Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Helping Your Employees Be Safe and Stay Motivated During COVID-19 with Lori M. Ruffin

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Helping Your Employees Be Safe and Stay Motivated During COVID-19 with Lori M. Ruffin · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  3, 10, 1, 0, ignition, liftoff,
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert Melinda Emerson.
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  Bolinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you've dream of.
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  No.
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  Here's the small biz lady herself.
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  Melinda Emerson.
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  Hi.
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  Good evening, everybody.
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  This is Melinda Emerson.
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  The small biz America's number one small business expert, and I'm happy to welcome you
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  to small biz chat.
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  Now small biz chat live is a peer to peer interview show that gives small business owners
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  a way to get and share invaluable business advice.
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  The mission of small business chat is to end small business failure.
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  If you have been suffering or your business has been adversely affected by the pandemic,
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  Chances are your employees are suffering too, and you must consider how to get ready to get
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  them back to business.
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  My next guest, Lori Ruffin, is an UPI strategist, thinker, speaker, and founder of
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  the COO team, an operations agency that specializes in helping visionary leaders get
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  the strategy and systems they need to scale.
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  She's drawing from her.
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  Experiences of fortune with fortune 500 companies serving national and international
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  nonprofits, and she specializes in working with entrepreneurs who lead small and midsize
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  businesses to expand their capacity.
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  Laurie, thank you so much for being with us.
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  You know, you guys over at the COO team has been working hard these days, helping everybody
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  figure out what to do to keep their employees safe and and and and compliant, frankly.
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  So welcome to small business chat.
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  Thank I'm really glad to be with you, Melinda.
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  When everything happened back in March with COVID-nineteen when we were sheltering in place
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  and understand home orders, a lot of leaders found themselves just disillusioned and
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  wondering what in the world are we gonna do for our organization?
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  What are we gonna say to our people?
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  And that was a very disorienting time.
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  And then you fast forward to the end of May and you've got the recent deaths of George Floyd
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  and Breonna Taylor and the the civil unrest that ensued after that.
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  And so it's another hit.
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  And so by now, you see that people are impacted by children being at home by dealing with the
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  financial distress and uncertainty of either being laid off or not knowing if you would be
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  laid off, all of these things have caused a lot of tension and a lot of disruption for our
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  people.
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  And so at the CO team, what we've been doing is continuing to walk alongside of visionary
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  leaders, executive directors, CEOs, helping them to really think what do we need to do now
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  to support our people.
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  As we know, people are the backbone of an organization.
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  They're the ones who are delivering the service.
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  Selling the product and our ability to support our teams really makes a difference in whether
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  or not we are gonna actually be able to survive times like this.
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  And still show up for our clients and for our customers.
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  So how can we teams motivated with all of that?
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  I mean, all of that back story.
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  It's like, oh, okay.
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  Well, how am I gonna get Johnny to come to work on Monday?
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  You know, like, what what do I gotta do and and to have him be invest it and present when he
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  gets to work.
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  What do I need to do?
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  Yes.
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  Well, one of the things that we really early on encouraged leaders to do was to revisit your
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  value.
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  So I really love that Mary Fran suggested that and recommended that It's so important because
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  it's the consistency on how we deliver on our values in times of distress that builds trust
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  or creates an dissonance of hypocrisy or apathy.
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  This is not the time to kinda sit back and say, hey, we'll just kinda ride this out.
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  No.
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  It's time to double down on our values and revisit them if we don't know them, kind of go
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  back into those strategic documents and say, what have we said we are about?
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  And now let's actually show up in ways that are consistent with that and I think that that
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  really helps organizations, 1, deliver on their brand promise internally, but then also it
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  gives the team something to to to remind themselves of why did I join this organization
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  originally and yes, I can continue to count on what we said we are about.
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  Well, how can you help sort of
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  the businesses that you work within and all of us too?
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  Think about a company reset versus just a restart.
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  Right?
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  You can't just assume people are gonna come back and step back into the roles they were in
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  and be good.
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  Right?
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  I mean, that's not really realistic.
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  Well, things have changed so much.
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  I mean, think about it A lot of organizations have had to pivot.
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  We were able to walk with a lot of organizations that had face to face programs
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  and events and they had to bring those things online.
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  So, part of it is discovering together as a team.
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  What do we need to do now?
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  And so once you we always refer to a few things as grounding elements.
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  So, one, we talk about values, but we would also say that vision and mission are really
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  important?
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  Like, what is the main problem that you're seeking to solve in the world and what and what
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  are you doing it for whom?
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  Once you kinda coalesce the team around those factors, then you can explore, okay, now the
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  landscape is different.
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  What does it look like for us to serve our clients given our current limitations, and
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  sometimes we don't know the answers to that question.
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  So instead of restarting, as if we're continuing to do what we used to do, we are
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  resetting.
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  We're resetting expectations.
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  We're inviting our teams into conversation around defining how do we move forward and
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  continue to provide value and service to our client.
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  And we do that together.
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  So now that we're some businesses in some parts of the country are reopening, how should
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  business owners create saving and welcoming environments for those employees that are
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  coming back.
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  And what if your people are like?
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  Look, man, I don't feel comfortable coming back.
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  I mean, what, you know, how do you handle what should your reaction be to all of that?
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  Yes.
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  I think flexibility is key, Melinda.
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  This is not the time to be heavy handed.
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  It's really important to think about what is essential and what is flexible and so one,
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  every state is in a different phase of reopening phase 1, phase 2, phase 3, really
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  tracking and finding out what are the governing recommendations around preparing your actual
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  space for, having people in, what the social distancing look look like, making sure that you
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  have the right cleaning phone calls.
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  And so doing those things and letting your team know that you are committed to honoring those
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  recommendations and then allowing people to have provisions.
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  Some people are in high risk categories and they may need to continue to work from home.
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  Be supportive of that.
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  Utilize technology.
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  We've been doing this for, you know, the last 4 months And so if we need to extend that, I
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  think part of that goodwill is is really having that conversation with your team members and
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  finding out what does each need, what can they do, and how can we work together to make sure
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  that the essential elements of our operations can be taken care of but that we're able to
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  meet people where they are.
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  So how can you foster an environment with your team that encourages new ideas and innovation
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  right now?
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  Mean, absolutely.
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  How do we do that?
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  We've gotta make time for it.
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  So if we do not schedule it on our calendar, we will not actually get it done.
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  Right?
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  So one of the things that organizations can do is schedule time, whether that's biweekly or
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  weekly to create space for new ideas and innovation.
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  You know, a lot of times, well, before pre COVID 19, we talked about stand up meetings
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  where you rally the team together and maybe throw out an idea and allow people to just kind
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  of brainstorm and ideate That can keep people energized and feeling like they can contribute
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  to problem solving and or just expressing new ideas for how to do old things.
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  Sure.
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  Now one of the things that I that I wanted to make sure I asked you about was this concept of
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  staying connected with furloughed employees and then kinda managing the the expectations of
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  your current employees that are still employed.
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  I mean, some of them may have, I guess, what we call, like, survivor's guilt, you know, because
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  they'd be like, wow, you know, these four people got laid off, but I still got my job.
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  You know, like, so how do you keep people's head in the game and and and sort of, like,
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  honor your furloughed employees, but understand that, you know, obviously decisions had to be
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  made to keep the business going.
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  How do you manage that?
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  Yes.
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  So one of the things that we like to talk about is that every organization needs to have a
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  people plan to begin with.
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  An effective people plan includes a talent acquisition plan, and that plan is really
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  keeping a short list of the types of roles and positions that an organization needs, what are
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  the soft skills, hard skills, and when are you gonna need people on the team?
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  And so when you have furloughed employees, that means you have people that you've already made
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  a decision about in the past that still have their same skills, still have their same
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  capabilities, There is no reason why those relationships cannot be maintained.
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  I think wisdom for leaders is to contact them, let the relationships stay fresh.
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  It's unfortunate that many have had to be furloughed, but what prevents them from coming
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  back should the opportunity make sense for the organization?
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  And then for those that are on the team that still have their job, you know, survivor's
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  guilt is a real thing, but I would say to cultivate a a culture of gratitude and and and
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  and and just reflectiveness as well to say, you know, we are We are really in hard times here
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  to be able to limit with employees that maybe are concerned about the loss of you know,
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  employment for their friends and colleagues, but then also to say, you know, we're we're
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  grateful that we can still do this.
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  And you know, we all have networks and so one of the other things that we can do is is to
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  keep people top of mind again.
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  So whether that's helping them to stay on the radar for an opportunity within and or
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  opportunities without.
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  I think that just because someone transitions off doesn't mean that we have to lose the value
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  of of team and mutual support.
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  How important is it?
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  And this is my last question for the business owner to help everyone sort of, like, focus on
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  future opportunities for the company.
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  You know?
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  And I think we've gotta be thinking now about what are our customers gonna need 2 years from
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  now, not just what they need right now.
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  Right?
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  Yes.
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  So for all of the organizations that were winging it pre COVID nineteen, This is
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  definitely the time to stop and get back to strategic planning.
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  So, of course, we don't know what the landscape gonna look like, you know, 12 months from now.
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  We don't know what it's gonna look like 6 months from now, but effective strategic
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  planning will at least ask questions around what are our strengths, what are our
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  weaknesses, what are our opportunities, what are our threats, and what is it that we need to
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  be working on so that we are aligned and able to take advantage of opportunities where we are
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  able to then also strengthen our weaknesses and leverage our strengths for for all of that.
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  So I think it's important to stop and ask those questions to have the those discussions with
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  our teams and with our leadership so that the team is ready and can be nimble and be able to
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  be responsive to the opportunities at hand.
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  Oh, I'm sorry.
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  Go ahead.
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  Oh, I was just gonna say without having those conversations, people are are kind of lost.
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  Like, it's already externally disorienting.
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  And then it would be internally confusing about where we're going without having those
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  conversations.
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  Well, thank you so much, Lori, for that sage wisdom.
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  I think you've given all
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  of us some kernels of things to think about as we think about our current organization,
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  retooling our organization, and being ready for the future of work.
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  That's for sure.
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  Tell us what is your favorite podcast?
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  That's what I wanna know.
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  Alright, Laurie.
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  What's your favorite podcast?
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  I love lead stories with Joe Saxon and Stephanie Bryan.
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  I really love those stories that they share and principles they share about leadership.
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  And so while it's not directly correlated to the type of work that we do with the COO team,
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  I love that they are women leaders and they are so inspiring and always just giving great
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  nuggets for how to stay focused as a leader and effective as a leader.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  Laurie, what's your favorite business app?
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  I think my favorite business app is Canva.
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  I love recommending it to my clients and it has really been a game changer, you know, pre
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  Canva, anytime you had to make a flyer in a in a jiffy you were doing things with Microsoft
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  Word and those were horrible.
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  You know that those lines are horrible.
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  But now with Canva, everybody love.
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  Fantastic.
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  Your brand can be consistent, which is very important for communications.
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  So that gets my vote.
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  Good stuff.
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  Good stuff.
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  How do you stay motivated?
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  What motivates you in your business?
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  What is your secret thing that you do to just like, alright.
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  Let's let's go.
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  Like, how do you get there.
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  Yes.
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  So I I really am inwardly motivated.
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  I remember my calling, and I know that my purpose is to help individuals and
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  organizations fulfill their purpose.
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  That is my call in the life.
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  I'm known as this middle school.
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  And so when I think about the fact that the leaders that I serve and the organizations that
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  they are leading are doing great work, it motivates me to equip them to build capacity.
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  Strategic capacity, operational alignment, and people capacity.
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  And when I do that, when I think about that, I'm like, yes, let's go.
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  Let's have that meeting Let's pull out the spreadsheet.
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  Let's do the plan because we know that there's impact when people's lives will be changed
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  because of the work that I do.
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  And you know that you are a process engineer talking about take the spreadsheet out.
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  Alright.
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  Laurie, what's your favorite business book?
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  Alright.
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  This is tough because I've got to that tie, I'm just gonna jump out there with one of them.
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  What it's called necessary endings by Henry Cloud.
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  And so The thing that I love about it is not exactly a business book, but it talks about how
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  in life things have to come to an end in order to have a new beginning.
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  And so since we work with visionary leaders that are so excited and they're so eager, they
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  jump in headfirst and don't often think about the operational pieces.
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  They can often take on a lot of things, and what we like to let them know is less is more.
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  In cutting back and bringing certain things to it in, it gives an opportunity for resources
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  and energy to go to what can be more fruitful and what can last and what can be more
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  sustainable.
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  So I like that the framework of the book just really challenges our presuppositions as well
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  as our tendency to hold on much longer than we should.
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  And so I think that there's freedom in releasing and things so that other more
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  productive and efficient and effective things can emerge, forward.
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  Well, that was a great explanation of that, but you make me wanna go read it and Certainly, I
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  wanna share with you my favorite business book is the e myth revisited by Michael Gerber.
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  I read it a lot of years ago, and it changed my life.
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  And so That is my favorite business book.
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  And with that, I want to thank my awesome guest.
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  Thank you all so much for joining me tonight.
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  Please head over to succeed as your own boss dotcom, and you get more information about my 3
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  guests.
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  And I wanna leave you with this.
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  Thank you so much for watching small business chat live.
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  The mission of small business chat live is to end small business failure.
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  And I wanna leave you with this.
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  You never lose in business, either you win or you learn.
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  Thank you, everybody.
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  Good night.
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  Thank you for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday.