Best Ways to Manage Your Team While Social Distancing

The coronavirus pandemic is causing a lot of disruptions in every workplace around the world. With almost everyone now working from home, there are different measures and directives from the authorities and health experts. One of the instructions is to keep a social distance. However, managers can still manage their teams by using some incredible strategies and tasks of managing a team.

Review or Change Your Expectations

Usually, organizations train and keep their teams to perform contemporary work in a central office. They work together under the same conditions and custom routines. Now while practicing social distancing, managers must assist their teams in adjusting in the “new normal” and different working environments. With the changes in working places and routines, productivity will go down. Therefore, managers should review and change their expectations depending on how the team accomplishes their work while on social distance. Also, because team members attend their responsibilities on their terms, managers should let go of when and how members finish their work. They must pay more attention to results and provide more flexibility to their members.

Stay Optimistic with your team members

The disease may be keeping businesses at their lowest, but optimism must hold its position. During these times, leaders must remain positive and confident about the future as a way of motivating other members. While team members are working in unusual conditions, the managers must support them to remain hopeful in their work. Humour is contagious too, and it’s a better way of engaging your team and helping them keep confidence high. Social distancing may be a hindrance to creativity but may be a driving force for individual originality. As a manager, encourage your team to look at social distancing as an opportunity to produce creative and innovative ideas. Another way of creating optimism among your members is by creating a time during the day for the entire team to video call and share ideas.

Stay connected frequently

Communication is vital in undertaking business in any organization. However, it is easy to feel disconnected from your workmates when you are working from home. It is the work of managers to ensure effectiveness in building and sustaining morale and engagement among workers. As a manager, ensure to check on your team daily either by direct calling, messaging, or video contact to build a social connection between you and the team and among members. Also, as a way of encouraging work, managers should request updates from the team regularly. Managers should be virtual team players to encourage their teams and ensure the continuation of work.

Constantly monitor stress

Stress can cause a lot of problems, especially when you disconnect from the people you interact with within the office. Managers have the mandate to ensure you are safe and sound. As a manager, let your team acknowledge that your main concern is their well-being. You must sacrifice enough time to check on your member’s engagement level by asking some basic questions about their working from home. By periodically engaging them, their working condition becomes stress-free, thus allowing them to continue working.

Go for online training courses

Sometimes organizations may require an upgrade on handling their work; this may require some training to their employees. At this time, when activities are low, managers can utilize this opportunity to train their employees through online training. Identify the areas where your members need to improve and provide online training on the respective areas by offering more flexibility and offering courses through a learning management system platform. Also, members can discuss and share ideas on lessons through video calling to make the learning interactive.

Update as much as possible

Uncertainties usually lead to anxiety; you must avoid any form of unpredictability. Also, when you communicate and share more, there will be no doubts and information flaws within your members. Managers should ensure regular communication with members not only when there is new information but to keep in touch. By communicating regularly, you build a credible team that will maintain transparency through a crisis like this. The ultimate way of expressing faith and concern for your members is to provide frequent updates to share new issues.

The coronavirus crisis is changing how people interact and work. However, technology is taking its course by enabling people to reach out to one another and also attend to their duties remotely. Teams are socialized but, for now, they are working from home, managers must ensure confidence and optimism is high by ensuring adequate virtual engagement with their employees. The current situation is daunting; maintain social distance, and stay safe.

About the author:

Darren Barden is a writing coach. Darren is working on net new campaigns as well as re-jigging and putting a slant on work in progress. He is able to write short, mid, and long-form copy for truly omnichannel campaigns such as: OOH, TV, digital, social networks, print, and more for Write My Essay For Me UK.