Stop Micromanaging your WFH - Team
Worried your employees are not working?
Concerned your employees are not being effective?
Worried your employees are not focused?
Having managed a WFH team for over 2 years, I’ve learned few things that I want you to consider..
Measurements
How are you measuring the team’s effectiveness?
Depending on what your business does you need to know what to measure. This may take some time to figure out, but everything is measurable. Our team has a daily, weekly, and monthly dashboard that tracks data we want to measure. The dashboard is constantly evolving as we grow in our understanding of what data helps us meet our mission and values. Everything can be tracked, but the question is what needs to be tracked. If you only track hours that doesn't tell you enough. You need to track time, action, and accuracy. Once you know what to track you can keep an eye on the data to see how effective the team is. You will find the development of your dashboard is ever-evolving. You will end up creating processes for every aspect of your business and start tracking them, becoming a much more effective business. As you will see in my next point, this doesn't end up becoming a tool to micromanage people...
People
If the worries I mentioned above, employees notworking, noteffective, or notfocused are keeping you up at night I see one of two problems:
You have the wrong people. If you truly have to micromanage an employee then you don't want them on your team! This is true whether they work from home or in the office. This is tough but true...If you want your business to thrive you must get the bad apples out quickly. If I had a physical office I wouldn't want to feel as though I need to be in the office to make sure people are getting their work done.
You need to chill out. It may be possible that you have some problems with control. Are you more concerned about your employee gossiping at the 'water-cooler' or doing a load of laundry at home? I believe if you value your team, understand them, and trust them - they are going to perform like a valuable team member and not a kid looking busy for mom or dad. This is a mental shift for you as the business owner or team leader. I want you to ask yourself if you trust your people. If so, then act like it. If not, then get rid of them.