We interviewed a 46-year-old manager, Carlos, who since 2012 has been in charge of a team of four people in the Department of Administration in a large insurance company in Mexico. The average age of his team is around 30 years. In March 2020 the entire company started working in home office modality due to COVID-19; a challenge never experienced before.
Productivity
Carlos and his team have been adapting to this new way of working slowly. Now, Carlos’ agenda is always full with follow-up Zoom meetings, either one-on-ones or team sessions. This leaves him with little time to comply with other activities like reading, answering emails or doing phone calls during regular office hours (which are from 8am to 6pm). As a result, in order to complete all his responsibilities, he must exceed office hours.
Productivity is also negatively affected by longer meeting times due to technical difficulties, mainly for unstable internet connections. Moreover, since there is no direct supervision of employees, there is no way to know if someone is working at their highest capacity. Some people from his team have to look after their children during office hours, which prevents them from being able to focus on their job 100%.
In addition, due to the pandemic situation or because of the lack of productivity, KPI’s are ambiguous and questionable. Carlos concluded that when it becomes obvious that an employee is being lazy or irresponsible, the company should consider dismissing him, effectively allowing only the productive employees to stay.
Motivation
According to Carlos, before COVID-19, the best way to motivate people was by economic incentives, promotions and public recognition. Since it is now complicated to give employees economic incentives and promotions due to the constrained budget, we asked how he motivates his team through online communication channels. Carlos does not like using emails to motivate his team because it is not personal and since there is no dialog, you cannot define the tone of the message.
Instead, at the end of each Zoom meeting, Carlos reserves a space for comments or questions and he takes the chance to express gratitude for the efforts of the team. He also created an internal recognition program that allows team members to share their support to others and to be verbally thankful. In general, Carlos believes that during this moment of crisis everyone should be thankful just for having a stable job.
Carlos communicates and congratulates personally when he feels that a job is done well. In one-on-one meetings he gives immediate feedback and validates the improvements of each individual, letting them know when expectations are being exceeded or not. When there is a complaint or a disagreement, he listens carefully and tries to understand the context of the situation. Carlos learned that even if they are apart, the best way to be present is by showing up in a video call and letting the team members know that he is always available for them. His credo is “open communication is key”.
Emotional intelligence and leadership styles
With regard to emotions, Carlos expressed that when someone is unhappy or unsatisfied with a personal or professional situation he encourages him or her to approach him at any time to talk things through and solve it in the best way possible. Carlos admitted that because of the physical distance it is more difficult for him to detect when someone is in a bad mood. He noticed that sometimes a negative disposition from one employee can spread to others and affect productivity on a general level. According to Carlos, this motivated him to reflect more and to improve his emotional skills with the aim of becoming more empathic and helpful with others.
Carlos recognised that his leadership style and behaviour had to be adjusted as well. He needed to be more open and patient and at the same time better available and reachable. He had to change his regular way of working by defining clear objectives, empowering others and to stop micromanaging. This has led to better results and an improved, trustful relationship with his team.
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