Managing Remote Teams During Difficult Times

By David B. Sarnoff, Executive Coach, Loeb Leadership

and David Robert, Chief Strategy Officer, Loeb Leadership

We are all navigating challenging times with the coronavirus and how it is affecting our professional and personal lives. In times like these, leaders have an opportunity to distinguish themselves by how well they instill confidence, focus and stability on their team. At least for the foreseeable future, employees are likely to experience a heightened degree of anxiety regarding health, job security and the need for normalcy. You can play an important role in helping to alleviate some of that stress.

For your employees to feel a sense of calmness and stability, you must first feel calm and stable. One activity you can adopt quickly is an exercise used by military special forces to remain calm during times of intense stress. It’s called box breathing. Carve just five minutes out each day to engage in box breathing to clear your mind and prepare yourself to set the appropriate example for your team. Box breathing uses a simple four-phase breathing technique, as described below.

Each phase should last four seconds:

·      Using the pressure of your diaphragm, inhale through your nose

·      Hold the breath in

·      Exhale through your nose

·      Hold before inhaling again

When you are engaging your team, there are behaviors you can adopt quickly as well that will keep them focused and can offer some sense of clarity and stability. They are:

·      Express empathy. You may not feel the same way your employees do, but it’s important to validate their feelings. Avoid saying things like, “calm down” or “stop being so anxious” and instead say, “I can understand why you feel that way” or “you have a right to feel anxious.”

·      Try to not immediately fix problems and instead listen. Employees who are experiencing anxiety or stress want to know they have been heard. Check out this video on the need for people to be heard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4EDhdAHrOg

·      Include your team members in the decision-making process, whenever possible. When employees feel they have input, they often feel more stable and confident.

·      Share the “why” after a decision is made, if that decision was made unilaterally. During times of intense stress, ambiguity and a lack of transparency can fuel gossip, which in turn can adversely impact the level of stress and anxiety on the team.

·      Meet frequently with the team via video conferencing. Your employees need to see you so they can read your body language and see that you are calm and focused.

·      Be self-aware. The more you understand your own stress and anxiety triggers, the more likely you are to avoid them or create a healthy coping mechanism so that you can remain a role model for your team.

If you are struggling with managing your remote team or just need a non-judgmental thought partner, feel free to send me an email at dsarnoff@loebleadership.com.