The Importance Of Showing Genuine Care To Your Employees During WFH Environment

Covid-19 is both a curse and a blessing. It has brought out the worst in people as well as the best in people. I was reminded that a person's character is revealed in adversity. This is soo true as I observe how the different one of us respond to the current Covid-19 pandemic. I'd like to share some interesting insights that I hope will improve your working relationship with your employees.

Working with my clients in helping their managers and leaders lead their team in remotely working environment, I realize that many of us managers are not aware that our employees desire that we show care to them. Many are not aware of the psychological contract (a concept developed by Denise Rousseau) that exist. There is a difference between caring for them as a person (a care regardless of their performance) and caring for them to get the work done (A care that is conditional on their performance). As managers and leaders, we need to be aware that genuine care can lead to better performance in some and for others, it help them realize where they should focus their energy.

PEOPLE CRAVE FOR CONNECTION & COMMUNITY

In the movie Cast Away, we saw Chuck Noland (played by Tom Hank) formed a strong bond with a Volleyball (he called Wilson). We saw this in the emotional scene where as they were on the raft trying to escape from the island, how he cried when he lost Wilson. People's need for connection and community is great. In fact, one of the worst punishment in prison is solitary confinement. There has been tremendous studies on the impact of solitary confinement has on a person.

The physical workspace forms a natural community where people interact, work and share life. While many of us don't consciously recognize this, the WFH has made this obvious because with everyone working from home, communication seems to be limited to work matter. Whereas when we were working in a physical office, work and life intertwine and we unconsciously fulfill our needs for communication and connection without even realizing it.

As managers and leaders we need to realize that our people want a connection and community. As managers and leaders (akin to a village head) we have the ability to do this immediately. We don't need to wait for a WFH polity or SOP. So how do we go about this while still ensuring work and deliverables are achieved?

Here's a 2 prong approach; first is helping you have the right focus and then providing you with simple, yet proven strategy to show care. Without the right focus, it will be hard to demonstrate care in a genuine manner.

TRANSITION 1 - SHIFT FROM MANAGING THE PERSON TO MANAGING OUTCOME

One of the things I noticed with many managers and leaders when transitioning from working in office to working from home is the same mindset despite the change of working environment.

Some may say that managing the person does lead to managing outcome. While this may be true, a different physical environment does influence a person's priority and how they respond to those situation. The frustration employees face when they feel their bosses are 'monitoring' them constantly while they are at home is that their bosses aren't aware of the challenges they face at that particular moment.

Managing the person does not become an issue in the workplace because we can see their environment and automatically adjust our expectation of them and ourselves continuously. With WFH, we don't have 'line of sight' and therefore we are not able to adjust our expectation. The way to overcome this is to shift our managing style from managing the person to managing by outcome. This means it is not our business if they choose to work at 2am in the morning or 10am. By discussing with the employees on the deliverables, timeline and communication approach (just make sure it is not hourly reporting ;P), it creates a new working partnership between us and our employees. So don't get stressed when your employee does not whatsapp or e-mail you on the hour as long as they keep to the agreement you both have created. If they fail, remind them that the agreement took into consideration of their input and they have to be responsible for it.

TRANSITION 2 - MANAGE YOUR ANXIETY

We know that how we feel affects the quality of our thoughts and action. For example, if you are feeling anxious and you see two people talking and glancing at your way, you would think they are talking about you and you are more likely to be cautious with them when speaking with them later despite you not having any confirmation if they were really talking about you.

Likewise, with the transition from office to WFH, many of us will feel anxious because we can't see what our employees are up to. When they 'drop the ball', our immediate reaction would be "they are taking advantage of the WFH initiative" instead of wondering if something might have happen to them due to Covid-19. We forget that our employees are also anxious too and doing their best to adjust.

I find managing my emotion FIRST does wonders as I have a greater influence on my team members. A simple approach to this is:

Step 1 - Identify the negative emotions I am having caused by the transition. Denying such emotion or 'powering through it' only suppresses your emotion into your sub-conscious mind and from my experience, it will increase your knee-jerk reaction to your employees and be more defensive.

Step 2 - Ask myself what are the 'dialogue in my head' or "What I believe it true in my head" that is making me feel as such. The key to managing personal emotion is by managing our thoughts. One can't manage emotion directly.

Step 3 - Develop a 2 step strategy; one to manage my current thought and the other is behavior/ action. For example, in step 2 you discovered one of your thought is "I am going to screw up because I have not managed remotely before", then the thought strategy that might be helpful for you is "I have been successful in the past doing something new on my own. I did this by...". This thought would help you manage your anxiety. Now the second part of the strategy is focused on behavior. Identifying actions that would reduce your anxiety gradually.

TRANSITION 3 - BE DELIBERATE IN SHOWING CARE

Once you are able to manage your emotion, it makes it easier to see the emotional needs of others.

There are 2 areas to share care in; care for them as a person and care for them in their career development.

Here are some activities you can do to demonstrate genuine care

Activity 1 - ice-breakers during meeting

Deliberately factor at least 20 minutes into your meeting agenda for casual conversation. To some it might sound like a waste of time but for you, I hope you see the important of creating a 'community-like' environment by doing this.

Activity 2 - a team meeting that focuses on the team

One thing I know is that team members are curious about how others are doing. By organizing such meeting where the focus is on the team rather than just work, it signals the importance of constant communication among team members and also create empathy with each other.

Activity 3 - thoughtful gift

During this Covid-19, I know some companies send gift to the employees. This is the company way of showing appreciation. As their manager and leader what are we doing to show appreciation? Perhaps spending some money getting our team member a thoughtful gift would go a really long way in strengthening their bond to your team. Surprise them.

Activity 4 - one on one

Schedule a one on one conversation with your employees to see how they are doing. Showing care in a team and showing care as an individual has different impact to them. Have a regular one on one. It is usually between 30 and 60 minutes. What's important is that this conversation focuses on your employee and not on the work they are working on. As a guide, when you do this for the first time, your employees are going to feel suspicious because all this while conversations have always been about work only. Some may test you, some may not open up too fast but eventually when they feel your care is genuine, they will create a really strong bond with you that is both personal and professional.

Some questions that would be helpful includes "How are you doing?", "How's your family?", "What are some things I can do to make work more meaningful for you?", "What are some things you enjoy working in this team?" and "What are some feedback you have for me so I can lead you better".

Remember, we are human first then employees. We all need connection and community. Continue to show genuine care to your employees. As the saying goes, take care of your employees and they will take care of your business.