Goho From Home: A Series for SMEs - Leadership
Goho From Home: A Series for SMEs - Leadership
by Lana Mepham, Marketing & Events Manager @ Goho
This week, we launched the second instalment in our webinar series: Goho From Home, A Series for SMEs. The webinar was high energy, reflective and provided practical advice on leading teams through remote channels, keeping teams motivated and supporting the transition back to ‘normality’ post COVID-19.
Stacey-Rebekka Karlsson, our fabulous Managing Director led the discussion, with special guests; Chris Naylor, Chief Executive at the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham and Vivien Wong, Founder of Little Moons Mochi. https://www.littlemoons.co.uk/
In case you’re the reading type, we’ve captured the key takeaways from the session below:
Re-create the ‘coffee machine’ moment
Both Vivien and Chris stressed the importance of keeping the social side of your organisation & teams going and retaining as much ‘normality’ as possible - despite working from home or not working.
Chris Naylor took the step to write to each of his employees, telling them to take the holiday they’ve already booked over Easter, while Vivien has continued with regular communication, 1-2-1s and providing the entire organisation with the Headspace app.
The return to normal - how do you lead through that?
‘I’m open to working from home more’
Vivien explained that she’s been surprised by her team's transition to working from home and hasn’t seen a dip in productivity. So when ‘normality’ does arrive, she’s happy to introduce flexible working to make the transition a bit easier for the team.
Chris introduced his ‘theory of packing’ at this point- you’ve got as long as you’ve got to pack your suitcase. If you have 2 weeks, it will take 2 weeks. If you’ve got 20 mins it will take 20 mins. The thing that he’s been surprised at during COVID - is how quickly things can take when they need to.
What if someone is making problems? How, as a leader, do you deal with that?
Both Vivien & Chris explained that it shouldn't be a blanket response from ‘the leader’ - there should be questions asked and then time spent listening. Then, like any leader, install good old problem solving. There’s always a reason and it’s likely to have a fairly simple solution.
Will employees' health now move up the agenda?
‘We need to think differently about
how people balance home and work life’
How we implement messages about health in the physical workplace, needs to be addressed. It’s so important to be conscious of your employees and what they’re balancing work with. How can we help them retain a positive & effective balance? How do we ensure that employees' health is considered in normal routines?
Vivien explained that having worked in organisations that have not valued their employees she has always made sure it is a top priority for Little Moons. Therefore Little Moons Mochi already has employee health and wellbeing messages in place. Whereas for Chris, he’s realised that there’s a lack of understanding around how employees balance their personal life with their work-life, and post COVID-19 this will be high up on the agenda for many organisations.
What are the implications of companies that haven’t treated their employees fairly through COVID?
Vivien, Chris & Stacey all agreed that the companies that haven’t put their employees first, will have a direct effect on where consumers place their trust and money post COVID-19. Companies, take note!
We’ll be posting the recording from this session on our site in the coming days, but in the meantime make sure you register for our next session, where we’ll be addressing how Technology can support teams & SMEs working remotely.
