Council Post: How Managers Can Navigate The Pandemic’s Impact On The Workplace

CEO and Founder of QA Madness, overseeing tech startups and seasoned players` business processes and software quality assurance globally.

The pandemic brought with it a lot of extraordinary circumstances. The need for social distancing and remote work contrasted starkly with the traditional, in-office management approach.

From my perspective, some things don’t work as well remotely. To me, brainstorming and research and development, for example, work better during face-to-face meetings than online chats, and an on-site presence allows managers to see the emotional response to tasks and events, which enables them to understand the state of affairs. 

So, how can leaders adapt to today’s challenges? Unfortunately, I don’t have a universal effective solution, but I’d like to share some lessons I’ve learned that will hopefully help you to understand and approach today’s uncertainty better.

Don’t overlook the importance of the emotional element.

The office environment works in a fascinating way. People can receive important information via nonverbal communication. Whether it is a friendly chat during lunch or a presentation by a team member, there is an emotional component that helps you understand what is going on. Without this emotional element, the traditional management toolkit becomes much more limited because leaders lose much of their access to these nonverbal cues.

For example, if an employee finds something about the state of affairs bothering, they likely start to express it through their behavior, consciously or not. Some might start acting rebellious, while others could become bored and less productive. Still, the signal they are sending a manager is crystal clear: “I need your attention!”

At this point, an honest conversation is the best solution. However, this discussion won’t happen if a manager cannot see the warning signs, and these warning signs don’t pop up if you are not proactive about communicating.

While we are still limited to video conferencing, it is reasonable to schedule a regular group call with your team. Discuss the achievement of a previous week and plans for the upcoming week, and encourage people to share their concerns and suggestions. Most importantly, ask everyone how they are doing, and let them know they can reach out if they feel anxious or uncertain.

Adapt. There’s no going back.

Some wonder if the traditional office model businesses used for so long will eventually restore when the pandemic ends. I believe this scenario is highly unlikely, as the situation we’ve been caught in since March is driving permanent change. Of course, the pandemic will eventually end, but there won’t be a magical button to press and roll back the updated social algorithms to the pre-pandemic version. Therefore, the task for managers is to find and master new management models. 

We need to come up with an alternative to some on-site practices. Team building exercises, company events and get-togethers are as significant for cultivating company culture as individual emotional assessments, but we cannot have any of those now. For as long as emails and virtual meetings keep covering business essentials only, our daily work will keep turning into a highly automated activity.

To solve this, an easy solution is hosting virtual theme parties. For example, invite everyone for an online pizza hangout on Friday at 4 p.m. to finish a productive working week on a positive note. Find out if anyone would like to play a game online or attend a virtual movie night. You can also create chats for gamers, bookworms, etc. on your team to encourage informal communication.

Go with compromises, not ultimatums.

The task for managers is to maintain a balance when it comes to the need for face-to-face communication and ensuring everyone can choose the option that is most appealing to them.

For example, there is no reason to force a person who feels comfortable working at home to come to the office every day. Consider having them work in-office (once it’s safe to do so) once a week or whenever they prefer. For employees who opt to stay at home, ensure you still involve them in office activities so they receive the essential dosage of community. That said, also understand they might want to step back when they start feeling overwhelmed. I predict such agility will likely become a cornerstone of people management in the future. 

Don’t assume remote work will cause a decrease in efficiency.

Some leaders fear that employees won’t be as devoted to performing their jobs remotely as they are at the office. I believe this is unreasonable.

From my perspective, if you know how to manage two people at the office, you’ll know how to manage a hundred working from home. Yes, there is a big difference, but as long as you set clear goals, define touchpoints and fix the deadlines, people will keep working.

Remember that we are all still learning.

I’ve found one of the biggest fears of the present-day boss is the fact that they haven’t learned to work with people under today’s circumstances. Books on management that used to be recommended a year ago already require new-and-improved editions, with insights on how to be a manager during unprecedented times.

Remember that we are all still learning. Every executive is a little bit of a researcher now, so test your new and fresh strategies as you go to help navigate this uncertainty.

Adjusting To The Modern Corporate World

The present-day business environment has been shaped by traditional values and practices, but people cannot comply with old rules anymore. Learning how to manage is a three-step process: 

1. Estimate the situation.

2. Adjust to the current circumstances. 

3. Rebuild the corporate world based on new realities. 

At the moment, we are at step two: learning how to act in a challenging business environment. Right now, managers have to cope with their fear of losing control and avoid waiting for 2021 to reset everything. I believe that as long as you hold on to the past, things will remain complicated and frightening. Only facing these challenges head-on will help you find new approaches to managing your company effectively.


Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?


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