Mary Kay had a different approach to managing her staff. A very regimented approach with her team, she managed almost as if she was a drill instructor with green recruits on their first day of boot camp instead of a sales manager. As you might expect, a group of creative types did not respond well under such a rigid structure. While on a site visit to determine why Mary Kay had such high turnover with her staff, I asked her what she did for fun to keep her team motivated. “This is work. It is not supposed to be fun,” was her reply.
I looked her square in the eye and told her she was doing it wrong.
The atmosphere you create for your team has always been important. Creative people thrive in a creative and fun workplace. That’s not to say there aren’t rules; there are plenty but it is all about the approach to how you hold people accountable and the enforcement of those rules. Sales people are told no a significant amount of time, even the good ones. So occasionally they need some laughter and motivation to help shake off the rejections. You want your sales team in the right frame of mind. The old work place atmosphere that I first started in would flat out not work for the current generation of workers coming in your office. That’s a generalization for sure, but image the reaction of a recent college grad you’ve hired if you took a phrase from Mary Kay and tell them, “This is work. It is not supposed to be fun.”
In defense of Mary Kay, she had little very little experience managing a sales team. In fact, prior to her job as a sales manager she had run a daycare center. Perhaps there is a correlation between the two? Also to her credit, she did have a level of success on her arrival. Though that success is not sustainable if you don’t produce the right atmosphere for your employees to prosper and stick around.
Lately, everyone is talking about the expectations of business in the post-Covid world. As the world is starting to crawl out of the isolation and assess what their version of the new normal looks like, creating the proper environment for success is going to be the next big challenge for all employers.
According to a study done at McKinsey & Company, 80% of individuals reported that they enjoy working from home, 41% say they are more productive than they had been at work and 28% reported that they are just as productive. Employees are speaking loud and clear, they are expecting more flexibility from their boss. They want to work for a company that is flexible on their remote / in-office schedule; the creation of a hybrid approach where people come in only when they choose and working at home when they don’t.
Technology quickly evolved in the past 16 months. Even companies that were lagging in tech were forced to embrace solutions to keep business moving. A large segment of the workforce fell in love with Zoom calls and working from the kitchen table. My personal observation was that the basics of work continued, with no short term harm. But the longer we were working remotely, the more subtle changes started to change and not all of them were positive.
Keeping employees productive proved difficult the longer they were working remotely. Despite the fact that 69% of employees felt they were as productive or more productive, I would bet that managers would place that number much lower. Hard to quantify because the pandemic also slowed businesses, I think sales people’s productivity was far from optimal, more so than basic administrative work.
Company culture is very important to me. Developing and maintaining a tight team is much easier to create with face to face, side by side working team. Team meetings via Zoom, necessary as they are, are just not the same.
What to wear is also a big point of concern for some. Over a year of wearing sweatpants has become a habit for some. I will say that for the three weeks or so I worked remotely, I vowed to only wear shorts - this was March and April of last year. That was definitely a perk for me. As people head back to the office, I suspect a more relaxed dress code will greet many and be demanded by even more. And as a result the fashion industry is adjusting too. Even Dockers are being made with more stretchy materials to make them more comfy.
Reintroducing the office back into work is going to be a rocky process for many. The success or failure of this rests largely on the manager. It is important to recognize the concerns people have - many workers are still very concerned with being around people, as well as the lost freedom of working remotely.
Haley Woznyj wrote for Fast Business last month that there is a concern of culture shock for employee’s return to the office. I think she’s spot on, but luckily she offered four suggestions to help with that transition. Her four main points are worth noting for managers that are welcoming people back to the brick and mortar office place.
1. Focus on team building
2. Provide support to employees
3. Emphasize flexibility
4. Clarify expectations
That last point is maybe the most important one, too. Many employees grew accustomed to flexibility with scheduling, and have heard about businesses that are instituting hybrid models for in person and remote work. Lay out the new expectations for your team up front so there is no confusion. If you are going back to all in person, consider allowing employees to ease back into that, since your staff might need to implement new plans to cover getting the kids off the bus or to before and after school care.
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