Ten weeks ago, I gathered my department on a Friday for an ad hoc meeting in a room large enough to allow for social distancing. Overnight, we became a full-time remote team. In this post, I’ll share a few practices I put in place to boost employee engagement and productivity while leading remotely.

Frequent and Transparent Communication

As a leader of a team, I believe it is incredibly important to share information in a calm and transparent way. Facts dispel fear and honesty builds trust. During COVID, I’ve continued to lean in to frequent communication, sharing information that impacts my employees. Without fail, I’ve heard that this is what the team has valued most during this time.

If I don’t know something, I tell them that. Nothing is off limits to ask about. I’d rather know what’s concerning them than ignore it.

Tactically, it’s taken the form of email updates, at first daily, and now two to three times a week. Each Monday the email includes a little video message recapping what happened over the weekend, setting up the week to come, and announcing the topics and eliciting any questions they might want covered on the team-wide video call later that day. It provides a way to feel both connected and informed.

Department meetings have been another mechanism to communicate. The first month, we did small-group forums twice a week to allow for more candor and dialogue. These were done in addition to our weekly team-wide meeting. Especially in times of uncertainty, communication is the foundation of trust, which really is the whole game, in my opinion.

Tapping Other Leaders to Broaden Your Team’s Perspective

A few weeks in, to give some variety and so the team was hearing important perspectives and information from others in key roles across our company, I introduced a series of guest speakers. Inviting my colleagues to join for 20-30 minutes of our weekly meeting, I facilitated informal “fire-side chats” with my colleagues about his or her position, tenure at the organization, role pre- and post-COVID, and whenever possible, asking for thoughts or words of encouragement on the work my team is supporting.

It’s important and motivating for my employees to hear this feedback from those with whom we work, and not just directly from me. I also routinely invite my boss, our Chief of Staff, to speak to what he’s hearing and seeing in the industry and at the local and state levels. I’ve heard feedback from several employees that this practices deepens trust and even peace of mind when they hear the same information I’ve been sharing directly with them echoed and backed-up in what these other leaders are saying.

Bringing Forward Perspectives and Knowledge Within the Team

There is also perspective to be gained from having the team hear from one another. I have a very introverted group, and getting people to comfortably speak up on team-wide video calls is a real challenge. I have found that with a little planning, alerting each individual if he or she will be called on and giving that person time to prepare makes for a great dynamic.

The team very much enjoys hearing what the others are doing and gives those individuals the opportunity to share it. Because the department is working on such mission critical work, it also allows me, as the leader, to praise them publicly and to point out the purpose and impact of the work for our patients and our enterprise.

Another practice that has been helpful is utilizing half of our weekly meetings to do partner work off-line in pairs. For this work, I give thought to who I’m pairing up, considering the content of the prompt I’ll be assigning. Partners are announced a few days prior and cell phone numbers are exchanged. This allows teammates to find an alternative time if the slotted time conflicts with another project-based meeting.

A few prompts I used to get us going were as simple as “What have you been working on this last month?” and “What have you found helpful in working remotely?” I was sure to cross-fertilize, pairing individuals who hadn’t worked closely together in the past month(s).

The format is somewhat loose, but utilizes a practice I learned in my leadership training called, “Walk & Talk,” where Partner 1 speaks for ten minutes and Partner 2 deeply listens, and then they switch. Some partners have taken this work outside and done virtual walk & talks. There is something to be said for the brainwave patterns when you are moving!

Because some team members may not be able to get outside at that time of day, “Sit & Shares” are also encouraged. I have heard from several partner groups that their conversations have lasted up to an hour because they so enjoyed reconnecting with a colleague. In the office, this might naturally occur in the break room or swinging by a shared common space. In a remote environment, I’ve found I need to help facilitate it a bit more.

Ensuring Your Team Has the Tools Needed to Maximize Productivity

Back at that last team meeting onsite, we spent a good amount of time talking about how we might prepare to work remotely in the event that our company issued a policy to do so. Luckily, we’ve long had the practice of checking out team laptops to facilitate working from multiple sites across our campus, on-deadline overnight, and the occasional work from home days.

This preparation and infrastructure meant we had enough laptops on hand to send each employee home equipped with one. We circulated tip sheets on how to log in remotely, tested it onsite, put our phones on call forward, and exchanged all cell phone numbers.

With these just-in-time preparations, we hoped for the best. Sure enough a communication came out that weekend, and we did not return to the office the following Monday. Most employees have not yet returned since.

A few weeks ago, one of the partner prompts focused on maximizing productivity while working remotely. As the team reported in, I heard with remarkable consistency that having a second monitor or a mouse was a game changer.

I’ve always held the position that I want my team to have what they need to be most productive. I believe it’s penny-wise and pound-foolish to make highly skilled workers suffer through frustrating technology to save a few dollars.

Being responsive to the team’s feedback, I spoke to my boss and we helped get them better set up (especially given we’ll be working remotely at least part-time for several months to come). This response was met with an outpouring of appreciation and uptick in not only productivity, but employee satisfaction.

Vulnerability: A Leader’s Superpower

To recapitulate the obvious, this dramatic shift in team work conditions 1) occurred during a time of heightened fear and trepidation amidst a global pandemic, 2) our workload surged and moved to 24/7 work with our company literally on the front lines of the response, and 3) this all happened concurrent with major impact to employees’ personal lives.

Many employees with children lost their support systems of school and childcare. Some lost parents and grandparents. For everyone, getting basics like toilet paper and essential groceries is harder than it used to be, and being located in New York, in tiny apartments with little to no outdoor space, makes the quarantine particularly difficult.

Ignoring these very real circumstances will only set you up for failure. You need open lines of communication to figure out how to best support your people in meeting the expectations inherent in high-quality work, with the flexibility they need to get it done and done well. In my experience, no one has yet to abuse this flexibility. All appreciate the open dialogue and lack of judgement.

Vulnerability is your strength as a leader. Being a mother of two young children, part of me cringes when my team meetings are interrupted by one of my kiddos. I have learned to embrace it, acknowledging my little one(s), and quickly move on. If nothing else, it lightens the mood and provides a much needed group laugh.

While I still find it embarrassing, it makes me real. If the boss has children occasionally crashing team meetings, my hope is that those with children at home feel that much more at ease if their children interrupt or speak up in the background.

My father has been admitted twice during this COVID quarantine period, and this too I have shared vulnerably with my team. Not only did I receive an outpouring of support (which was really helpful, living half-way across the country from my family), but it lets them see that I’m dealing with hardships too.

At one point I was texting with an employee who had lost a parent that week and she expressed how nice it was to “not have to sugar-coat things” and just speak honestly about how difficult this time was. It’s taken me a while to gain comfort with vulnerability, but the longer I’ve embraced it as a leader, the more power I’ve seen it have. No one wants or expects perfect. Be real and your team will likely respond by being real (and vulnerable) themselves.

You Have to Care If You Expect Them to Care

As a leader, you cannot expect employees to care about the work and the company if they do not feel that you care about them. In the office, there are lots of little and big ways to show that you care. It can be as easy as a smile or stopping by their desk on a walk around the office.

In a fully remote setting, you need to be a touch more creative. I’m far from an expert, but want to share a few things I’ve experimented with.

As a rule of thumb, I always try to remember key life events and acknowledge important holidays members of my team are celebrating. We have a wonderful diversity in our team, and we cultivate a culture that embraces it fully.

In the office, this might be as simple as bringing in a festive treat or leaving a card on their desk. Remotely, one option I’ve had fun with is e-cards. For a nominal fee, you can buy a membership to a subscription service like American Greetings. I’ve sent e-cards for Administrative Assistants’ Day, Mother’s Day, birthdays, Ramadan, Passover, Easter, and even Sympathy cards.

Of course, what’s most important is the note you write to your employee within it, but it’s a small, easy way to show you care. There are tons of cute, funny options that you can personalize with the person’s name. One employee on her birthday told me that “it was the highlight of her day,” given there was so little she could do in quarantine to celebrate.

Knowing everyone is struggling to keep up their sanity and health during quarantine, I’ve also introduced optional monthly challenges to support the whole person and provide accountability to one another. One month it was focused on wellness, with a wide-range of options from a plank challenge to 10,000 steps a day. Some team members opted to train for a half-marathon.

As teammates committed to a challenge, I paired them up with someone else who selected the same challenge or something similar. This month (June), I’ve encouraged the team to consider restarting a hobby that brings them joy that might have fallen to the wayside since COVID. These are all totally optional, but can facilitate cross-fertilization in the team and shows that we care for the whole person.

Little Acts of Kindness Go a Long Way, and Always Remember to Say Thank You!

I’m far from the perfect leader and am sharing some of the practices I’ve tried with hopes that an idea or two might resonate and work for you and your team. To close, just a few more thoughts.

Early on in the quarantine, one of my direct reports mentioned that some other companies were giving “quarantine gifts” and asked if we might want to do something for the members of the team.

After we talked about a few options, we decided to do small Grub Hub gift cards. These were delivered electronically, and like the e-cards, you have the opportunity to write a message of appreciation. This is something I chose to do from my personal budget (not a company expense) as a small act of kindness and thanks for a job well done, personalizing the message to make it tailored to that individual. The reaction was universally positive. People were really touched.

Another practice I’ve just started recently is sending hand-written thank you notes by mail to acknowledge dedication and extraordinary work. This is a practice that I have done for years in the office, but hadn’t yet translated to remote work. Again, the most important thing is to make it personal, specific, and tailored to that employee’s contribution and unique strengths. It shows you are paying attention, that his or her efforts matter, and that you care.

Leading during this unusual time is certainly a challenge and there are many days I wish I was doing more or doing it better. Knowing I’m likely not alone, I wanted to share a few things I’ve found that have worked well during this time period. Reflecting on the core themes of these examples, I realize they embody a lot of the same best practices I try to incorporate in non-remote work, with slightly different tactics and applications.

Please feel free to comment with any ideas you have that you can share as I’m always looking to do better.

Be well!

Mary