Leadership lessons I have learned working from home.

As the world continues to be in lockdown state with no immediate relief, working from home for many corporate individuals like myself is probably the way of work we need to get used to for the rest of the year or years?. From the past few months, I have been locked down in my home, away from family (they are locked down in different state) and these few months have taught me many things in life. Not only I have gained personal skills like cooking :-), but also leadership skills which only times like these can teach us. Sharing some of these observations I have learned.

Trust: Before the world saw the impact of COVID-19, many companies around the world considered work for home as an exception and not a benefit for their employees. The thought process that people can only provide their 100% if they are co-located was one of the reasons, but more important was the deficit in the trust factor with the employees. While some of this comes from the culture, but mostly, it was the fear that employees will take advantage of if allowed to work from home and the productivity will take a hit. Companies like Google spent millions to create a campus infrastructure with the goal of keeping employees in the office as many hours as possible. And yet, with COVID-19, the same companies are now forced to change their mind-set since work from home is the only option remaining in the world today. Result? Most of the companies now realize that except for a few bad apples, employees can not only work from home effectively, but the amount of collaboration between the teams has increased since everyone is in the same situation. The trust factor has increased and whenever we are back in the office, work from home will no longer be considered as a privilege but a norm! As it is said, leadership begins and ends with trust!

Survival instincts – You leave a person in a jungle and the person will soon learn to survive with his survival instincts. After I was separated from my family and forced to live alone, the first week was complaining and not accepting the facts in front of me. However, from the second week, survival instincts kicked in and I learned how to survive alone. Similarly, at work, many times we complain about not having enough resources, budget, people, etc. and make these as the reasons for not making progress. However, as the last few months have taught us, we can not only survive with the limited resources we have, we can also prosper. As humans, we give our best when we are threatened, and our survival is in question. As leaders, we have to trust our survival instincts and learn to adapt to the situation and come out with solutions that can help us survive. Many companies and individuals around the world will come out strong once this is all over and would have learned to prosper with a minimum set of resources.

Productivity – It is a long set belief that employees will be more productive if they are forced to come to the office every day and they are timed for the number of hours they work. Many companies even pay salaries based on the number of hours employees work at the office. Linked to the trust factor, it is assumed, humans need to be watched all the time and if not done they will misbehave. If there is one thing which the work from home has proved wrong, it’s this belief. Most of the companies, as a matter of fact, are noticing an increase in productivity. Not only employees are saving time-related to commuting, but they are able to balance between managing the need of their families with the need of the office. While the works hours are stretched, productivity certainly has increased to the benefit of both the employer and the employee.

Time management - Working from home has challenged everyone on how to balance the needs of the family with the deliverables for the office. For the first few weeks, I lost track of my breakfast and lunchtime. Meetings were scheduled starting 8 am or earlier and it continued back to back until 7 pm. There was no time to prepare food and consume the same. After getting burned out, I realized the importance of time management in my life. I began to change my working pattern, rejected a few uncalled meetings and blocked my calendar to take time to eat and exercise! While we all are still learning and adjusting, working from home certainly requires managing your time well. It’s an important leadership lesson as time management is extremely important whether you are working from home or office! It is true that time is the best teacher!

Innovation – It is said innovation comes out from the need to innovate. With many companies now operating virtually, the need for employees to stay connected not only with each other but with the customers has forced everyone to innovate and come up with tools and technology to continue to run business. While video conferencing is not a new tool, but many are learning the benefit of the same at scale. Ideas like virtual on-boarding of new hires, virtual training, virtual social activities, virtual classrooms, virtual fitness, and many other virtual tools and technologies are coming up every day. In the coming few months, not only more virtual tools will be launched, but new companies will rise catering to the needs of people working from home and enabling them to be more effective. So don't wait to innovate, NOW is the time to innovate!

Continuous learning – With lockdown, not only people are forced to stay inside their homes, but also have to manage without the luxury of maids, cooks and other help they were used to in the past. Skill sets which people assumed is a waste to learn or consider this to be other gender responsibility has now become a necessity to learn. For some, it is taking a few days to pick up these skills and for others, it’s a steep learning curve. Similarly, at work, we always assume we are good with the skill sets we have and keep learning aside for a rainy day. However, many people struggle to find a job when in these difficult times supply is more than demand and only those with the current in-demand skill set will survive. Others, unfortunately, will have a tough time. So make learning a daily habit.

Empathy/Humanity – Perhaps the best leadership quality which is now seen more prominently than ever before is the quality of empathy and humanity. COVID-19 has caused destruction in many people’s lives who are not fortunate enough to work from the comfort of their home or in need of help given their physical or economic situation. To take care of such people, not only corporate and governments around the world are taking required steps, but many employees inside the company have risen to the occasion to create their own volunteering organizations to help humanity. New leaders are seeing emerging around the world and leading the way.  Employees are taking steps in their own ways to help each other and their community. It is said that leadership has no boundaries and it is certainly seen today.

While there is much more left to learn and while there are many negatives in the current situation, one thing which is positive is those who survive will come out strong and lead the world!

Ashish Nanjiani