It can be very tough right now to have the hard conversations with your team – when everyone is remote, when people are going through their own struggles, when each day is drastically more different than the last.
But the Hard Decisions aren’t going anywhere.
You are still going to have to handle them in a remote environment.
Whether it’s over the phone or in video, you are going to have make the hard decisions for the benefit of whatever project you are working on and whatever team you are leading.
For the sole reason, that they need you to.
This doesn’t mean you act cruel, rude, disparaging or condescending.
You will probably need to prepare a little more than if you were on-premise and you could read the person’s body language and mannerisms in front of you.
Some suggestions to get through this;
- You are remote, so use it, lay out your comments in front of you, on another screen as you talk.
- Be specific, generalizations get you nowhere, especially today.
- Be direct, you dance around the issue, chances are, they know what the issue is.
- Where can you offer help – this gets omitted many times, but if you are coming down on someone, then you are going to need to find a way to help them out. That’s you, that’s the leader in you.
I can’t emphasize that last point enough, if you want someone on your team to change, then before you open your mouth, you better be committed to helping them get there.
The hard decisions isn’t just about what you have to say to the member of your team, it’s also about you making the decision to help them out.
Are you willing to make that call?
