Is your team tuned to “new normal”

Rajesh Narayan

Co Founder & Chief Business Officer at Ace Logic Solution

Looking at the new pandemic hovering around us, the most important question is the new normal around us – we are yet juggling with the normal work from home and cribbing more on getting our “old normal lives back”, aren’t we?

As I write this article, I have not been physically present with my team since last 6 months and trust me, it pinches me the most. All we do is come on audio and video calls, discuss work and see what are the series happening on the OTT’s ( be it Netflix or Amazon Prime) and the rest of the news happening around the world!! And, endless topics or choices on what about to cook and all…(just to tell you all – I am the one on the other side of the table – I love to eat and I can bet, I can beat anyone in having yummy, lip smacking curd rice – thanks to my South Indie genes)

Switch on your video pls

And here comes the most amazing line of the decade – Am I Audible? Is my video clear? Oops..sorry missed on the video, some technical issue. One thing is sure all of us sometime or the other have used this and we all have been having the literal “ROFL” in our mind. Coming back to my thoughts, especially on the video calls, it has always been a mandate with my team members and folks to have all of us keeping our video tabs on, not only for seeing each other but also for getting a strong feeler that we are close at least virtually! At least we can feel a virtual F2F! With erratic schedules as some of the clients are randomly available, it becomes much easier to catch up on videos too (even with a long hair is fine, at least we can have some dash of humor to catch up on)

A.S.K – Assimilate Sensible/Senseless Knowledge

Surely you are surprised to see this full form of A.S.K? Aren’t you? Well, its been one of the most uncommon things that we miss out on still having a hitch on what are gonna ask? Or should I ask this / If I ask this how will he/she feel? I strongly suggest to use the responses from your team to gauge how they’re doing, both mentally & especially emotionally and work wise too. Just a simple Q – Are you fine? How are you? So, what do you binge on and when? How’s the family doing? How are kids? What are the games you play at home as a family etc etc. One quick thought here is, lets not have an assumption that the one of your team members will definitely share the concerns or be open… As a leader, it becomes your professional and personal interest to take an initiative ahead and ask or seek answers from them. Some of the most complex questions have witnessed creative solutions especially when it comes to kids!! And one more thing here, begin with a ‘how was the weekend or the activities done during the weekend” and, then start the discussion ahead. This also helps one to establish a strong connection too!

Non verbal communication

One of the most important way of communication, which can determine the energy, moods, thoughts, mindset is to read the way your team is performing. How do you see your team everyday? Are they happy? Are they tired? Do they seem okay? And at least make sure, that you as a leader are displaying the positive message with your body language here with an extra dash of smile!
There are situations at times, when you can feel frustated, find a technical issue, delay in rectifying it, team members not coming on a call, inability to connect over the net etc, can turn the small issues into a big molehill. This in turn will start affecting your teams capability and confidence which can turn disastrous. At this juncture, it becomes very important for you as a leader to understand the knitty gritty and ensure that the team is still standing strong and most importantly have an ear, so that they can vent out or share the same ahead too.

These small tips may not be that important for some of you to share or read, but as a practical experience with almost of 2 decades, these small tips have been always helpful in making the team stand and more importantly enhance the productivity too. Knowing how important mental health is , all these small tips will help you make more stronger & thick relationship’s across!

Do share your views on this article!