolonged meetings.
Set aside two minutes to plan your ‘tap tap’ meeting now. Write some dot points on a piece of paper and get started on this today.
The next article coming up is to help you and your team with focus. Particularly challenging for some people while working from home.
Margie Ireland does deep, transformative work with CEO’s, executives, HR professionals, managers and leaders. Margie is a psychologist with a strong commercial background of 25 years and specialises in supporting highly capable leaders to thrive in challenging times. To discuss your needs and to book an initial no-obligation 15 minute call, click here.
