Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Helping Your Remote Team Perform Better with Jennifer Leake

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Helping Your Remote Team Perform Better with Jennifer Leake · 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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  Now here's the small Biz lady herself.
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  Melinda Emerson.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson.
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  The small Biz lady, and welcome to small biz chat live.
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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 biz chat is to end small business failure.
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  And we've been doing this thing 11 years, and we're not gonna stop anytime soon.
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  We all know right now we are living in perilous times, and we need motivation inspiration and
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  good ideas.
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  And that is what we have for you tonight.
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  You know, our goal at small business chat is to give you information Sage advice that's gonna
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  take your business to the next level.
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  And now I'm so excited to introduce my next guest.
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  She's a dear friend of mine.
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  Her name is Jennifer Lee.
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  And she is an HR expert, and she specializes in effective recruitment and retention of
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  employees.
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  She's the CEO of Assessment Pros and she created the get engaged people system, a
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  blueprint to help who and how you hire.
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  And she's built a program to help people, you know, grow and become more profitable by hiring
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  the right employees.
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  And so I'm so excited to have her here today because now we're gonna be about helping
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  everybody's working from home.
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  You might be managing a remote team, and she's gonna give us some insight on how to help your
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  remote team perform better.
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  Jennifer, welcome to Mobish chat live.
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  Well, great being here, Melinda.
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  It's always wonderful to hang with you.
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  Alright.
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  Alright.
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  So let's jump in here.
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  I know that how hard is it to manage a remote worker who's not used to work and remote.
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  I mean, like, if some of these people are working remote for the first time, can you talk
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  to us about how we as business owners need to kinda be aware that this is tough for some
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  people.
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  That's that's exactly what
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  I was gonna share when you said, you know, what's hard to manage.
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  What's hard about it is to have because not everybody is the same.
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  You know, for I don't think managing a remote worker is not really a lot different if you
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  know the person than managing them in person because you just wanna avoid being a one size
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  fits all approach to managing.
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  And that's with a remote worker, as well as with a, a, a worker that's in your office with
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  you.
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  You know, for instance, I'm reading about remote workers.
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  And advice I'm getting is very generic.
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  It's saying call them once a day and find out what they're doing and send them a personal
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  note, and those are all wonderful.
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  But I'm gonna tell you, if I'm your remote worker and you're gonna call me once a day and
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  ask me what it is I'm doing every day, I'm gonna think you don't trust me, and that's
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  probably gonna annoy me.
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  So I think the first thing what's hard to manage is it's even more important to know your
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  people individually, to know exactly what motivates them, what, and and we're gonna talk,
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  you know, I wanna share a little bit what are some of the steps that are or the things that
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  make it hard for individuals.
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  And I'm really concerned about this, Melinda, because before people We're being successful in
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  an office as a manager, as a leader.
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  And now we have thrust them in a new environment with a lot of different things.
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  And a third of them are gonna do fine.
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  And a third will struggle, but we'll be okay if you manage them appropriately.
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  And a third are really at risk of failing, even though they were good workers before.
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  So I'm just I'm just passionate about helping those 2 thirds because we don't wanna put them
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  to the unemployment, and we also don't wanna lose key talent just because of the environment
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  around us.
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  Alright.
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  So let's talk about that.
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  How can you set your remote worker up for success.
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  What do you need to do?
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  Well, I think the 4 biggest challenge,
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  you know, I said it's very similar to being in an office as far as who they are.
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  But now they don't have, a social interaction as much as they did in the office.
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  You can't go next to the, you know, walk over and talk to a coworker and ask their advice or
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  something.
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  So now they have no social interaction with with fellow workers.
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  They are having to manage their own time when you have a when you have a question, you need
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  the decision that there's communication delays just by nature that you're not at all together.
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  And then, of course, we have the home distractions.
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  You know, you're, like, Scott was telling you that he has to home home schooling and, you
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  know, so so there's just a lot going on at home, emotionally, mentally, as well as trying
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  to get the work done.
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  Understand.
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  So I think the biggest challenge I have found to remote working is it just lacks kind of
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  structure.
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  Right?
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  You know, people people have these fantasies of, you know, making millions in their jammies
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  kind of stuff.
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  You know, so it's like, how how can you help your employees sort of, like, establish basic
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  working procedures, you know, so that it doesn't affect the quality of their work, but,
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  obviously, it is a more flexible work environment.
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  But how can you help people build some structure and processes around?
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  Well, I've got a few tips, and one of them, I was just loving what Scott said, is I think you
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  have to really have very clear expectations of the actions and the results you want.
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  Scott mentioned that, you know, if it's mismatched or unfulfilled expectations, that's
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  gonna set them up for failure.
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  And and and the more metric you can make it, the better.
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  So it's not just expectations.
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  It's, you know, if we can put some numbers to it, target goals, things like that.
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  That's what you can check on too.
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  How many calls did you make if you're in sales or, you know, so some so the metrics.
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  And then Also, make sure that they have the tools that they're gonna need remotely.
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  If you stick them in a remote environment and don't give them things, the technology, the
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  materials that they're gonna need.
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  They had it before, or they didn't need it before, and now they need it.
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  So you really have to give them those tools that they need.
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  And then I think you have to have a communication plan.
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  You wanna, you know, how how often should we meet once a once a day people once a week for
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  someone else.
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  I'd be great with once a week, not so happy with once a day.
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  And then when we do meet, do we have an agenda?
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  What do we wanna accomplish when we meet?
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  And then There's gonna be some unforeseen situations that can get in the way of our
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  success.
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  So can we anticipate any of them and come up with a plan for that?
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  Alright.
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  But what about our social wise?
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  What about these people who need the social interaction?
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  What do we do for them?
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  Obviously, these kinds of meetings are good because I get my I'm a very big extrovert, and
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  I get my fix.
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  And I don't know if other extroverts who agree with this, but I have found that I went to far
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  too many meetings when I could, networking meetings, business meetings, but and I am
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  actually loving the fact that I don't have to go to as many meetings, and I'm gonna revisit
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  how many meetings I actually go to when I get to go to a meeting.
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  Maybe I'll run to a bunch in the beginning not fixed, but I sure am reevaluating how many
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  meetings I really need to be part of.
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  I agree with that as well.
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  And then what about you think it's important to get data on your employees to really understand
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  their best work environment.
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  What's the best way to go about doing that?
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  Well, I'm I love that you said I'm a HR expert, and I really don't consider it myself.
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  I'm more a people analytics expert, and that's I do work in the HR.
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  So I think that some of the kind of information you want on people is You want to know what's
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  their need for structure and progress and and, and process.
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  You know, do they are they by nature a good person in structure and process, or do you need
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  to help them with that?
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  And then I talked about time management.
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  If you look at one of my my the analytics on me, I am not so good with time management.
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  Sometimes working at 11 o'clock at night because I haven't managed my time.
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  So that would be something how I organize my day would be some help I would need if you were
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  managing me We did talk about the need for interaction.
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  So if I know their need for structure and process, and do we have that in place?
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  If I know how they're gonna communicate and interact, if I know they need help or don't
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  need help or have it covered for their organization and time management.
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  We I gotta know what's their comfort level in making decisions because I may not be there to
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  make those decisions with them or for them.
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  And so give them either the autonomy to do it, give them the guidelines to do it, or have a
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  plan for them to be able to, you know, text me or something.
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  If you aren't somebody who can make a decision, And then you wanna know if it's if this whole
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  thing is stressful to them and why and and build that into your plan.
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  And all of this is not something you're gonna know naturally.
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  You're not gonna get that with some, without some kind of an assessment, evaluating those
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  traits.
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  Okay.
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  So how do I work with are there some some low cost or, you know, because we're small business
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  owners.
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  So I don't need an enterprise solution.
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  What is there some kind of software that I can use to evaluate employees so that I understand
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  these things about my team.
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  That is why I'm so excited that you sent me that you let me come visit you for you tonight
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  because I agree.
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  I work with smaller businesses.
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  I love smaller business.
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  I think they keep the country operating and going.
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  And when they come back in, we wanna be able to jump in with them, but it is a larger company
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  could use it too, but the I'm using a company called best work data.
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  They're measuring traits like how how do you handle details, how do you handle rules?
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  What's your assertiveness level?
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  How much people do you need, how you handle stress, and what kind of team do you like to
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  work in?
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  And best work data is actually we created this report, this re a report remoteers for remote
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  workers about 6 weeks ago.
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  And they feel that, you know, I talked about the 2 thirds maybe at risk, They're so
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  passionate about work data that they are offering this assessment at no cost.
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  It's a 10 minute survey that you can get on your people, and it'll give you a easy to read
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  report on how to manage them based on some of the things we've been talking about tonight.
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  And You know, so for instance, it's it's if you look at my report, the good thing about my
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  report tells me that I am open to change, and I can adapt easily to this remote working thing.
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  The challenge is I need some sort of schedule that I, I need some external accountability.
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  I am terrible at keeping myself on track.
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  So and I also have a very clear work area.
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  I come downstairs.
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  I shut up my door.
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  I am at work.
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  I'm free from distractions, and you know, that's the kind of information that we wanna
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  know on these, on our on our people, because I can have those insights into my worker I can
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  have insights on how to manage them.
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  And the 3rd report they're offering is insights into me as a man as a remote coach So what can
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  get in my way to help you as well as what can get in the way of you doing your work as well?
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  Good stuff.
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  Good stuff.
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  Alright, Jennifer.
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  I'm gonna stop you right there.
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  We've gotta go to commercial, but when we come back, I wanna talk to you about how we can
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  motivate that shy employee to turn their camera on when we are having a remote meeting This is
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  Melinda Emerson.
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  I'm the small bitch lady.
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  You are watching small bitch chat live, and we will be right back.
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  Are you tired of struggling in your business, not picking up paycheck, dreading dealing with
• 11:16
  your business in the morning?
• 11:18
  Are you regretting even starting your business first place?
• 11:21
  Well, I know you're tired, and I also remember what that kind of tire is like, but the good
• 11:26
  news is it's time to stop feeling that way.
• 11:30
  Stop.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson's small business lady, and my new book would fix your business as a ninety
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  day turnaround plan to get back your life and reduce chaos in your business.
• 11:40
  I've been in business nearly 20 years and let me teach you how to build a business that works
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  for you.
• 11:46
  Grab a copy today.
• 11:50
  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small business lady.
• 11:52
  Welcome back to small business chat.
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  We've been talking with Jennifer Link HR expert, and she's gonna talk to us now about
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  you know, this sort of, like, working from home etiquette, zoom, and get all that kind of
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  stuff.
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  Alright, Jennifer.
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  So, you know, sort of, like, phone manner and Zoom meeting protocols that that people need to
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  know about so that they they can be successful.
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  I you asked me before we went to break.
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  What how would I get my person to turn on their camera?
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  And and I'm gonna say, I don't know if I would force them to do that.
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  Because we're still trying to manage and motivate these peep the ER remote workers.
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  So if it wasn't vital to have it happen, they probably were shy and didn't speak up much when
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  we had live meetings.
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  So if they're not if they're there and they're contributing, and I may call on it, I would
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  probably some of the stuff I'm not gonna do any differently managing them than I would in
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  person.
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  They're still the same people.
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  We still have the same things.
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  At times, I think I would If I if it was required, I'd ask them to turn it on.
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  Maybe they don't have a camera.
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  That's, again, with the technology.
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  Do they have a camera to turn it on?
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  Right.
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  Right.
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  I'm not sure I'd force them.
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  And what about, you know, phone meeting protocol and stuff?
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  You know, I I find you still have to tell people you know, to mute themselves and stuff.
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  When everybody's got dogs and kids and stuff in the background, it's like, should people know
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  that, or do you have to kinda go through these sort of, like, housekeeping things at the
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  beginning of every meeting.
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  Well, just think about in in real in live meetings.
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  How many times do we tell people put your phones away?
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  Turn everything on and ring her, you know, take your ringer off So I I said before, have very
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  clear expectations of and and metrics.
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  So that's some kind of a metric, I think.
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  Make sure you're you're you know, if you can't mute your stuff.
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  If not, then on Zoom, you can mute everybody.
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  So I think you start you start on time.
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  You end on time.
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  You have an agenda.
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  You still have expectations for participation.
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  If that was your culture and your protocols in the office, it probably will transfer to remote
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  workers too.
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  And if you didn't have it before, you'd now you'd be a better start having it.
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  And then when you come back, maybe you'll have to be in better meetings when you come back to
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  work.
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  Alright.
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  Good stuff.
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  And now last question for you.
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  As the manager or business owner, how important is it for you to let your team know how to
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  communicate with you?
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  Cause I've seen this where you might have a a remote colleague who might escalate something
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  that really isn't urgent, but because they want an answer, they wanna make it urgent.
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  You know what I mean?
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  So how do you kinda manage peoples?
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  Don't be calling me about dumb stuff.
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  Kinda, you know, I mean, How do you manage that as a business owner and and you're busy trying
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  to manage, you know, your dogs and your kids and being a manager and your manager calling
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  you?
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  Like, do you kinda manage all that?
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  Again, I made it sound like I'm just repeating my answer, but if that was a kind of a per if a
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  person's calling you for everything right now, I would doubt that that is any different than
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  they did when they were in the office with you again, that they probably were the one that
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  asked you every day and came by and, you know, and maybe with a little more high maintenance
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  than than some another employee.
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  And so, again, it's going back to knowing your people, you can anticipate it.
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  Now you can set expectations.
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  You can say here, you can create communication protocols.
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  Alright.
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  The first thing you do is me.
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  And then if I don't answer you within an hour, then give me a phone call.
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  But do not be calling me every minute of everything that's happening.
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  These are the same people you have had working for you.
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  If you are surprised by the remote behavior, you didn't know them to begin with, and you
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  really need some people analytics.
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  Jennifer, what's your favorite podcast?
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  Yours.
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  You're very sweet.
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  I don't think I have a favorite.
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  I'm not I haven't been a big podcast person, but now I I've just launched a podcast.
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  And so I'm watching others to learn from other people.
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  Alright.
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  So tell us the name of your podcast, Jennifer?
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  Called sales hiring straight talk in we launched it just in time for the pandemic in
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  February, but, yeah, sales hiring straight talk.
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  I do it with a partner, female partner, and we it's all about how to hire salespeople.
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  It's a 6 step process.
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  However, it's the 6 step process could be used for anybody.
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  Good stuff.
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  Good stuff.
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  Alright.
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  What is your favorite business app?
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  Favorite business app?
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  My it's a new one for me.
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  It's slack.
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  I am so sometimes confused.
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  I get I know I've gotten a message from somebody, but it come up.
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  Did it come in Messenger?
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  Did it come in LinkedIn?
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  Did it come in my email?
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  The threads get confusing?
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  So I'm in 4 Slack groups, s l a c k, if you don't know it.
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  And it it you can put things in channels, and I have just found it to be a godsend in keeping
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  things straight and, you know, on track and things like that.
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  Jennifer, what's your favorite old school marketing tip?
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  Well, John took my first one, and then my backup Scott just took So I'm gonna quote
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  Joanne Black.
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  Pick up the damn phone.
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  Here you go.
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  Yes.
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  Magic happens on the phone.
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  I completely, completely agree.
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  And I will tell you guys my.
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  I love writing handwritten personal notes to people.
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  I still do it a lot.
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  Never somebody buys one of my books, and they buy they want an autograph copy from me.
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  I always send a note in it thanking them for for buying my book.
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  And it it is amazing how how people have taking the note, not the book, the note, and put the
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  note on Instagram.
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  Oops.
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  She sent me this note.
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  You know?
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  So I I still think making people feel important with a a handwritten note still works very
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  much.
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  Alright.
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  Last question.
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  What is your favorite business book?
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  Favorite business book that you've read either recently or all of all time.
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  I'm not sure it's my favorite, but it's top of mind right now.
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  Somebody posted on LinkedIn this yesterday or the day before the book.
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  Who moved my cheese?
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  And I'm like, well, that was a great book.
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  And right now, I don't even know where the cheese is.
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  You know?
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  So I pulled it out off my shelf and planning to read it this weekend because and so that's the
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  one I wanna put out there right now.
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  I I do think it's interesting that at this time, people are going back to books, like,
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  going back to them oldie but goodies that that saved you the last time.
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  So I I appreciate that.
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  Well, listen.
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  Thank you all so very much.
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  I wanna leave you all with this.
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  You never lose in business.
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  Either you win or you learn.
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  You wanna learn more about my guest tonight.
• 18:04
  Head over to my blog.
• 18:05
  Succeed is your own boss.com.
• 18:07
  I am Melinda Emerson, the small business lady, and I will see you next time.
• 18:13
  Thank you for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
• 18:19
  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
• 18:25
  So swipe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday.