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Linchpin Business Advisors
Linchpin Business Advisors

Is it Really Time to Fire That Person? Part One

managing remote workers

Since COVID hit, our organizations have been struggling to keep performance and throughput up, while also managing the needs of health and safety of our employees. Before the pandemic, with most employees working in the office, managers thought they could tell when employees were busy doing their jobs and working hard (well, perhaps like that famous Seinfeld episode).

After COVID hit, employees in many organizations were largely working from home (WFH), and managers became VERY unsure about how to handle the situation. The longer the organization went without setting clear expectations and measurements related to performance, the more nervous managers became. [Read more…]

Linchpin Business Advisors

Managing Performance in Uncertain Times

Managing Performance in Uncertain Times

Managing Performance in Uncertain Times

This is a strange time for American workers. Some employees are still working from home, which had long been perceived as an employment perk. Yet, when Work from Home (WFH) comes as a result of a continuing pandemic, employees may wonder if they are out of the loop or if they will be left out of promotion opportunities, especially if some employees have returned to the office. At the same time, employees who have returned are wondering if they are jeopardizing their health. In this time of extended uncertainty and complexity, how do you improve your management of performance?

There are two key facets: clarity and consistency.

[Read more…]

Linchpin Business Advisors

As COVID-19 Surges What’s Next in Your Plan?

As COVID-19 Surges What’s Next in Your Plan?

We are well on our way to the 6-month mark of our COVID response. It has been encouraging to see how countless organizations have pivoted their products, and services while totally re-imagining how their employees work in this Work from Home (WFH) environment. Leadership and HR did an amazing job in planning and creating strategies.

Back in March, organizations that were not shut down realigned themselves and juggled resources to support the new environment. I daresay a good percentage of organizations did not foresee that these changes would be long-lasting and far-reaching, but here we are just days from September with hot spots emerging in both rural and metropolitan areas. Across the country parents are finding that the remote learning of the children will continue into the fall or later, keeping many parents at home. Where do we go now with our organizational planning since it looks like COVID-19 does not seem to be going away any time soon? [Read more…]

Linchpin Business Advisors

What’s Really Causing Your Team to Underperform?

remote working

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Chip Cutter discusses the downsides of remote work, and he states: “Projects take longer. Training is tougher. Hiring and integrating new employees, more complicated.” He makes a compelling argument about the negative consequences of remote work, and I especially buy into the idea that developing youngest or newest employees is a huge challenge right now. However, when it comes to teams and team performance, I can’t help asking, “Are the team struggles we’re seeing during COVID inherent to working remotely?” Honestly, I don’t believe so. [Read more…]

Linchpin Business Advisors

Turn Those Work Groups into True Virtual Teams. Here’s How.

Teamwork

Want to Turn Work Groups into True Teams? Here’s How.

In recent weeks, I have attended every webinar about virtual teams I could find. Virtual teams interest me because I have been helping organizations implement them since 2001. Much to my surprise, only one of the webinars I attended actually addressed virtual teams. All the other webinars were really about remote work. Remote work does not equal virtual teams. [Read more…]

Linchpin Business Advisors

Planning Ahead: Addressing Crucial Risks of Remote Work

leadership-teamwork-success

Fortunately, there are many proven best practices related to remote work, since it has been around for decades. In our current situation, however, many organizations have been thrown into remote work and were not ready. From the documentation related to remote work, we know it has the potential to greatly lower costs for your business while increasing employee happiness and productivity, and you may be seeing stark advantages already! [Read more…]

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