Working from home…..is team productivity dropping? Are you all playing with the same ball?

Recently, I shared some thoughts about building a sense of community and the importance of recognising the decline in the excitement of working from home as the novelty wears off.

Initially, your team will have headed home freshly focused from their in office interactions on the delegated tasks and outcomes as well as the excitement of working from home. However, over the last few weeks the usual issues will have affected their productivity - IT issues, children and family pressures, poor work environment set up and fatigue.

In my prior articles I pointed out the four basics of leading virtual teams:

1.     Clarity - people need absolute clarity on what is expected of them and the priorities that are set. With clarity they can meet and exceed expectations for you and themselves.

2.     Communication – use every channel and do it often, as much as possible by video as face to face is infinitely more valuable and email is the least valuable.

3.     Managing the group calls – you need to ensure there is inclusivity amongst the diverse personalities of your team, get everyone engaged and get feedback on how the calls are working from your team.

4.     Recognition and appreciation - ensure you are expressing sincere recognition and appreciation both privately and publicly on a regular basis in the virtual world.

I then shared there was the fifth element and most important, building sense of community. If you haven’t done this already, then you had better start. What I want to focus on now is Clarity.

When your team headed out of the office a few weeks ago, each team member and the collective team were probably reasonably aligned on the responsibilities and accountabilities they held. Time has now passed, you do not have that watch over the shoulder, or easy check ins from both parties. Of course, I hope you are still doing your one on one catch ups each week, but misunderstanding and effective delegation can be confounded by virtual relationships. Secondly, the team could be “zoomed out”, and thirdly, quite possibly fatigued. There is a lot of evidence showing that in the WFH cycle we see work hours expand, the delineation between work and home time breaks down and fatigue from this environment and the crisis around them starts to impact productivity.

Here are four tips on how to rebuild that productivity through clarity and re-engagement of the team members and team:

1.     Play with the same ball: Over many years I used a quite simple analogy in this point.  Make sure each person knows what the ball they are playing with and the rules of game they are playing, then the team can play together and win. Here’s how it goes - I would ask each member of my team to think of a ball. Then I would ask each to share with all the team what ball they have in their minds. The answers always range from tennis ball, football, soccer ball, a dancing ball, a beach ball, basketball and so on. The problem is leaders often do not achieve the clarity a team or team member needs. What then happens is a result that is off the target. It is not the team members fault, but rather the leader has failed to form the clarity needed, and in today’s virtual world it is even more critical to build exceptional clarity. Your role is to define the ball – e.g. tennis ball. You can choose to continue to define the game for tennis balls or ask your team or team member to define it. The more detail you have in this definition, the better outcomes will be achieved for you and even better for the team to achieve their goals. It should look like  - tennis ball played according to lawn tennis rules and on a singles court, with yellow balls etc.… play the same game with the same rules and get focused on how you win the game and help your team to be the best players. In building your expectation of the team, ensure the expectations and outcomes you have are mutually clear and understood. Absolute clarity in task and expected outcomes is essential for winning performances.

2.     Zoom free: I have always believed there are too many meetings in organisations. Last week I had three full “Zoom” days in a row – two multiple Zoom meetings all day, and one day was an all-day Skype meeting. I was “zoomed out” and I only work part time these days. The zoom fatigue is high. Give the team a break, have occasional meeting free days and see if you can break your virtual meetings down in time. For instance, if they are 60 mins get them done in 45 mins through focus and efficient process and discussions. Give time back to your team.

3.     Appreciation: back to my second point in the virtual leadership tips. Make sure you are recognizing each individual, and given they are individuals you will need diverse ways of expressing your appreciation. I am not talking about monetary or physical forms of recognition; I suggest the words and meaningfulness you share with each of them must be relevant to the individual and the team. Build what I call a culture of appreciation, and more than ever it must be authentic and sincere in what you say and how you say it.

4.     Exercise: Help get your team out of their chairs and work environments. Do some helpful exercises, go for walks, and avoid sitting in the same chair and spot all day. Movement is essential. Support your team to be active, energised, healthy and on the move.

As a leader it is your role to help your team achieve their full capability. They are working in an unfamiliar world. Support them, give them the clarity they need, give them the appreciation they deserve and the space to be well. Make sure you are all playing with the same ball, in the same game so you can all achieve the winning score.