Working from home: leading and motivating the team remotely during times of social isolation.

Aline Barbosa and Marcello Romani-Dias, PhD professors and specialists in Business Strategy at ESEG.

Due to the pandemic we are experiencing, we are seeing an acceleration of remote work in the country by at least five years. Although some companies and employees already have home office in their culture, the number of workers in this modality is still very small. This moment is causing a greater focus on this practice, leading leaders to intensify employee motivation and improve their skills and competencies in relation to technology.

According to research by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), in 2018 there were only 5.2% workers in home office. Although this indicates the largest increase since 2012, when the study began, the modality has room to grow.

Even when work is done remotely, leaders play an important role in maintaining the development of the team and each individual employee. We understand that motivation during periods of isolation is crucial, because if a person didn't have that culture, they may feel disconnected from the team. Therefore, the leader needs to adopt a stance that aligns with each team member – what we call situational leadership in management. Furthermore, monitoring should focus on development and not merely on controlling and supervising the work.

The role of leadership

With this new scenario, workers need, among other things, to learn how to manage their time. While in companies it seems easier to maintain concentration, produce, and feel part of the team, in remote work this management becomes a little more difficult due to the presence of family members. Remote workers, in addition to these points, require leadership to motivate, support, and manage their team.

We believe that management should be different from what is understood by monitoring. Depending on the tools that employees use, it is possible to check the time they were logged in or whether they delivered the tasks they needed to perform. However, being concerned about the environment this person has at home, whether they have easy access to a phone and the internet, becomes part of the leader's routine.

Some companies have ongoing programs to monitor employee development, and maintaining this practice can be motivating. This makes employees feel valued and cared for.

Identifying the needs of those being led can be a good strategy to help them. If the issue is balancing time between work and family, what suggestions can the leader offer to provide support? In many cases, simply noticing genuine concern is already valuable.

We don't mean to say that concern for work activities shouldn't exist. It should happen to monitor productivity, but it must be combined with the leader's new skills. In fact, we believe that this focus on the individual should exist in both remote and in-person work.

Guide your team.

The team needs to know the purpose of their work. When employees understand how their role contributes to the final product or service, they become more motivated and their productivity tends to increase.

Therefore, the leader must utilize the company's values so that the team remains aligned as a whole. In addition to having targeted communication with each individual, it's also important to hold meetings with everyone as a team.

This interaction shouldn't be limited to "offline" messages, where the other person can see what was sent at any time. In other words, the conversation should also take place "online," in person, so that everyone feels connected.

Lead according to the situation.

Situational leadership is crucial at this stage. It allows the leader to adapt to the specific characteristics of each team member. In other words, while one person may be proactive, collaborative, and work well without supervision even when faced with problems, another may need direction and be less collectivist.

This behavioral theory was developed by Hersey and Blanchard (1986), and we can use their study to lead better when it comes to remote work, and even distance learning. Both leaders and teachers should identify which profiles of followers and students fit into their roles and adapt their style accordingly, which is another point of motivation for the situation.

If the team is large, a compromise can be reached with weekly video conferences to monitor everyone's work. However, individual feedback should be given quickly, even if via offline messaging.

Value the training.

For the development of those being led, providing training is a form of incentive. For example, for educational institutions that did not have distance learning courses or subjects, training can be offered so that teachers can make good use of this model. In this scenario, teachers who had never been in a studio are acquiring a new skill with the advent of video lessons.

Companies can take advantage of training courses relevant to an employee's performance during the time they would normally spend commuting to work. This way, the training adds value and doesn't interfere with the tasks scheduled for that day.

Motivate, even if the benefits don't come immediately.

In addition to all the actions mentioned that can motivate those being led, leadership can show positive expectations about the future. We understand that the current situation of social isolation will end within a few months, and those who have done their part responsibly, continued delivering, and achieved their goals will be rewarded. Even in the face of the economic difficulties imposed on us by the pandemic.

Keeping this message clear to employees is fundamental. Another approach is to motivate through fairness, where the leader encourages everyone to do their part ethically, through remote work and collective thinking.

In our view, motivating with money or any kind of benefit is not appropriate right now. In the current climate, increasing salaries or giving bonuses is not possible for most companies, which are struggling to retain their workforce. Therefore, motivating through expectations for the future or through fairness seems to be the best way to overcome the delicate situation we are facing.