Effectively coaching your remote workforce
How well do you know your people? Some leaders answer by justifying how long they have worked at an organisation or how long they have been in a people management role. Those are examples of great experience. I want to know how close you are to your people. Do you have a good understanding of them? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What drives them and motivates them to do well? What stage are they in their career, their next steps, development gaps, or are you at risk of losing them?
Some of these questions can be answered by having formal conversations with each individual and others through casual conversations within the workplace. That sounds reasonable until COVID-19 happened and organisations implemented flexible working arrangements to help stop the spread or if you are in Melbourne we were sent into stage 4 lock-down. This has a major impact on the casual conversations within the workplace not just with direct reports but also as a whole, effecting team morale, motivation and effectiveness. We have lost the luxury of walking over to peoples desks to ask a quick question or check in with them on their progress in the kitchenette whilst making a cuppa.
We can still take advantage of informal opportunities for coaching and it is even more crucial that you are booking in a formal, structured coaching conversation with your team members. What’s the right balance? Ask. Stay curious and have a conversation with each individual to gauge where they are at and what challenges they may be facing in their immediate environment. For some it may be fine and manageable, for others they might be in a heightened stressful environment juggling the household, home learning and their role responsibilities. Remember, limited to no insights will occur if we are in threat response in our brain.
Communication can be described as body language, tone of voice and words. Going virtual and sitting behind a keyboard we rely heavily on words and the tone of writing. We can still act as a coach and ask really powerful questions however we need to be careful that our words do not trigger a person and we all know that emails can be taken out of context. Your best bet is to stick to virtual meetings or good old fashioned phone calls.
Here are our top tips for effectively coaching your remote workforce:
Set up the right technology – many organisations have their preferred platforms. We say use what you have, in most cases your organisations IT department will support the specified systems. If you find that connectivity is an issue, try turning off your video that should improve audio and have less interference. Otherwise as noted, nothing beats a good old fashioned phone call – just be sure to set the scene and remove all other distractions so you both get the most out of the coaching call.
Set the scene – when you first join the call ensure it is still a good time to talk and confirm the length of the session. Remember, for us to have insights in our brain we must be in a neutral/slight reward response. If we are in threat response there is a rare chance of us thinking clearly, rationally and be relaxed enough to even think and answer questions without becoming more triggered and emotional. It is much better to postpone a session than pushing on and wasting both of your time. Be clear on session outcomes, and when wrapping up the session agree on a follow-up process.
Silence is your friend - don’t be afraid to ask an open question and sit in silence. Allow your team member to think and respond. Provide a safe space for them to do so.
Follow up – post your coaching session, be very clear on what your responsibilities are and what each team member needs to report back on. Diarise your follow-ups with a brief outline of deliverables to make it an efficient check-in process.
We encourage you to share insight into your work day/environment, explain to your team that you are available and share times that work for you or the method in which is really good to reach out. This will help you capture some of those informal coaching moments. You may be on Microsoft teams, skype, jabber or other technology apps that your organisation supports. You can use these to help keep your team engaged and energised.
Working and coaching remotely certainly has its challenges and another that can get overlooked is celebrating success. We can lose the opportunity to announce awards or publicly recognise good work. Even the simple thank you gesture at the end of the day can be lost. Find ways to acknowledge your people and team in a sincere and thoughtful way. A little thank you goes a long way. Especially when remote workers may be feeling isolated.
Most of all, keep communicating with your team. Stay curious and seek to understand what is going on for them during this time. Schedule your catch ups and be flexible to ensure it is the right environment for coaching.
What can you put some focus on to improve your remote coaching sessions?