Teams are essential for companies to achieve their goals, more so as the world ushers in a new era rising from the remnants of the pandemic. Working from home, which is one of the many sudden changes people had to adopt, may have affected team dynamics. It relied on physical interaction for so long.
Regardless, everyone can agree that they can work on improving it to embrace incoming changes, some of which are expected while some are not. Here are noteworthy ways leaders and team members alike can heed to sail through the new normal and its challenges in unison:
Providing Constant Communication
Contrary to common belief, people can stay intact as teams amid distance since digital communication. Communicating remotely is not an unfamiliar thing they had to grasp as they were pushed back to their homes to work. It revealed technical challenges and resistance to digital transformation. But more than that, everyone developed more resilience and a deeper sense of trust in each other.
With a hybrid workplace becoming a norm, what is important is for teams to keep that momentum from where they left off. Some may still be working from home, some in the office, while others might be deployed to different locations. But it should not change that everyone made it work over a year apart communication-wise. This is with the help of online meetings, reporting standard operating procedures, and shared unwritten communication norms.
If the team has gotten used to less frequent meetings with members being more self-sufficient and needing less hands-on supervision from their managers, so be it. Trying to shift back to having almost daily meetings pre-pandemic, which everyone might see as counterproductive, can ruin that shared sense of trust and confidence. However, what needs to stay is the constant feedback from leaders and providing the team with ample resources, which will help everyone stay in the zone and attain common goals.
Understanding Unique Characters
Extreme events such as the pandemic brought out aspects in people that they didn’t know they had. Many individuals struggled with drawing the line between home and work or accepting the reality that things aren’t going to be as they used to. There came the point when the thought of getting up for another day of juggling the job and kids was too overwhelming. Bad or good, their responses to things revealed how humbly human everyone is.
Some teammates are introverted or extroverted, passive or reactive, talker or listener. People have become accustomed to classifying everyone else in a black-or-white manner, but they might find that this is no longer the way to go in the new normal. Rather, it is a healthy practice to view each individual as having a spectrum of tendencies by which they respond to situations. Having this mutual understanding decreases workplace conflict and increases camaraderie.
With an extended period of discovering these surprising sides of people and their colleagues, they can develop a newfound sense of non-judgment of each other. The statement that goes, “Everything is fighting a battle you don’t know of,” has become widely understood. Nevertheless, people realized that they didn’t know how strong they were until they came to what could be the most challenging period in their lives. And they learned that it is not through themselves alone but with the help of others that they can surpass it.
Leveraging Individual Strengths
Focusing on what every team member has to offer to the table has become more important than ever. While official designations may define a person’s specialty, leaders can put more weight on the tacit knowledge of every team member to guide them in delegating tasks. Think of it as allowing the managers to focus on the bigger picture while allowing the front lines to actively take part in strategy-making.
Who knows, a task originally meant for a high-ranking manager can be accomplished by their subordinate. This seamless stream of delegation is a fresh way of unlocking potential, raising workforce morale, or perhaps providing change management coaching for a better future ahead. Overall, this advances the position of any company that, more than ever, needs to bounce back.
Physical distance, if anything, urged employees to rely and constantly check in on each other. It made them more aware of who was around them and how they were doing. This unprecedented level of camaraderie is a marvelous sight, which any organization cannot take for granted. Rather, this teamwork should be nurtured for the ones next in line to carry a lasting legacy.
