The New Normal is Remote
Canadian Payroll Services CEO, Afifa Siddiqui, teamed up with Michelle McGlade of the podcast She’s Talking Back, to share lessons on how to manage a newly remote team.
Like many essential business leaders, Afifa responded to the Covid-19 crisis by transitioning her team from partly to fully remote. We were able to lean on our remote work business continuity plan to move quickly and decisively, but the change wasn’t without stress. Our experience delivering services for remote workers and our own remote flex work policy, though, gave us confidence that some organizations haven’t yet discovered.
Crises put tremendous strain on your team members, but they also bring opportunities to rethink your business. A move to remote work can change the way you approach your operations, revealing efficiencies and new best practices, and underlining the importance of good communication, and developing strong relationships within your teams. As you navigate the crisis with your own business, consider it an opportunity to improve your IT security and HR policies, and to expand your organization’s place in the community.
On this week’s episode of She’s Talking Back, Afifa shared some of the lessons she’s learned about how to manage both established and newly remote teams, and what she’s learned from the unfolding Covid-19 crisis. She emphasizes the importance of setting up the right tools and best practices to ensure efficient and effective team communication. But she also says you can’t be all business all the time – create space for your newly remote team to enjoy the water cooler conversations they’re used to having.
Most importantly, though, she says that in such a fast moving crisis, leaders must be able to take things a day at a time and let their team members do the same. Don’t lose track of the big picture, but be ready to change some of its details when the moment demands it.
