Remote Leadership

By Bilal Hamadeh & Dr. Susan Murray

The rapid onset of the coronavirus (Covid-19), is changing the way we live and the way we work.

The 2020 Covid-19 pandemic is expected to fundamentally change the way many organizations operate for the foreseeable future—and perhaps well beyond that. As governments and businesses, globally, practice social distancing, remote work becomes the new reality, to ensure the safety of employees and customers. While some businesses have ceased operations, whether due to authoritative directive, voluntarily closing, or functioning with a smaller workforce and limited hours, others have implemented work-from-home arrangements.

Not only is Covid-19 disrupting our daily lives, but it is also impacting how we manage our businesses. Traditional or typical behaviours, habits and practices have changed almost overnight, as leaders grapple with ensuring effective and efficient business continuity through remote offices or working from home. Like government leaders, business leaders have had to quickly adapt to managing the day-to-day activities of their organizations, remotely. Given this, effective management practices are now more critical than ever.

While health and social systems demand first priority, the survival and sustainability of businesses is equally paramount. With both short and longer-term impacts in mind, how do leaders continue to ensure the efficiency and productivity of employees? How does a leader ensure that delivering better-than-expected results, is not compromised?

Research shows us that in times of struggle and crises, human nature can steer us in two directions: 1) fear and helplessness, or 2) self-actualization and engagement (Gallup, 2020). If leaders provide a clear direction for a strong way forward, there is a known “rally effect” that translates to the resiliency of employees and, thus, better-than-expected results (Gallup, 2020).

This is a disconcerting time for employees. The physical team has disappeared, and they are now solo. It is this focus on the individual that is critical for managers. Each individual needs clarity surrounding their role and expectations, and the supports necessary so they can leverage their strengths while in a new-working-model situation. For individuals, it is vital for managers to clearly define how they fit into the bigger mission and purpose of the organization.

The relationship between the manager and the employee is even more critical, now. It is essential to know each employee’s individual needs and strengths, identify how their work contributes to business performance, how expectations are defined, and what accountability measures are in place.  This individualized consideration, coupled with high expectations, is central to better-than-expected results.

What does this look like?  What key managerial actions are central to creating excellence in remote performance?

Clearly define expectations and tasks

Maintaining a focus on organizational goals is fundamental. Each manager should create an organizational structure that can deliver the expected result, and clearly define the responsibility and the task for each individual, with a common purpose at the core.

With remote management, a manager’s skills in setting a clear task will help reduce any conflict and make it easy to align people and link the goals to what they do.

Individual KPIs

Individuals at home may get easily diverted in this new-working-model setting. The rules of engagement have changed. Managers have less control over work environments, and visibility is lacking. Thus, it is essential to create accountability measures. For each phase, set clear expectations and define Key Performance Indicators that are specific for each task and employee, recognizing their skills and competencies.

Communication

Constant, effective communication from leaders is fundamental to success. Coupled with messages of care and compassion, managers can use their remote platform to deliver and transfer information. Effective communication is a critical link between planning and successful execution.

Communication is challenging in person—and even more so, remotely. Leaders need to use simple words, a clear trustworthy tone and speak with confidence and empathy. Even more so virtually, a leader needs to connect with people. Likewise, the power of effective listening and responding is respected.  As a manager, ensure you allow employees to share their thoughts and ask questions. Provide time to make sure key messages are understood prior to the end of a meeting. In the absence of physical presence, the online medium of engagement, such as video-conferencing, allows the leader to emotionally connect with employees, provide an opportunity to share key messages, and align work toward a common purpose.

Discipline in Execution

This “new normal” for work demands a new level of execution. Discipline is required to create new daily routines and practices to deliver results. This requires a reset on the daily routines of the workplace, to adapt them to remote work, based on business priority.

For managers, part of this routine will include the virtual monitoring and assessment of the implementation, using KPIs. This frequent monitoring and gap analysis will quickly identify the need for corrective actions and changes if required. As well, it allows the manager and employee to identify and celebrate individual successes related to the goals.

As we navigate this time of global crisis, as leaders, we seek to ensure the overall well-being of our employees, our organization, our society, and ourselves. The complexities of blending work and life at home are creating new stresses. By taking care of, and supporting, individual employees through clear structures, expectations, communications, and routines, leaders create organizational stability and an opportunity to achieve better-than-expected results. It is in times such as these, that leadership is needed and valued most.

The Invisible Assault on Humanity

These are challenging times for all of us. The world is under attack by the Coronavirus Covid-19. I’m not going to sugar-coat it, it’s serious. It’s long-lasting. And it’s going to get worse before it gets better. And the financial woes we will all experience and endure will be monumental. But we’ve done this before with world wars, with the Bubonic Plague spread by fleas, killing 100+ million in Eurasia and Europe, during the 14th century, SARS, spread via respiratory droplets, killing 774, Swine Flu with 18,000+ deaths, and many others. But humanity has always prevailed.

As long as there are new cases of Covid-19 springing up daily, people will remain on the highest alert—to the point where they start to cocoon. Cocooning has been a typical practice by many when global outbreaks or terror-related incidents occur. Safety quickly becomes a top priority—for themselves and their loved ones.

In such a case, like the one we’re all living through now, establishments like restaurants and bars, hotels, air travel, gyms, sporting events, malls, among many more, take the brunt of it—some, to the point where they will no longer be able to weather the storm and will fold.

While most sectors are experiencing challenging times, the grocery sector, as razor-low as its margins are, see a surge in business because food is a necessity. And we’re seeing this now. So stockpiling occurs, based on fear and uncertainty, creating pandemonium. Others also experiencing sales spikes, as a result of government-ordered rules on retail, event and workplace closures, are e-commerce sites like Amazon and Walmart, home entertainment and streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, as well as eat-in services like UberEats and Skip the Dishes. If lockdowns with widespread fear and uncertainty continue for lengthy periods, home improvement companies like Home Depot and Lowe’s will also see a spike in sales because “cocooners” will up-build their nests with increased self-efficiencies, to stay safe, and avoid going out, altogether.

Covid-19 is still in its incline, and it is affecting us all. Consumers aren’t taking any chances; they’re planning on staying put—anywhere from three months up to, yes, 3 years, depending on the cohort and where they’re from. But generally, that’s the sentiment. In this particular case, younger cohorts such as Gen Z and Gen Y, are less impacted, for some unknown medical reason, and therefore, do not feel symptoms like their older counterparts, especially the elderly, 70-plus, who are at highest risk of contracting the virus, and often, sadly, lose the battle. This is where we see the statistics on TV; it’s mostly the elderly. Education, and heeding government and healthcare professionals’ orders and recommendations are absolute key during this time. Not doing so has—not can—dire consequences.

Italy, so far the worst affected outside of China has a death toll in the thousands. One reason is because many younger cohorts have their grandparents living with them. As earlier mentioned, youngsters do not typically feel sick, so they go about their daily life as they normally do. BUT, unbeknownst to them, they are infected with the virus, and consequently, are infecting their elders, and more often than not, death is the result.

As well, Italy’s death rate at the time of writing, tallying 2,978, is also based on those with underlying health issues like diabetes, hypertension and cancer. Based on my sources and readings, it appears northern Italy’s delay to impose complete lockdown measures and containment, earlier, across its own epicentre, Lombardy, may be significantly contributing to their high death rate. Consequently, this has overwhelmed their healthcare system. As a result, Italy is now on track to surpass China in terms of fatalities. Italy has a small fraction of China’s population, whose death rate, so far, tallies approximately 3,000. Relatively speaking, this puts Italy a country mile ahead of China in terms of deaths. This is how serious the situation is, folks, and how seriously it must be taken.

Further, Italians—as all humans are by nature—are very social people. As such, some are still gathering with friends in piazzas, and unknowingly, spreading their infection, further exacerbating the situation. This, when the masses are trying so hard to avoid spreading it; and where the government is spending billions to help mitigate its effects, and ultimately eradicate the virus. Florida is experiencing the same thing for mostly the same reasons. Twenty-five percent of their population, like in Italy, who has the second-lowest birth rate in the world after Japan, is over the age of 65. Their beaches, right now, during March break, are filled, again, with younger kids. Such sites need to be closed off to ensure total containment. Any leaks in the system could have dire consequences in Florida—and well beyond, further spreading the virus.

To combat Covid-19’s effects, today and in the foreseeable future, governments are planning stimulus packages; private companies are discounting their services; those who can, are continuing to pay their staff, banks and governments are reducing interest rates, temporarily covering customers’ mortgage payments for six months; mobile service providers are removing data-overage ceilings, as well as offering free data, and the list goes on. And it needs to. Because we are all in this together: every person from every corner of the planet. So it behooves us to stick together—even if it means virtually, for now—to help overcome this invisible assault on humanity and come out whole on the other side.

Are—or were—businesses prepared for this, like a country would be, after dealing with similar-type situations like SARS and the Swine Flu, for example? Toronto, Canada, experienced the highest amount of deaths during SARS, including front-line workers falling victim to the respiratory-plaguing virus. But we learned a lot, since. And we have prepared ourselves for such events, to help us better and more successfully navigate them. If companies did not have the necessary contingency plans in place to prepare for this, they should have; it’s happening more often. Needless to say, lessons learned. So starting now, going forward—in perpetuity—they all need to. Because it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when it will happen again.

Frontline workers in medicine, transit, policing, retail, emergency, and many more, are working day and night—all fully committed to helping mitigate and hopefully halt this virus, while in so doing, risking their own lives and families. Respecting them and what they all do—for the greater good—the least the rest of us can do is respect what we are asked to do.

Everyone needs to heed the rules, keep abreast, understand the gravity—and the very high price of ignorance. Let’s stick together. Let’s do this together.

Stay safe. Live on.

Can leaders always deliver?

Status quo is not—or should not—be an option for any organization. Organizations need people to deliver better-than-expected results, with a focus on continuous growth, over time. The demands of competition and expectations create constraints and pressures. Often, it is the subtle relationship between pressure and performance, that impacts results. The right amount of pressure can create performance needed for better-than-expected results. In contrast, performance can suffer if there is too little or too much pressure. Leaders need to seek this fine balance of pressure and support, to impact results.

What do results tell us? I suggest that the success of an employee is determined by their ability to achieve results. The diagram below shows how results may, or could, be measured.

These results are directly linked to the actions of employees, which we call performance. Performance may be defined as the way (or the how) a person does the work or activity (task), against an agreed set of measurable objectives defined in the organizational strategy. Performance links to the effectiveness and motivation of the person, and speaks to their skill level, abilities and competencies, and their stresses and level of engagement, and includes the work environment or situation. Since performance drives results, it is essential for leaders to clearly identify the link between performance and results. Likewise, it is critical to identify the challenges and gaps in performance so as to undertake the correct action to support employees, and improve performance, overall.

Since performance drives our results, the question, then, is, what are these factors which can improve our performance, to deliver the better-than- expected results?

To improve Performance, we need to answer these two questions:

  1. What do we want to do? (performance structure)
  2. How do we want to do it? (performance culture)

What is a Performance Structure?

Structure is a framework of identifiable elements which physically or functionally connect to each other and gives form and stability.

The three elements of Performance Structure are:

  1. Planning addresses how to close the gap between where we are and where we need to be by formulating a strategy for achievement. Strategy is a method or series of actions designed to achieve the goal of closing such gap.
  2. Alignment speaks to the leader’s ability to engage people to do the work, and the tool to link planning to execution.
  3. Execution is the ‘course of actions’ that are required to be taken to produce results.

What is a Performance Culture?

Culture is a common understanding of selected values or ethics, which are reflected by an expected behaviour for a group of people whether they are part of formal structure or not.  While formal processes and structures support this, central to the creation of a performance culture, is the leader.

Within a performance culture, a leader focuses on:

  1. Strong people: Those who have the intention, the ability and skills to put their heart, mind and body in action to execute the plan.
  2. Working together: Building the credibility to bring people with them, and align them to execute the plan.
  3. Understand the customer: In addition to dealing with complex issues, the people in a performance culture engage with the customer to understand their expectations and challenges in order to deliver successful results and minimize the disappointments and frustrations.

A focus on results and performance is essential to organizational growth. It is imperative for a leader to clearly identify the gaps in performance that impact results, and provide both a structure and culture to address the gaps, so as to achieve better-than-expected results. Within today’s highly competitive business environment, status quo shouldn’t be an option. The pressures of performance must be coupled with leadership that influences and supports the people in the organization—to achieve success.