Leading remotely - Structure Connection, fostering accountability virtually

We are working, living our lives and adapting. I am coaching - myself and our wonderful coaching team are continuing to run remote leadership development workshops. My clients (Leaders of companies and teams) are working and adjusting to the current isolation. Parents are figuring out how to educate, entertain and incorporate their kids into their daily virtual lives. I have seen everyone go through varying stages of fear, calm, questioning, sadness - all of the feels and I am humbled to be there for them. 

In these times people are grasping for things they can control and ways to stay connected. As a leader you want to stay grounded and really be listening with empathy for how they are before jumping into action or offering. Find your ways to do that for yourself so that you can truly be there for people. For myself I am doing a daily resilience and replenishing practice which for me looks like walking the dog, meditation, virtual yoga, working (I love my work), farming (I love where we live) and writing. For some of the leaders I work with that looks like a daily workout, cooking, dusting off their hobby list and working. What does yours look like? And, my hope is to continue to share practical approaches to help you lead remotely with ease and impact.

Every leader we are interacting with is saying that people are looking for the one thing they can do to help, focus on, that ensures they are doing the ‘best right thing’. So, offering the right structures, rituals, etc that will keep people focused on the most important initiatives, deepen social connection in their teams, foster balance in work and life while enabling the positivity of forward momentum. That may seem like a tall order, especially when you yourself may not feel balanced or positive and not sure how to do all that through this screen on your computer  ;) Here are a simple set of 5 steps you can do right now to get this impact.

1. Define the Expectation(s) and Result(s) you want people to be focused on

What is the #1 or 2 priorities, projects or goals your team should be focused on right now? Let’s not lose sight of the long term strategic goals your company is working towards. Break that down into the smaller bits and prioritize them (more on that to come in another piece). This will help people keep the future in mind in the midst of the more chaotic now. My favourite approach to getting clear on expectations comes from Brene Brown’s Dare to Lead - how can you paint what done looks like? This could be you writing it out and sharing, collaborating with your team or direct report(s) to rough out and straw model the project, final report, document etc you’re working on. It’s an opportunity for collaboration, creativity and deepening your relationship. Instead of you simply saying we need this metric increased by x% you can find out what’s motivating to that person about it or to you or to the team or company. What are the impacts on the customer or stakeholders if this is successful. Where are the boundaries for creativity eg we have a limited budget, timeframe, resources or we’re expecting a sustainable return, etc. So many factors go beyond just the metric or thing that’s done. This is a great opportunity to share and learn together. 

2. Deepen Connection - Involve the Team

First and foremost - in this time especially - demonstrating grounded authentic empathy as a leader is most important. How is everyone? What do they need? What are they finding easy or hard? Check in *before* you move the doing, solving or agenda. It may be they’re good and  want to dive in, it may be they want to share - and that may change day to day. Then - relative to the priority - find out what they are willing to do relative to that outcome. What do they hear? What do they want to do? What motivates them about it. This is where the deepening of social connection and commitment comes in. Check your assumptions - you may be motivated by the metric, they may be motivated by the creativity involved. What’s the learning or growth opportunity that is available to them? And, the most crucial part of this puzzle is to find out what are *they willing to commit to do*. If you find yourself back in the…’ok, i’ll do x, y’ then you’ve missed the mark. It’s about shared context (step 1) and what they want to do about it. 

3. Structures - Integrate & Implement

This is where we want to find out how we will know we’re on the right track or we accomplished the task at hand? How will we celebrate progress and learn from mis-steps or hypotheses that didn’t work out as intended. How frequently do we want to check in? In the now completely virtual world - you want to figure this out together and leverage the tools available at your company or bring some in. For example, some leaders are doing a twice daily team video call that’s optional to first check in on how everyone is doing and also celebrate progress or discuss obstacles. Other leaders are using Jira boards, shared spreadsheets, company dashboards, etc to track progress. What formal structures can you leverage to track progress on the way and deepen connection among members of your team; you will want to assess together the existing assets you both have to integrate progress against the outcome so that it doesn’t become an extra task to report but rather something that’s easy to do.  What will they do to get help? Is this an opportunity to elevate their game, learn something new - can we make this an explicit part of their development and growth. What can you do to support - have you discussed where the bounds of ‘micro-management’ vs support are. Maybe this task is something they’ve never done before and so they’d like more help than usual, or maybe they are the type of person who doesn’t feel comfortable asking for help so you checking in might be a way of quietly supporting without getting in the way. Figure it out together. 

4. Structure - Measures

What exactly will tell you that you’ve accomplished the goal. Is this a KPI you can identify? Or something that can be converted into a SMART set of micro-goals. Essentially you want to answer, how will we know we are tracking in the right direction, it was done and successful and by when? 

The critical practice here is bit-size leading and lagging indicators of success that you both collaborate on defining. And created a shared space or tool (spreadsheet, jira board, etc) to celebrate progress and learn along the way. 

5. Deepen connection - Repeat. Reward. Release

In the current context of remote work and self-isolation going on around the globe people need even greater human connection. Checking in on projects in fun and rewarding ways are wonderful opportunities to deepen that connection. Champion the progress you’re seeing with virtual high fives, love bubbles that float across your shared screen, and where it’s lacking with an effective balance of empathy and directness,  find out what’s getting in the way? What do they need? What do you need?

Leverage the tools available to you (even the simplest that of virtual team check ins) create a repeating cadence around them, celebrate progress and champion learning and then let go of any worry and fear it won’t get done. 

I hope this was a helpful approach to lead remotely and create engaging productive :D