Episode 55: 5 Tips on How to Lead Remote or Hybrid Teams
“Celebrating is so good for the soul. Celebrating the fails reminds everyone that they're human, that they're trying, and that they can come up with solutions to make the place they work, a place that they want to come to for years to come.” - Erin Diehl
Do you lead a team at work and are prepping to go hybrid? In this episode, Erin reflects back from when the pandemic started to now and how much change we’ve endured. Listen in as she provides tips on how to lead rock star remote or hybrid teams!
In today’s episode, Erin talks to us about:
improve it!’s evolution
Helpful tips for leaders during this time
The importance of celebrating wins and losses
About the Host: Erin Diehl is the founder and Chief “Yes, And” officer of improve it! and host of the failed it! Podcast. She’s a performer, facilitator and professional risk-taker who lives by the mantra, “get comfortable with the uncomfortable.” Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin has created improve it!, a unique professional development company that pushes others to laugh, learn and grow. Her work with clients such as United Airlines, PepsiCo, Groupon, Deloitte, Motorola, Walgreens, and The Obama Foundation earned her the 2014 Chicago RedEye Big Idea Award and has nominated her for the 2015-2019 Chicago Innovations Award.
This graduate from Clemson University is a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional as well as a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater, and The Annoyance Theatre.
When she is not playing pretend or facilitating, she enjoys running and beach dates with her husband and son, and their eight-pound toy poodle, BIGG Diehl.
You can follow the failed it! podcast on Instagram @learntoimproveit and facebook, and you can follow Erin personally on Instagram @keepinitrealdiehl here. You can also check out improve it! and how we can help your organization at www.learntoimproveit.com. We can’t wait to connect with you online!
Episode 55 Transcription
Erin (00:00):
Are you a leader who is career focused, goal-driven and possess a lifelong learner mentality? Do you dream about achieving your goals and spend hours Googling how tos and gurus? Does a side-effect of your awesome, might I add, personality include perfectionism, the dreaded imposter syndrome and the ever-present fear of failure? Well, you've landed in the right place. We just became virtual BFFs. I'm Erin Diehl, the founder of the improv training company improve it! And a recovering perfectionist turned failfluencer. Inspired by the improv rule, there are no mistakes, only gifts, this podcast is the creative outlet you need to not only motivate you, but the people that you lead through interviews with corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, and even comedians. You'll walk away becoming a more empathetic boss by realizing that failure is a part of the journey and you must fail in order to improve in the scene of life. We all have our own unique gifts that we bring to the world, and it is our mistakes that help to unwrap them. Welcome to failed it!
Erin (01:29):
Failed it! Fam what a journey we have been on together. Hold hands, hold hands. We're going to take a journey. So I want to take us back to when we first started the show when COVID first hit, let's think about it. Before we hit launch on this show, our first episode actually had to go completely out the window as did three other canned episodes because we were set to launch it and then the world shut down and we decided we needed to change the conversation to focus on what you, my friends needed now. And so I'm here today because I know you're thinking what we're all thinking. How in the world are we going to go back to what was quote, unquote normal? Let me say this. When I put on real pants, I now feel uncomfortable and it's not because my waistline has shifted it's because it feels, it feels different.
Erin (02:35):
Okay. I used to love and I mean, love to set out my outfit the night before work and I would plan and coordinate them. And I put matching jewelry and shoes and I'd feel so put together. So just to give you a little backup I'm I'm now fully vaccinated and we had friends in town the other weekend, and we met up for dinner and I will say the art of coordinating a full outfit felt very foreign to me. I felt like an artist who hasn't picked up the paintbrush in a year. And like my easel was either lopsided or broken. And I also felt like everything I owned was outdated because I will not and cannot wear pants that go to my bra line. I'm talking to you, Gen Z, I am sorry, Gen Z, I am a millennial. I rock a side part and a skinny jean, and I just cannot get on board with those pants.
Erin (03:34):
I think you look good, but girl, this girl cannot pull it off. So now that I have fully digressed into today's show, I want to get into the meat and the potatoes because you're here for how to lead hybrid teams, not to talk about my lack of, of outfit coordination. So I want to start off by saying that I don't think that there's going to be a complete return back to quote unquote normal. When improve it! Shut down on March 13th, 2020. And I want to just side note here. It was very ironic that it was Friday the 13th, by the way we never imagined a world where we would not have a headquarters or an office or a world where I wouldn't even live in the same state as most of my internal team. But now that we've been in this pandemic for over a year and we've completely let go of our lease at our co-working space in River North in downtown Chicago.
Erin (04:39):
And we are now fully remote. We will be using a co-working space for the meeting rooms and conference rooms in the future, almost like a hotel from time to time, but we will no longer have an office to go back to anymore. Our internal team now sits in Chicago, South Carolina, where I'm coming to you live, Iowa, LA, Colorado, and we will forever now be in this hybrid work model of doing events in person, but working internally from home across many state lines. So improve it! Works across a lot of different industries. And we have clients who are fortune 500. We have fortune 100. We have small businesses and medium businesses. And every single company and organization we work with has a very different version of what the new normal looks like for them. Some will give employees options so it doesn't seem unlikely to me that there will be a push for everyone to be back in the office because I have read this poll.
Erin (05:52):
And let me just give you some, some par data here failed it! Fam. Gallup ran a poll, and they found that 53% of respondents plan to work from home more often than they did prior to the pandemic. So, as I mentioned, we have clients in so many different industries and most are going to do this hybrid model where employees get to decide, do they want to come in the office or do they want to work from home? And they can kind of cross function between the two or some are going to be fully remote. But I have yet to talk to a company who is requiring everyone to come back completely in person, unless they are a restaurant or retail place where, where this can't happen. So with that said, it sounds like the majority of leaders are trying to figure out what this post pandemic or what I like to call the pandie life looks like you can do Google searches.
Erin (06:59):
You can go to HR meetups, but I wanted to give you my failed it! Fam five tips of what I know to be true, because this is uncertain for all of us. We haven't had to do this ever. So let me provide for you five tips on how to lead hybrid teams as to what we know right now is true. So without further ado here are the five tips for leaders who are managing remote teams and are looking to hybrid days ahead. Tip number one, be cloudy. You know what I mean? That cloud, that looms over our head that makes us able to hear this podcast that makes that thing called the internet work. That brings the sunshine for virtual teams and the rainbows, but it also brings the dark clouds, the thunder and lightning and the storms when it doesn't work. You know what I'm saying?
Erin (07:57):
So basically what I'm saying in terms of be cloudy is start with a virtual culture first and make everything assessable online. What I'm saying is plan for people to work from home first. So those filing cabinets that hold paperwork in your office, out! The kitchen that housed your granola bars and LaCroix for all of your employees, out! Send them a monthly snack allowance instead to fill their own fridge. I'm talking, make everything virtual and be cloudy. You have probably heard what I'm about to say 5,000 times in this podcast or since March of 2020, but I want to just recap some great collaborative tools here that you can use to be cloudy with your team. So Dropbox is wonderful and most of you know it, but if you don't have an internal drive or an internal server, Dropbox is a great tool for any place that you need to store files, store proposals, store agreements, store PowerPoints, whatever, Dropbox is a great, great tool for that so you can communicate in this cloudy or virtual world. If you don't have it already, which I'm sure you do at this point, Slack or some form of chat function is a great communication tool. And it's a very easy way to create culture within your organization. Asana is another wonderful free, it depends on how many members you have, but starts off as free project management tool. And it's a great way to assign and keep track of processes and tasks. And what I also want to say here in terms of other collaborative tools, is make sure that you include a calendar invite with some sort of link for video access for those who cannot attend in person. So let's say you are going to have a group in person meeting, but half the office is working from home. Make sure you have a zoom link for those people.
Erin (10:08):
There will be a lot of clouded meetings moving forward, friends. Prepare to show up to a conference room, meet with two people in person and have people remote in. My biggest suggestion for this is that you make sure that the people that are remoting in are also on video and they're off mute unless you've got little Fido or a little one crying off in the background, but you want to make sure those who work from home feel as welcome as the ones who are in the office. This is what's going to retain and attract talent, feeling heard as they make the choice to return quote, unquote, back to normal or what normal feels like for them. So I just want to caveat and stop you really quick because as a facilitator and a person who leads very physical and interactive trading sessions, this is my personal suggestions for training.
Erin (11:04):
So what I spoke to you just about was collaborative tools that you can use on your day to day. When you have meetings, if you actually have a couple people in the office, and you're just doing internal meetings or meetings with vendors, partners, those are the things I want you to use, but I want to talk specific to trainings, okay, this is my wheelhouse here. So if you have people who are in the office, and then you have those who are working from home, I want you to make those trainings two separate experiences. So if you're trying to do a training and you have 20 people in the office and 10 people on zoom, working from home, zooming into their training and their live, Oh man, it is not going to be the same. Cheryl is not going to get the same experience working from home behind her monitor and her yoga pants and bedroom slippers as Susie, who is in person in flats doing the workshop.
Erin (12:01):
So it's very hard as a facilitator to make the people who are at home feel as if they are in the room. The people in the room will always overpower those that are on camera are, or are, you know, on the cloud, so to speak. So to make sure that everyone feels on an equal playing field, provide those working from home, a virtual experience and those in person an in person experience. All right. So do a training on zoom for those that work from home and do the in-person in person for those in person. But don't combine the two because you will have a miss with the people who are working from home. I literally can't wait for the day when my hologram is going to be able to teleport to a team in London all the way from my home office in Charleston, South Carolina, I would have to put on real pants for the hologram, but what a world and until the hologram happens, I want to lean towards providing an experience that makes everyone feel included and offer the same material to both, but just make sure the, to change the platform.
Erin (13:12):
So those that choose to remain remote, don't feel slighted. And speaking of holograms, I want to talk about gem and the holograms, anybody millennials, elder millennials, I digress, which brings me to point number two. So point number one, be cloudy. Point number two, be result minded versus time minded. Ultimately what I'm saying here is hire the right people and trust them to do their jobs. Some positions and some tasks have certain deadlines and timeframes. As long as the work is done at the timeframe it needs to be done, focus on that leaders, focus on that. What I'm saying is each team member is different. If we have learned anything from 2020, it's that work can be done at different times of day and people's personal lives can be a bit more intertwined into their work lives. In my very personal opinion, okay this is just me, just me. There will never be a work-life balance. It is what I like to call a work life blend. What this pandemic did was give us a year to really focus on what's a priority in our lives. So it gave me a year to stay home and to make it to my kids' swimming lessons. And yes, just so you know, Jackson has starting swimming lessons, say some prayers, and I'm going to figure out what needs to be done eight 30 to five, and then figure out what I can do after he goes to bed or what is absolutely necessary and vital to be completed during work hours. That's me as a leader, that's me as a founder and entrepreneur choosing when I can work, but guess what your team has to be able to be around their priorities more, most of which includes their families.
Erin (15:21):
My biggest advice in this hybrid world is, do not nickel and dime their time, hire the right people to do the right job, allow them to work in the hours and timeframe that is most productive for them. With the exception being that they work, the allotted amount of hours they are paid for, right? And then get out of their way, what works for their needs. And can those meet the needs of the business? I do realize in saying this, that this will not work for every role and for every organization, but the punch in the 8:00 AM the punch out at the 5:00 PM corporate life is stale and it is so early two thousands here. So 2000 and late as Fergie once said, I'm really dating myself on this episode, by the way. Anyway, people want flexibility. They want a culture and they want the ability to be seen as a whole person, not just as a person who punches a clock and gets a paycheck.
Erin (16:29):
Hey, failed it. Fam do you have what the kids call zoom fatigue. Are you sick of watching on zoom and hearing things like, can you see my screen? Oh, you're muted. You're muted. And Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. I'm late. Are you working from home and your bedroom? Slippers and business mullet like me, which I'm talking about wearing a business top and yoga pants on the bottom. Feeling like it's Groundhog day, every single day. Do you need some laughter levity and fun in your Workday to change things up while remote? How about a laugh break? That's right. It's called laugh break and it's improve it!S newest virtual offering. Laugh breaks bring seasoned Chicago and Charlotte based improvisers into your virtual conference call for a little taste of short-form improvisation. In each session, improvisers engage on live on the spot games based on your team's laughter and suggestions. Now whether your team needs a quick 15 minutes of laughter or a more substantial 30 minute break, improve it has got your back, you can go to www.learntoimproveit.com/laugh-break, or just click on the link in our show notes to book yours on demand today. Again, that's learntoimproveit.com/laugh-break. Get ready to sit back, relax and grab some giggles because we could all use a little laugh break right now. See ya on the zoom@
Erin (18:01):
Point number three, connect, tip five connect. Remember you will still have people who are very uncertain about returning to the way things used to be. And to be completely honest with you, I am one of those people, even though I am fully vaccinated, I still find it very hard to go into any setting publicly, without being very aware that I'm wearing masks and maybe someone is not. And that there is still a pandemic. So how do we connect and keep both in-person and virtual team members happy? We get everyone on the same platform and we throw a virtual event for all virtual team members and a safe and socially distanced event for all in person. So find some virtual opportunities to connect. I know a person, she runs a business called improve it. They have these things called laugh breaks, and those are really great ways to bond with your team to laugh, to let loose.
Erin (19:14):
So if you don't know what a laugh break is, follow the link in the show notes, but it's essentially where we jump on your zooms and we provide you with 30 minutes, 20 minutes, 45 minutes of short form improv entertainment for your zoom meeting. You can also do internal trivia, scavenger hunts, there's Airbnb virtual experiences. There's something we like to call fail parties here at improve it! In the failed it! Podcast. So if you don't know what I'm talking about, our very first minisode is all about throwing a failure party for your team. So check that out. So we are starting to do some very small in-person workshops. So think about things that you can do in person to safely bring your team together. It doesn't have to be something like improve it, where you're doing improv or some type of team building. I want you to think creatively about outdoor events or locations and small businesses that could use the revenue, support them, do something for your team, that's safe outdoors, and try that so that everybody feels comfortable.
Erin (20:24):
So, but if you are finding that most people are working from home and they feel unsafe returning to the office, only offer virtual connection points. At first, have the people working in the office, also jump on to zoom and sit at their desks individually so that they have the same experience. That way everybody like the same team, no one is left out. This is just really going to be an ebb and a flow of what works for you and your team. But connection right now is crucial. We've all felt the pull of this pandemic pulling us apart and we miss being connected. So really find those ways as we start to see the world reopen to connect either virtually or something very safely in person. Number four, check for burns. So this is tip number four on how to lead a hybrid team check for burns.
Erin (21:24):
You know what happens when you get burned, you step you drop and you roll into some PTO, okay? The blessing and the curse of this hybrid world is that people can work from wherever, whenever which leads to some major burnout. As companies with global offices know that people and employees in different time zones, don't have this in the office, out of the office filter anymore, right? There's no oh, well Chicago's done. It's five 30. I bet. Oh wait. You know what? Sally's probably around her phone on. Give her a little Slack message. Maybe she'll respond. This boundary was pushed as teams struggled to pivot and to figure out how to make things work during these tough times. So one way to check for burns is to stop a burn before it starts.
Erin (22:24):
That's a tongue twister. I had to pause for myself for a moment there, stop a burn before it starts try saying that five times fast, stop a burn before it starts. So add some sunscreen, if you will, or a little protective layer. One of my clients and friends and member of the failed it! Family Kim has what we call an overtime jar. Let me, let me explain. So any team member on her team who writes or sends an email before 7:00 AM or after 7:00 PM on their respective timeframe. So if they're East coast, it's that timeframe 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM East coast, you get the drift. So if they send us an email or they respond to an email after, or before this timeframe, they have to put a dollar in the overtime jar. These dollars, which are virtual dollars, but you can do this by setting up a team payroll, or you can get a team member to have a Venmo account that everybody sends their Venmo to gets deposited at the end of the quarter to a charity of their choice.
Erin (23:34):
This serves as a reminder to not work when you're not at work. And if you do, you pay the price literally, but it also gets donated for a good cause, which was ultimately the reason why you were writing the email in the first place, right? The intention of this activity is paying attention to the time that we give ourselves to work. It can always be done tomorrow and not everything can happen in a day. Even if you're Beyonce. This is one suggestion, but I've also heard of clients instituting, no meeting Fridays, things that make you feel like you're stepping away from your screen or stepping away from work are important right now, especially as we navigate these uncharted territory waters of, okay, it might be working from home, or I may be in the office, let's figure something out. So it works for you and your team and your team feels very, very motivated and also excited for the touch points that happened during the allocated time that they're supposed to work.
Erin (24:42):
Now, I know this goes back to what I just mentioned is let people work when they can work. So this may not work for everyone. It's just a suggestion that I want to throw out there, but I want to just really talk about it on an experience that I had. My own team gave me some feedback that I wasn't taking time off because we have unlimited vacation here at improve it. And I got this feedback in 2020, and I have normally done a pretty decent job of this, but with nowhere to go and a business that needed quite honestly saving, I fell short to this. So this year I've made it a priority to at least take one or two Fridays off each month. And I have encouraged the internal team to do the same. And I will say this those long weekends, they really give me the clarity and time away to recharge, reboot and to come back refreshed.
Erin (25:38):
And I strongly want to encourage you to get some PTO and Fridays on your calendar and encourage your team to do the same before the burn happens. So we're down to tip number five my failed it! Fam, and this is a good one. Celebrate the wins and the losses. You heard that last part, right? You know what? My failed it! Family. So fail parties are so important. Okay, we're going to talk about those in just a moment. And I also want you to think about what is it that helps you as a leader, keep yourself motivated, but keep your teams motivated. So celebrate your team and celebrating your team is what's going to keep both people in the office and at home happy. Celebrating the wins, allows them to see the good they're adding to the organization. So you can do something in Slack. We've talked about this in previous episodes.
Erin (26:44):
Slack allows you to create channels that you can talk about specific topics. So we do this at improve it. We have a hashtag winning channel and anything that is considered a win goes in that channel. And we celebrate it as soon as it happens, because we need to celebrate. Celebrating is so good for the soul. Celebrating the fails reminds everyone that they're human, that they're trying, and that they can come up with solutions to make the place they work, a place that they want to come to for years to come. So if you haven't, like I mentioned, go back to our very first minisode, all about failure parties. We want you to learn how to do this for your team. It is such a powerful tool and it allows you to realize that everyone makes mistakes. And if we can learn from each other's mistakes and be more vulnerable with them, we collectively can feel less alone.
Erin (27:38):
And we can also feel like we're allowed to fail because failure actually means we're trying. So my failed it! Fam, a quick recap for you on how to lead your hybrid teams, be cloudy, be results minded versus time minded, connect, check for burns and celebrate the wins and the losses. Just like at the beginning of this pandemic, no one has the exact answers on how the next few months of this is all going to play out. But what we can do is create an environment where everyone feels heard. People feel seen whether through a zoom screen or in person and this notion of yes, and is alive and well, I believe in you failed it! Fam and I want you to message me. You can DM me @keepingitrealdiehl. You can find me on LinkedIn as Erin Diehl. It will be the only person Erin Diehl improvimprove it.
Erin (28:38):
I want to hear from you if these tips resonate, and I want you to know that I am here and I'm always, always rooting you on. You've got this. You are strong. Fail yeah failed it! Fam fail. Yeah. Hey friends, thanks for tuning into failed it. I am so happy you were along for the ride. If you enjoyed this show, please head on over to iTunes, leave us a five star review and subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Now, if you're really feeling today's show, please take a screenshot and tag me on Instagram @keepingitrealdiehl and share it to your stories so we can bring more people to the failed it! Family. I'll see you next week, but I want to leave you with this thought, what will you fail at today? And how will that help your future successful self? Think about it. I'm so proud of you and you are totally failing it.