I believe that we, as leaders, have a big responsibility to keep up our company-spirits during these different times.
When push comes to shove is when the world turns upside down and we really have to prove ourselves to our employees. We have to show that we’re not only talk-the-talk, but that we also walk-the-talk. And it’s even harder when you don’t meet the people face-to-face. Everything that you do will be easier to interpret the wrong way, especially if most of the communication is in written words.
So, what can one do?
At TIQQE we’ve been working from home since 16th March. Now, almost seven weeks later there’s a new ”normal” at our company. In the offices we have – you’re not welcome if you have any flu-signs at all. We have a slack-channel where everyone that is planning to be in the office communicate with the others so that it becomes everyones free choice wether to be in the office or not. So being in the office is the one thing that you cannot do without regulations here at TIQQE.
Here is what we do.
We’ve been practicing on conducting all our meetings on-line, and what we found is that with a few meeting-rules, it works as well, sometimes even better. We also learned the importance of having continuous communication. I would say that we are transparent in a normal world, but these days we’ve become better at it. Of course we have been forced to make tough decisions as well. We’ve cancelled sub-contractors in favor for our own employees, but we’ve been doing it with deep respect and love.
And with the joint intention to work together again once the world settles. I try to communicate with all employees in some way, pretty frequent. We still have our monthly meetings and me and Jacob show the truth, in numbers, and the actions we’re doing with words and slides. Every weekday we have an open online-channel, our lunch-hangout, where one can join from home and eat lunch and catch up with each-other. I don’t have the possibility to join every day, but I do it as often as I can and the discussions and talks are always energy-enriching.
We have an eNPS system that we use, sending out questions every other week to all employees to see the temperature at TIQQE. And during these times, it was heartwarming and surprising that our numbers has gone up. So, to wrap this up. It’s not the big things that makes the difference, it’s the small things and what could be easier then to step up and walk-the-talk and be your word?
