The survival of your firm’s culture will depend on this…

As we are settling into this new “normal” our next challenge is how we can continue to manage and motivate our teams, while being supportive of the circumstances.

Here are our top tips:

• Communicate, communicate, communicate. With employees, clients, vendors, banks….
• Be honest in all your communications.
• Treat everyone with empathy as this is how they will remember you post-COVID.
• Be as open and transparent as possible, so that people around you know that you don’t have all the answers and that you are trying to figure things out.
• Ask/survey employees about what is working and what isn’t.
• Engage your employees in ideas to improve processes, create new revenue streams, enhance communication, motivate other staff. Try out crazy ideas that you may have not considered in the past!

Involve your staff in thinking outside the box, all you need is one good idea to create a new revenue stream, or improve a process…

• Have clear expectations and define goals and performance metrics, while allowing flexibility. Measure your employees against those and let them know how they are doing.
• KEEP YOUR CULTURE ALIVE! Communicate with employees on a personal level and find out how they are doing, what else they would like to see, what are their challenges, are they able to balance work with kids, etc.
• Hold virtual meetings and events. People are maxed out on video calls, but they allow some connection and engagement.
• Lastly, listen to your staff, you are not alone in this.