Sheri Lynn

My first job promotion to supervisor was 20 years ago. There was no working from home (telework) policy. Some employees seemed liked they were teleworking. For example, a person may have had a geographic area to cover. Sometimes this person was at the “central office” to do their job.  At other times the employee went into the “field” to provide services or sales.

Reasons to Offer Telecommuting To Employees

But a lot has changed since then like videoconferencing to help with supervision. Companies have a desire to keep employees that are skilled for a long time for many reasons:

• Saves money because of greater retention rates
• Promotes employee satisfaction with the company and increase productivity and
• Saves the environment by reducing commuting to work in cars.

Tips to Supervise Telecommuters

So what do you do if you supervise people on a telework schedule? According to the Forbes Coaching Counsel article, there are many ways to make it work.  Here are some of the tips I want to highlight.

1. Tip 1 – Set clear expectations. Performance management is a continuous process to reinforce the expectations. Your goal is that each employee understands and can meet the expectations. It might seem like common sense but “when” the work is done is part of setting the expectation.  The telework schedule is set based on when customers and other staff are available.  Working at 10 PM at night when a customer is not available will not yield the results for you, the employee or the company.
2. Tip 2 – Remember the person is working locally.  This means that as a supervisor you take the steps to be make yourself available to connect with the employee. Outlook and Google calendars are tools to help make this happen.  A supervisor can look at the employee’s calendar and invite the employee based on their availability. This helps the telecommuting employees from feeling forgotten or left out because they don’t work at the main office.
3. Tip 3 – Engage with telecommuters regularly. It’s easier than you think. A supervisor and employee can communicate by telephone, video conferencing and in person. You can meet locally and in the main office. In the case when the teleworker’s office is out of their home, plan to meet at the coffee shop, library or other space.
4. Tip 4 – The fourth tip Forbes offers is video coaching. Coaching is a way to support an employee to be their best. But it doesn’t work for everyone.  I suggest that you try video coaching one-to-one first, because using technology can be stressful.  Then the coaching you want to give to the employee may suffer.  Try out the tutorials that many conferencing platforms offer. I’ve tried Zoom, Uberconference, GoToMeeting, Meeting Burner and Skype. Because I tried out all of these, I am better at it and more comfortable.   And I use the free version of videoconference for coaching.  It lets you video coach for up to 40 minutes at a time.  When you ready, expand the video coaching to the team.

I encourage you to take a look at the Forbes article for many more tips. The bottom line is that a supervisor can effectively supervise teleworkers. You just need to redefine how you do it, get some practice and be willing to reflect on your own performance as a supervisor.

Good luck!

Defining Conflict Management

I was listening to colleagues as we carpooled to a training, talk about the stress and anxiety they felt because of a conflict with another person at work. I have heard and experienced it myself. You are asked to work with someone on a project or that you supervise or that supervises you.  Let’s just say, the person brings out the bear we all have inside. You know, no matter what you say, the person doesn’t get what you are saying and vice versa.  Or at least that is your view of it.  ” We just don’t get along”.  “It’s a personality thing”.  “The person hates me”.  Even just the first words out of their mouth drives you into the defensive stance.

As we talked on the ride to the training, we ended up telling each other that we loved or hated conflict.  Maybe avoided it or met it head on.  Well there really is no right or wrong way about what you feel.  It is often that feeling that sticks and is the reason we say we hate or love conflict.

Tips for Communication Management During Conflict

So here are some simple tips to manage the conflict by focusing on how to manage the communication so that you don’t feel your blood pressure and emotions rise.

• Just stop talking yourself.  Take a couple of deep breathes and exhale. It doesn’t have to look strange either. Breathing deep just means you feel your belly expand when you breath in. And that it flattens when you exhale.
• Decide is it the right time to talk with the person. It’s fine to say that you want to wait to have this conversation.
  • If it is the right time to listen, do that. When the person is done, try to summarize what you think they mean.
  • Do you think the person is ready to hear what you have to say? Try this statement, “now that I understand better, I have a different idea. Do you have time to hear it or should we wait for the team (or boss or owner) to meet to discuss all the options”.

The person may not want to hear what you want to say.  Save your time and energy, if the person is not ready to give you the same courtesy you did to listen to you.  It’s fine to offer other times, places and people to be part of the discussion.

Acceptance of what you have control of (your own emotions) and your sphere of influence (how you communicate in a respectful manner) will get you farther in all aspects of live. We don’t see a lot of that currently on the news or reality shows with the worse of human communication and conflict. But I believe more people are willing to be open and just want the chance to be heard. That is conflict resolution – people hear what is said but do not have to agree with each other. Isn’t that what all management is about?