EntreLeadership - Working Remote? Double Down on Communication

Episode Date: March 29, 2020

Tune in to hear Daniel Tardy and Sarah Sloyan respond to some business owners' fears around Coronavirus.   Get access to the EntreLeadership Weekly Report Tool, FREE, for you and your team for 3 months: Text TEAMHEALTH to 33444 or visit entreleadership.com/weekly-report   Follow us on social media to stay plugged in to everything we’re doing to help the small business owner win: LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Twitter YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, this is Alex. I think one of the things that we're all realizing right now is that this whole coronavirus situation, it's developing so fast, like every single day, if not every single hour. And so we want to make sure we're doing our part to give you the most up-to-date information about how our company is handling this, but also how we see small business owners around the country leading through these uncertain times. So we're going to be releasing some bonus episodes where senior leaders, here within Entree Leadership and Ramsey Solutions, address some of the big topics and big questions surrounding the whole coronavirus issue. Make sure you subscribe to the Entree Leadership podcast to get these bonus episodes at the top of your feed. And here is today's bonus episode. Hey, guys, Daniel Tarty and Sarah Sloyen again.

And, hey, we're answering questions. You guys have a lot of questions right now about how do we respond to the disruption in the marketplace with everything going on with the coronavirus? coronavirus. And specifically, what a lot of people are learning to do right now is this whole idea of working remotely, working from home using technology, using video chat. And I got to be honest, we're not the experts on that because we really believe in getting together in person, even if you technically could work remotely. We're fans of that together is better. So we're kind of figuring it out too, but we're going to let you guys know what we've been doing and what we've studied up on for best practices on this to hopefully keep your productivity at an all-time high in the midst of all the chaos. So, Sarah, we're working remote. We don't have people in the office. A few of us come in to do things like this, and we're keeping our distance and making sure we're being wise about it. But more than 900 of our team members

are at home in their home office or bedroom or whatever their setup is, right? So what's that been like? Yeah, totally. Well, the number one thing that I wanted to do for our team is set clarity around expectations. So I always feel like if you can set expectations up front, then there's not a misunderstanding down the road where people are getting hurt feelings. So the first thing that we did is sat down and just drafted like, hey, this is going to look a little different. So here are our expectations. So for our sales team, our activity, we're expecting you to continue to set a high bar. I don't want to see that just because you're working remotely, all of a sudden your activity is cut in half. This is a time where our clients need us to raise the bar and continue. Even if those calls look a little different,

you're maybe not calling to sell people something. Maybe you're calling to just check in and see how they are and see how we can best help and see if they need a free coaching call. That's perfectly okay. But we're going to continue to raise the bar. So number one, I would say setting expectations in writing on the front end and talking through those and answering questions is key. Yeah, for sure.

And as you say that, I think about, you know, we trust our team. We've got an incredible team. And I trust all of them 100 percent or else they wouldn't be on our team. You know, that's kind of the minimum standard. We've got to be able to trust you. But I also just have this, I don't know, as a leader, there's a confidence I get when I see my sales team. Physically I'm walking through. I see they're on the phone.

Like, I just feel like, all right, phones are ringing. Customers are getting served, you know? And I think when it's out of sight and out of mind, I'm like, are we still being productive? Are they at home calling and doing their thing? And when they don't feel that energy, they feed off each other. So how do you kind of ensure, without micromanaging or, or inferring that you all of a sudden don't trust your team, you still have this thing of accountability.

You know, whereas leaders, we've got to ensure that performance is happening. What's the best way to do that? Yeah. Well, we have goals. And so what's really fun, we set this up long before this situation happened. We have a text thread, and we have each of our leaders on this text thread, and I love it. Every morning, each leader chimes in and texts about how they are compared to their goal,

how their team is compared to their goal. And it's so fun because it feels like we're one big, you know, football team. And we've all said, this is what we have to do to win. And everybody's kind of updating on how they're doing, driving towards that. And so I really love that text thread. It makes me feel more connected to people. And it's been especially awesome now that we're not able to just walk over to someone's desk and say, how's that thing going that you said you wanted to do?

How are you doing? And it also gives us a chance if someone's numbers are low to go, hey, do you need help? How's it going? What's going on in your world? and just make sure that we are able to have each other's backs and help we're needed, and they're not just in it alone. That's really good. So when it comes to working at home, your environment is the place you normally just go and

relax, and your family's there, but you've got to work, and you're kind of trying to figure out how to do this boundaries thing while you can just walk into the kitchen at any point and grab a drink. And then when you walk in the kitchen, when your kid says, hey, do you have a minute to help me with mine? You're like, no, I'm at work. And they go, but you're not at work. You're at home.

How do you navigate that? How do you kind of keep the right balance and focus at work even when you're not at work? Yeah. I think that this is where I've tried to really over-communicate with my family. So I have three young kids, nine, six, and three, and they're all out of school right now. And so I have put together just a schedule for them. And I've kind of communicated like, hey, here's what we're going to do today. And here's when I'm going to be able to help you.

When I'm in this room, so for me, it's our bonus room in our house. I've kind of said, hey, this is off limits for this week. week, I've also bribed them. I don't know. Is that bad? I said if all week, if you guys are quiet when I'm in this room, if you're downstairs playing and I don't hear you, then you will get a treat. We'll bake this cake. And so I am not above a little bribery. So maybe I don't know if that, I don't know how you feel about that. But incentive. Impressive. Appropriate incentive. And so the reality is I'm just kind of managing my time. And so every day I sit down and I look at my top priorities for the next day and I look at what calls I have scheduled,

and I make sure that the kids have a great schedule of things that will keep them engaged, and I communicate to them. Here's when I'll be down here doing these fun activities with you, and here's when I have to do this. I've also treated them like adults a little bit and said, hey, let me kind of explain how this works. I would love to be doing this all day long.

That would be so fun. Here's the reality. If mommy's not doing these things, here are the tradeoffs that we have to make. We won't be able to necessarily afford soccer lessons, and I know how much you love that. So I kind of bring them in at the right level, I bring them into a little bit of that and say, the cool thing is when Mommy does these video calls, we're able to continue to pay for soccer lessons. It's something they value or that they experience. Yes, exactly. For sure. But I also don't take calls in the middle dinner. You know, when it's time for family dinner and it's the end of the day, I go on to Microsoft Teams and I say I'm unavailable and I put my laptop away for the night. And I get back on the next morning and I'm ready to go again. I'm not constantly doing this juggle during prime dinner time or prime family time.

You still got to turn it off and on. You still got to have that switch. You can't be on all the time for family and work. Or really, you're not on for either one of them. You can't serve two masters, if you will. And, you know, the other thing that I've been learning and just thinking about is I realize that I rely a lot when I'm in the office on the fact that I can just kind of walk through the space. And as the leader, the team sees me and they kind of know and I know that we're all there. Or I can throw a football or, you know, pop out of my office and just be seen. And that does something for the team. But when you don't have that, if you kind of rely on that in your leadership style, there's a tendency to go, well, I don't have any media. meetings with the team, so I guess they're fine and I'm not going to do the video calls or the

emails or the check-ins. And I think we have to remember that our team still needs to see us. You know, and to see us could be like an encouraging email. It could be a video call. It could be, you can record yourself a little video of just, hey, today I'm working on this. Hope you guys are great. Let me know if you need me, post it on your channel or whatever you guys use. Yeah, this is a great time to get creative. I mean, try a few other things. We've been doing a lot of video calls. I definitely don't want to lose the human element. I think one of the reasons our team is so strong is because we are truly friends and we care about each other and we've got that connectivity from being live in the office usually all the time. So we've been doing a lot of video calls

and getting to see each other face to face. That's a game changer. And there's a lot of easy, I mean, you could FaceTime people. You can use Zoom. We've been using Microsoft Teams, which has been fun to explore. People are liking blurring the background, which I'm learning. new things. But don't lose the human element of being a team. Yeah, and just don't go radio silent and realize that when you're in the office all the time, you get a lot of lift from just being able to see each other. You have to like combat that. You have to work extra hard right now to show up in this kind of this digital way. The other thing that I think people are looking from is your priorities are shifting in this time. So with the days as they go by, you're learning

new things from your marketplace, you know, from the CDC. And your priorities as a business are changing. So we just had that happen yesterday, and so we jumped on a call today with all 67 of our team members and said, hey, let's be super clear. Here are our top four priorities. You're going to hear more about this from your direct leaders, but all of our activities are going to be towards pushing these four things across the fence. And so I think really continuing to make sure that you're talking about these are our priorities and beating that drum, especially as they're changing, is really important.

Yeah, for sure. And another thing you can do is you can ask your team, what do you feel? feeling right now? What are you worried about? Hey, email me directly if you have questions and that kind of thing. And then you can address on one of these calls. Like, hey, here's some questions that have come in and you can collect your thoughts because if there's one person wondering it, probably a lot of people on the team are wondering about that. But they're less prone to ask you if you don't invite that invitation to say, hey, send me what you're worried about. You're probably concerned about something. So that's also just good proactive listening as well.

Our team has implemented a check-in with their direct team. So, for example, our marketing team has a video call each day, and they'll talk about how everybody's doing. And then they'll also do an email at the end of the day. And I really thought this was smart. They say, go ahead and just rate your productivity. How did you do today in terms of what you wanted to get accomplished? All right, why did you rate yourself that way?

And then what are your top three things for tomorrow? And that has allowed their leader to really make sure she's able to clear blockers and be in tune with how they're doing. and help even though they're not in the same place. Yeah, you still do coaching, right? And still coach them up to the next level of what they're capable of. So, well, really great tips, Sarah. Thanks for leading the team so well through this virtual experience.

And we're learning, too. So if you have tips or comments, feel free to share them with us. Share them in the Entree Leadership community out there on Facebook because a lot of us are figuring this out right now. But remember, you still got a business. And if you still got a team, they still need communication. And so use whatever tools are. are available to make sure that that occurs.