COVID-19 is putting all of us to the test; as a society, as parents, as colleagues, and as leaders of our organizations. This virus, which comes from the bat, has crept into our lives like one of the plagues of the Old Testament, just like that, all of a sudden, straining our capacity to react and adapt. This health crisis forces us to bring our activities to a "dead stop" and, with them, the country's economy; few will be the industries that escape this crisis. In my case, our main clients are doctors; dermatology and aesthetics clinics will be forced to close their doors for a few days, "getting pretty" takes a back seat, although curiously hairdressers can remain open according to Mr. Pedro Sánchez's decree, so now we know what to tell the police if they stop us in the street ;).
So, now what?
As a businesswoman and as a mother I'm worried, but right now what matters most to me is staying busy, and trying to gain time against time in order to minimize as much as possible the economic and social impact of this situation. So, starting now, we've launched several "shock" strategies at the company; I'm sure they'll help us grow as a team and as a reference brand. On the one hand, we've adapted the strategy from in-person to online; it obviously won't be immediate, but right now social media, podcasts, YouTube, etc. become our best ally; surely we'll be able to create interesting content about beauty treatments. The day-to-day doesn't leave us much time to "create" new things, so why not take these days as an investment in innovation and creation, something we never do: stop and reflect.
The second strategy: although work-life balance was already among our priorities, now we are also firmly committing to remote work. Although this is a full-blown challenge for me and for the entire organization.
Telework is a mindset and a collective culture that is not acquired instantly.
Montse Mateos. Expansión&Empleo, March 14, 2020.
Telework may seem like the panacea, but the reality is very different. Working from home entails some challenges for which not everyone is prepared or trained, and most organizations and leaders aren't prepared either to efficiently carry out a "virtual" follow-up of the team and to encourage commitment to the company.
Because of my multiple maternities (no fewer than 5 :)), I learned some tricks a while ago for being as productive as possible from home, and even more so with the little ones hovering around me, unable to go out.
My 5 TIPS for working from home:
1.- Establish a routine and the goals of the day.
It may seem that working from home only has advantages, like for example working in your pajamas or with messy hair where no one sees you :)... or taking advantage to give your baby his bottle. Well, I'd tell you to find a middle ground between being in your pajamas and being all dressed up with heels.... you have to be comfortable but you must feel that you're in your working day, and with that you take on certain routines, and also be available in case the boss calls you for a video conference :P.
The day's agenda must have a schedule. It may seem like stating the obvious, but if you write out your schedule and classify the goals according to their urgency and priority, you'll surely be more productive.
If you make daily to-do lists, what usually happens is that whatever is at the bottom is, the next day, in the same place: at the bottom!.
So I suggest that you establish priorities according to importance and not urgency, which is what we normally do. There's a very useful matrix developed by Dwight D. Eisenhower, former president of the USA, and popularized by Stephen R. Covey in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Eisenhower's time management matrix.
2.- Identify the critical points and the people responsible for each goal.
Once you've established the goals; some will be individual and others global by department, in addition to learning to manage your own time you'll have to learn to manage that of others, or at the very least to have everyone aligned with all the goals and delivery times. For this you'll need your shared "virtual whiteboard"; I really like a very simple and free tool: Trello
3.- Frequent contact with the team.
Familiarity breeds affection, I don't know who coined this phrase but they were quite right. It's true that living the day-to-day, sharing the most everyday situations at work, having brainstorming sessions or managing crisis situations as a team create indestructible bonds. What's more, I'll tell you that in-person work encourages and enhances the team's creativity, but if there's no other choice but to telework due to X circumstances, it's important that you maintain regular contact, not only by phone but also by video conference. My recommendation is that the people who report directly to you, or are your most direct team, should have an initial Monday meeting to compare notes, covering all of the week's topics; including people management, finance, operations, marketing and sales. It should be an operational meeting of 40 minutes at most; once this is established you can then expand on the points that require more time, in my case marketing and sales.
Some of the tools that can help you stay in contact and share presentations:
https://www.skype.com/es/business/
https://www.gotomeeting.com/es-es
The rest of the week the contacts can be more informal, with telephone and email follow-up. On Wednesdays I like to do another video conference on the topics, and on Friday we do an email roundup with the status of all the topics discussed on Monday. This way you can have the framework of the situation of all the goals and projects; increasingly, projects are cross-functional, they don't belong to just one person, so the more you encourage contact among everyone, the better the productivity and the good atmosphere!.
4.- Demonstrate commitment.
As I said at the beginning, telework requires a lot of commitment and, above all, trust, so put yourself in your "boss's" shoes and every morning start with the emails, so that the message comes across: "I'm ready, hard at it". If you've received an email and it carries many documents that require your review, give a heads-up: "morning! I've read it, I'll review everything and get back to you", it's important that they know what you're on.
Commitment is demonstrated through honesty and transparency; it's important that if you need a moment for yourself you report it. There's nothing worse than calling someone and having them lie to you. Also keep in mind that today we work in a kind of "Matrix", we're hyperconnected, we know everything about people; if you can't handle something at that moment, say so, no problem: "I can't right now, I'm on such-and-such matter, as soon as I finish I'll review it".
Commitment is also demonstrated through proactivity. I greatly value people who, on their own, propose new strategies, new projects, who try to think "outside the box" and don't strictly do only what the boss tells them, because the boss doesn't know everything... the boss is there to steer the ship, make decisions and, above all, to keep the team united toward a global objective.
There's nothing more valuable in a company than a passionate and committed worker.
5.- Explain to your children that you're working.
Children find that "mommy is working from home" thing a bit hard, they don't quite get it. My youngest daughter believes I'm working when I put on high-heeled shoes, regardless of the circumstance; for her "heels = work", so seeing me with flat shoes and at home doesn't fit into her mental box of "mommy working".
So you have to explain to them that the situation forces us to work from home, and that they'll have to respect certain rules; they can interrupt us but only for a short time and always asking permission. Ideally, if they're at home, set them goals for the day too, basically homework, otherwise it's going to be very complicated for them to let us work...(I set them goals and incentives for achieving them :P).
From a young age they should understand that we work to pay for all those things they like; the soccer balls, the PlayStation, the holidays, the new clothes, they should even know that school costs money. Don't let them think that money comes out of the ATM by magic! If mommy does her job badly... well, we all end up worse off, so since they're not fools, just little ones... they'll surely let you work more if they understand it :).
We'll get through this together if we're responsible, as parents and as businesspeople. #IStayAtHome
Happiness is not the absence of problems; it's the ability to deal with them.
Steve Maraboli.
Good luck with teleworking!
if you liked the tips, leave us your comments :).
woman&business
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