virtual teamwork

How Management has Changed Since Covid-19

In an Oct. 2023 Forbes article, Anupam Satyasheel outlines how management has changed since Covid-10 and how future-minded, thoughtful organizations have embraced these changes:

1. Remote Work and Flexibility. Some companies insisted workers return to the office after the pandemic, but other realized employees were happier, more productive, and more willing to participate in company culture remotely.

2. Emphasis on Employee Well-Being. Managers who genuinely ask how their employees are doing will gain their trust and confidence, and know that employee well-being amounts to company well-being.

3. Digital Transformation. We can't forget that employee are the operators of the increased technology we see. Good management encourages online interactions and creates digital experiences for employees.

4. Remote Team Building and Leadership. In a remote work environment, team bonding is not naturally cultivated. This needs to be an intentional effort by managers to maintain morale.

5. Talent Acquisition and Retention. Hiring and retaining talent has become a different effort because interviewing is often remote and managers don't have the bandwidth to respond to every job application. In terms of retaining talent, managers should be proactive with department and team meetings, check-ins and continuous team building.

Our Five Behaviors Personal and Team Development profiles/facilitated conversations can be done virtually or in-person and create a language and connection that's not easily achieved otherwise. DM me for more info or a demo!

The water we are swimming in and how we can adapt

Based on Deloitte, Gallup and McKinsey analyses, here is what we are facing now in our organizations:

  • •77% of managers don’t believe in their talent acquisition strategy

  • •77% of managers don’t believe in their talent acquisition strategy

    •73% of employees aren’t engaged

    •70% of team members don’t feel considered

    •Organizations need help finding and engaging their people.

    •Gig economy: by 2020 40% of all workers will be contract

    •Skill sets needed in 2030: decrease in basic cognitive, small increase in higher cognitive, large increase in social/emotional

    •Continuous learning needed

    •Shifting organizational structure – matrixed organizations

    •Agile systems, processes needed

    • Rapid pace of change

    •Disruptive forces

    •Globalization

    •Demographics diverse in country of origin, age, ethnicity, culture, gender, language

    •Technology advancing rapidly

This results in things people in organizations have to do differently now:

•Change direction quickly

•Communicate effectively

•Accept and work well with differences of perspective

•Form effective teams quickly

•Create teamwork with nontraditional arrangements

•Define selves by effectiveness not by title

•Create psychological safety so good ideas can surface

•Create personal connection amid increased technology

•Hire using more than resume – fit now more important

•Share power and information

We have tools to enable you and your organization to adapt and be successful! See our products on this site for more information and call me with your questions or to order!

The State of Teams

The current pandemic has put a spotlight on the importance of teaming and collaboration in a fluid environment. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. conducted a survey in February and early March 2020 to investigate how employees and employers are responding to the dynamic nature of teams in the workplace. Based on the responses of 20,000+ employees from individual contributors to C-suite executives across a wide range of industries, they found that teams suffer from a critical interpersonal skills gap that impedes their potential to achieve. Here are some highlights of their results:

  1. People are on several teams (76% of respondents) and the higher up one goes in an organization, the more teams they are on (Directors and Execs reported 5+ teams).

  2. People are working on more types of teams. (73% of respondents). These types include departmental, project, cross-functional, management and matrix.

  3. Teams are more dispersed. (28% of people reported working on a team with someone based in another country and 51% reported working on a team where at least 1 member collaborated virtually).

  4. Individuals are often unaware or unable to consistently practice the behaviors that will ensure team success. 99% of people agreed with the statement “I am a good team member” BUT..

    • 79% reported that their teammates don’t acknowledge their weaknesses to each other, lowering trust.

    • 55% leave meetings without collective commitment to agreed-upon decisions, lowering the collective commitment level.

    • 59% say their team members don’t take personal responsibility to improve team performance moving forward, bringing down accountability.

  5. Time and money are wasted dealing with ineffective teamwork. Employees reported spending 7 hours/week with the effects of poor teamwork which equates to 2 months a year and in financial terms, that’s $1 Trillion dollars per year in the US.

  6. High stress leads to high turnover. 42% have left jobs due to bad team experiences.

  7. Nearly everyone agreed that it would be worth their time to develop and improve their teamwork skills. 98% of managers, directors and executives believed skill development is absolutely worth their team’s time and 86% said effective teamwork is more important to their organization’s success now than it was 5 years ago.

And the repercussions of COVID-19 make teamwork more important. 22% stated they were not confident that their teams could maintain the same performance levels virtually and 29% said they are not confident that they will feel personally connected as they work remotely. As many more teams have now become physically separated, the need for a strong foundation of teamwork and communication among colleagues is more important than ever before.

We have tools to help you make the most of your virtual teamwork during this time of change. Look on this website for more on the Five Behaviors products and call me at 704-372-9842 to learn how to put them in place on your teams.