#021 Covid-19 Forced My Business To Change. What Do I Do Now?

We can't unlearn what we've learned or seen during COVID-19! Now that we've been forced to approach our businesses differently, it's going to be really hard to go back to what our norm was six weeks ago. Many businesses have challenged their beliefs and have found different ways to be successful, whether it's going remote, providing alternative services, or being more flexible. People aren't just going to forget that. How we respond to that is going to have a huge impact as we move our businesses forward.

In this Chatterkick X Revela crossover episode, Chatterkick CEO, Beth Trejo, chats with Michelle Hill, one of Revela's ambitious leaders, on how to navigate what's next.

Learn more about Revela at revelagroup.com

Biggest Takeaways From This Episode

We can't unlearn what we've learned or seen. You can choose to go back to exactly where you were, but your team isn't going to forget the experiences, positive or negative.

You are going to have new challenges as you walk into this next phase. Leadership mindset, employees mindset, business belief's changing, the fear:

Physical Safety
Sales Environments
Supply Chain
Technology

Remote Work: What Now?

Remote work may have been a "no way!" to your business before, and now you've had to put it in place. It's important to measure success differently than "were we better with remote, or were we not better." Think about this instead:

Are we more efficient?
Does it give us flexibility?
Does it help us help our employees?
Are we more attractive as an employer if we have it?
How did our employees, their productivity, and their feelings toward the business change with remote work?

Do This, Not That

It's to increase communication as transparent and proactive as you can. Everyone's environment has changed; it's important to eliminate assumptions and believe in everyone's good intentions. Give the team trust; they're going to do everything they can to be their best. Here's an idea on what to say

Let's talk about this elephant in the room. We're here; life is not normal right now, we want you to be successful. We believe in you, we trust you, let's talk about what your environment looks like so we can help you be the best you can be while you're there.

How can we help?

How can we communicate better with each other?

Let's work together to help identify your most important things we both should be doing.

This part is terrifying, but being open to feedback is critical. Vulnerability is hard, we know. Think about what you need to continue to do, stop doing, and start doing.

I want to make sure I'm being my best and providing you with what you need tell me:

What have I been doing that you've found helpful?

What have I been doing that has been irritating or something that caused you to feel frustrated?

What ideas on things I haven't or the organization hasn't been doing that we should start doing?

However, you choose to respond at the end of this; your team will never forget how you made them feel during this. They are either going to feel valued, and the relationship will strengthen, or they'll feel like you did nothing, and it will be tough to come back together and build trust.

Take The Remote Work + Flexibility Survey

Transcript

This text below is a straight-up audio transcript of the episode. In our humble opinion, we think the audio podcast sounds much better in its original form. We have not edited the transcription below so there are indeed some grammar errors (some quite funny, in-fact).

Today, we were talking to Michelle Hill, she's one of the ambitious leaders at Revela and she's been in leadership and development for 15 years. I'll let Michelle tell a little bit more about herself, but I've been fortunate enough to see her development. We've had leaders go through their program at Revela and I have amazing things to say about that. But what I really want Michelle to talk a little bit today is the workplace flexibility, what's going to happen after COVID. And so that's really what we're going to talk about today. What happens in the flip side? You know, working remote, I got kids at home, technical difficulties, all of those things that we are dealing with on a day to day basis. It's new for a lot of businesses, large, small, all types. And so I think the first question is, can we put that cat in the bag? Michelle, do you think that we'll really be able to go back to the way that things were before the pandemic?

You know, that's a, that's a really good question. And one of the things that when, when you say, you know, put the cat back in the bag, one of the things that I think of, and it's something Andrea at Revela has said in the past. She uses the analogy, it's really difficult to put the toothpaste back in the tube. Right? And I think now that we have been forced to do things and really been pushed against the beliefs we've had as a business to work in different ways, it's, it's going to be really hard to go back to what our norm was six, seven weeks ago. It's, it's something that it's going to look different. I think it's gonna look different for everyone and in a lot of different ways on how we do things because they're, the other component too is when you think about, we can't unlearn what we've learned or seen, right?

It's there. Those are, those are experiences. And now that we've pushed people and we've, we've challenged our beliefs and maybe some things have worked, maybe we have found ways to be successful and people aren't gonna forget that. And how we respond to that. I think is what's going to have a huge impact as we move forward and what we look like because everything in life is a choice. So as a business you can choose to go back to exactly how you were. That doesn't mean your people are going to forget some of the things that they learned when we were getting buy-in and maybe even being more efficient. And challenging how we get work done if we don't consider what some of those changes might be and how that might change our business model.

Yeah, and don't you think of like the perfect example of this is I'm using a fictitious business but like that corporate business that always had employees come and say, can we work remote? Can we work remote? And everybody's like, no, no remote, no remote. And then all of a sudden everybody's working remote and going on as usual. And what if your business is actually doing really well or what if things are going very smoothly? I think it's really hard and as a business owner to be like, well, every reason why I said no now is no longer on the table. So now what? I mean, what other challenges do you see businesses facing with this besides just that? Like

remote, not remote. Yeah. Well, and even that remote, not remote. A business, you know, with what's been going on that we have no control over, it's impacting every business in different ways. More than less are, are probably not having a positive impact with. But it's not about looking as the business successful during this time. I think when looking at that remote concept, it's, are we more efficient? Does it give us some flexibility? Does it help us, you know, help our employees, you know, are we more attractive to, you know, draw into employees. So I even think like even removing, you know, if someone says we're really successful during it, we might not have been because of everything that's out of our control, but our employees and their productivity and how they feel about working for the business that was maybe more productive.

That was maybe actually successful. Right? So I think we measure success differently and it's important in these times when we are, you know, the flip side of where we are right now. When we go back in. I think it's important that we don't just ignore that. So kind of go to your question challenges, you know, the different challenges that other businesses are facing or going to be facing. Right. I think when we think about a business, it's our employees. It's the leader's mindset, excuse me. The belief that the, the fear and the unknown things, we can't control how that's impacted our people. And we can go back to that one cause that's, that's a big one. Um, physical safety. So challenges, you know, we work with different companies. Some are still still going in, some are still, you know, in production. And some are still working, but you know, like we talked about in a different workplace, at home and then those different challenges.

But it's that the psychological safety as well as the physical safety and looking at what are we going to be doing, how are we going to work differently and be successful as we move forward? Because that's the sanitation piece of it, the health piece of it. And you get into that pace, you're getting into, fear the feelings that's going to come back around, right? And then you're also going to be getting into what policies and procedures, what are our new norms and how we work, you know, everything from our public spaces to walking in the hallways to cafeteria. Right? I mean all those things and maybe we're addressing them right now. Maybe we're addressing right now in smaller numbers. What about when everyone's back? What about when vendors come in? What about when you got vendors you may have guests and you may have applicants.

How is that going to be different when we talk about that physical safety? Sales environment? So let's think about this. I mean, you and I both kind of hang out there a little bit, right? And what's happening right now with how are we mining our, you know, referrals. How are we getting new businesses? How do we network? How do we get new donors, you know, everything from the for profit to nonprofit. I think that's a huge challenge and truly believe that the things that we're doing today are going to have an impact on when we do get, you know, that other side of things is going to impact that sales and where our businesses. But how do we move forward with that one? Obviously supply chain you've got the essential versus non-essential, um, businesses that are running versus not running.

And just having this conversation yesterday with someone from construction industry and they were talking about their fear is they have, they have a lot of business on hold, totally normal. You know, they're, maybe they're finishing up some small projects and things, but they have bigger things that they're not going to start yet. They're on hold until we move forward. And their fear isn't about not having that business. Their fear is, are they going to have what they need to do to build the building? What about the supplies? Right? And I think technology. I think technology is, is another challenge that we're going to have in businesses. I think we are working our way through it and learning it. So it kind of goes back to how to unlearn it. So the things that we've learned and how to utilize technology and get better and help us build the business I think that's going to be a challenge because probably a lot of organizations in different ways have, have found ways to be successful with technology that they didn't before. Right, the beliefs. And now what are we gonna do with that? So I think that's a huge piece of you know, the, the different things that people are having to work through as they are currently today. And as they're thinking about going back, you know, bringing in business back in.

Right. Do you feel like, I mean, you guys work with a lot of business owners and family owned businesses. Do you see a lot of businesses really embracing this time? I mean obviously there's a lot of uncertainty, but embracing this time to really work on their business instead of in their business. In terms of some of these things you were mentioning, technology communication, just like operating systems or do you feel like that's a big opportunity that a lot of businesses have?

I believe that it's a blend. It can go both ways, right? So the first couple of weeks, you know, we think about fear and how our brain processes danger and when typically endanger occurs. We don't truly understand is that physical danger or not. Right? So we'll go into that fight or flight and during these, the first couple of weeks, you know, there's a lot of fear and business owners reacted in regards to fight or flight. Some just backed off going to wait and hold. We're going to be right back into things, you know, we're not going to adjust and some that we're going to, I'm going to use the fight kind of thing. Cause I think it's that, hunger, you know, to keep the business going. Some have stepped back and said, Whoa, our initiatives, our strategic plan and what we were focusing on for 2020.

It's different and I'm not waiting, I'm not going to hope we come back in two weeks or three weeks that we're going to be looking at really what's in our control over the next 30, 60, 90 days and have adjusted what their strategic plan is and whether people should be focusing on the immediate 30 days on what they can foresee. Cause there's a lot of unknowns still. Right? But they've adjusted that and they've redirected their goals and helping their employees be more productive. Where I believe the flip side is you're going to have, there are other businesses that haven't really, really re-evaluated it and made those adjustments and communicated that effectively to the front line. People are still trying to do business as they've been doing business because a lot of people are running at a smaller issue, slower speed. But not necessarily adjusting with our time. That how is it spent differently and where should our focus be reprioritizing our focus from what it was to what it should be today. And that would, that reprioritize, you know, where we reprioritize, where we spend our time.

I read this quote and it's just stuck with me through this whole epidemic crisis mentality is, it's "are you adapting to cope or are you adapting to win?" And like that quote stuck out to me. I'm like, I have to be on the winning side of this. And it kind of flipped my brain from that fear and like almost feeling overwhelmed with so much that you can't do anything to like flip it and say, okay, am I going to go, let's go. And I think that it's interesting to watch different businesses and how they react. Another question that I think a lot of people have, and especially business owners that this thing whole remote world is new. And you know, I think there's different degrees of that because some businesses have had some remote individuals but they may have not had remote people in the crisis mentality. They may have not had remote like us with all of our children home. You know, it's very different. So, what's your first tip to businesses because the fear is how do we know people are actually working? Like if I don't have widgets being made, what, where do I even start with this without like coming in hot and being like, how are you much are you working today or like chatting things that feel disrespectful?

Yes. Well one of the things we initially just started doing when all this happened was reaching out to our customers to have this exact conversation because when we are talking about taking people out their work environment and now putting it, I'm going to call it, it's an interesting experiment of taking work and home and shoving it together and it's truly all home and all work happening at the same time. Because again, everyone, you know, people have children, different ages of children and people have, their situations are so different in everyone's homes that we wanted to reach out and have the conversations with, okay, let's get everyone the technical information they need to work from home, right? Once they are up and running. Now it's really important for us to believe in good intentions that everyone in our team has good intentions to do the best they can for our organization.

So it starts with our belief system, right? And we have to give them trust that they're going to be doing everything they can to, to be their best based off the situation and to help reduce the assumptions to help reduce the unknown. Right? We as leaders, we need to be talking to our people, having individual conversations and saying, okay, let's figure out what is your world like because everyone's world, we've got to reduce assumptions, right? Everyone's role is different. Some people are having to figure out how to do third grade math and tutor their child or go onto a zoom with the teacher to maybe working at home with a spouse who maybe your spouse, maybe you both have never worked from home. That's the collision and you one has worked from home and the other one now is invading their space.I mean you just, everything is so different.

So it's, it's about, let's just, let's just talk about this elephant that is, we're here. Life is not normal right now. We want you to be successful. We believe in you. We trust you. So let's talk about what, what your environment looks like. Let's talk about how we can help a little bit, how we communicate with each other. So then we can help you be the best you can be when you're there and having those conversations and then, you know, getting that better understanding and then having the conversations that help prioritize where they should be, spend their time, what are the most important things that they should be doing? These are the two key things that we as in coaching our clients with through this and really helping them identify to that these conversations, let's, let's become more virtual. So we've been challenged with technology piece with our clients and let's not hold back.

If we were going to be going through an employee, you know, it's annual reviews or whatever may be, um, or one-on-ones. If we have our one-on-one to their place, don't stop. The communication has got to be elevated. We have to increase our communication, do it more often, do it ahead of the game and create transparency for our team. So they, as they're working through fear and the unknown in their personal lives, they have, it's not going to say it's normal, but they have a little bit of normalcy and understanding of where the businesses, it's about being brutally honest. This is what's going on, this is what we see happening, our client, our customers, right? How that impacts our business and what we should be prioritizing, what we're working on. And creating that clarity for them helps reduce and, and knowing that you are there for them through this is huge because they're not gonna forget what, how whatever we choose to do as a business leader, owner, how we choose to respond and, and, and interact with our employees at the end of this on the flip side, they're not going to forget how we made them feel and either we need them feel important, valued that you, you know, you were doing as an owner or you know, a CEO, you're doing everything you can to help everyone move the ship in the direction of the uncertain, you know, the unknown.

And you've had their back and you were helping them or you did nothing. Right. And you know, at that flip side, that is going to make a huge difference in how you all come back together, how you trust each other and how you work together. And that, that piece was, I think is huge as we continue to move forward.

Yeah. I love what you said there. One of the things that I still use after talking to you guys and learning this from your methodology is just that when you said, believe that everybody has good intentions because it really is hard when you're in the middle of something and you have chats coming in at all day emails, your kids are popping in and like telling yourself those stories in your head and putting all the assumptions in there, like you may read into something way more than it really is being read into. And I always love that you guys say that because it really is like taking a step back and be like, this person is really trying. They're trying to figure out the right information. Maybe a mistake was made, but they made it with good intentions and then there's a coaching opportunity there.

I really, I also like the the communication with clarity and just transparency. I think one of the biggest things we've seen in the kind of communication world, external and internal, but when you're really talking about internal, it's just the lack of communication inward to your employees. Not just one time, one email sent, but that constant conversation because little wild, you know, little fires are spreading within your employees and it's really important to address it head on. One thing that we did is we had like a COVIDQ. This is really a couple of weeks ago when there was just a ton of questions coming in and I could tell that people were a little nervous and we just put a anonymous survey tool out there. We sent it to our employees, we even recorded it for them to show them that it was anonymous in the background cause we have very tech savvy organization and really letting them just ask.

And we answered honestly and openly and a lot of the things we didn't have the answers to, but at least they knew that we didn't have the answers to them. And it wasn't like we were holding something back or you know, we were trying to hide something from anybody cause that was definitely not our intention, but just, you know, it's that frequency of communication, just like an advertising just as much as it is about the, you know, how much you do it, like one time. Great. No, you gotta keep, keep communicating. And I also love what you said about how you feel like people will remember how you feel. I think there's a lot of organizations that have had to furlough their employees. They've had to do layoffs, but the difference between the way that you approached it and say it makes the world of difference. So. I, that is so true. It's that empathy. It's that feeling that probably trumps a lot of the actuals. Right? Like even if they had to take a pay cut.

We're all in this together, right? You know, if it's, it's, if it's one of, cause there's been so many different initiatives in regards to how businesses are responding to people taking, you know, a week, a month of unpaid vacation and that you're taking off. So it's basically a pay cut, right? Or just a, everyone's pay is reduced by 20% or 30% or whatever. When, when it's all of us, it's, it's that feeling of we're all in this together and we're going to get through this. And when people start having that feeling that, wow, it's all of us, it's not just certain people,

it just builds that dedication and belief in the business and the people that you work with. And it changes people's attitudes and yeah, people are still fearful and things are going on, but they feel so much better when they know we're all in this together and we're going to do everything we all can do to get through it. Um, I think is huge. And in that survey, I love that idea of that survey. How you, how you had that set up and yeah, your team is tech savvy so I'm sorry you had to do everything cause you want them to, you just want to feel safe. Right? It's that safety and that safety is huge and the more often we can get feedback from our employees, which that's, that's probably the most recent thing we have been coaching with with our clients is having the conversations with your people.

So you know, you've got every, you know, those initial steps of rolling, rolling into this new new and we're going to have another new, new right. But as that was happening, taking time to get feedback from your employees just on you personally on your communication and how you're doing. And Marshall Goldsmith, he has a book called triggers and in that book, he has a process to get feedback. It's very simple and it's so easy to use. It's simply asking your employees, Hey, I want to make sure that I'm being at my best and providing you what you need. So I want to get some feedback and tell me based off how I've been communicating, keeping you in the know, you know, keeping you included. And how we've been, you know, as transparent as we believe we are. I want to know how you feel, right?

That your perception, which is like what you were doing there with that survey. Cause I want to, I want to give you a voice and I want to be able to then understand where you're coming from and be able to do something with it and be better. And you simply ask three questions. It's, it's what have I been doing, you know, in this case, you know, the past six weeks, what have I been doing that you've found helpful that you have found that it's a value in, you want me to continue doing. What have you, what have I been doing that maybe has been irritating? Maybe it causes you to feel frustrated or like, you know, maybe get oppressed or whatever that may be. What is it that should stop doing that? Right. And, um, what ideas do you have on things that I haven't been doing or the organization that you think we should start doing?

So it's that continue, stop and start and the more you can be proactive and have the dialogue with your employees, it's just continuing to build that trust and honesty between the two of you and supporting that whole concept that we're all in this together and we're going to, we're going to get through it and to do that, I'm not perfect. You know, there's things that maybe I don't think of or don't see. And if you're thinking of it, I want to know, or if I'm doing something that's driving you crazy, I want to know so I don't do it right. And you can take it from that, you know, the anonymous survey approach. And then even take it down to just those individual conversations. I truly believe that the people that are doing some of the right things right now, whether the employee was furloughed or not, and let's say they come back and, or the employee was, wasn't furloughed, if you're doing some of those great things of staying connected and getting feedback. When this is all said and done, your relationship with those people with your team is going to be so much stronger.

You're going to be so much better as a result of it. And it's, it's what, what, what, what work are we putting in, you know, put the work in right now to get those results later and it will pay off.

Yeah. I love that. And I, I really think that those, um, three survey questions are valuable for people because they are looking for, you know, how do I say it? What do I say? I think vulnerability is such a hard thing as a leader and but I think it's, so, it's probably the first step. Would you agree? Of just like pure connection? Because if people can see you for who you really are, I think and see that you're not always the boss and you're also trying to juggle all these things. I would assume that that would really lead to a deeper connection and hopefully respect both ways. Well, it's what it's doing. You know, by you're relatable, they can relate to. Now you're

human. We have some things in common, right. And the more we can, you know, connect the further we are building that trust and those relationships and it's only going to end up, you know, with, with positive things as a result. So yeah, that is, that is number one. And right now that's where it's like that transparency, it's so critical that we ar saying what's really happening and you know, we might not like it, but if I need to hear it right and what it is we're doing and how we're responding to that and seeking ideas from employees and ideas, they may have had to respond to certain things. cause I even think, you know, kind of going back to the sales environment and how are, how are people really, you know, building the new business right now. Right? And how are people, whether it's new business donors, whatever it may be, we need to get feedback from our ourselves, people on what are other ways that we can be creative and make sure that we're staying connected with our existing clients and building those relationships and what are ways that we're going to get new business different than, than what we did before.

Because yes, in Iowa and in Nebraska we are you know, slowly starting those initial phases to start pushing, you know, going back into normal business to be the new normal. I think we'll have phases of the new normal. Right. But as that's happening, that new business networking is probably not going to be what it was for a long time. So with that being said, what are we doing right now? And I think that's, you've got to get creative. I was having a conversation with an individual regarding teams, which is an out, you know, um, outlook 365 and their organization really didn't use teams very much. And then with all of this technology, they have started using it internally. And as we were having conversations yesterday they just realized through our discussions, I'm like, Oh, you can, you can connect with other people outside of the business.

And what if that client who you used to visit every week or every other week that you would, you know, have drinks with or you know, you would take out to dinner golfing you would, you know, be providing some educational pieces. What if in the meantime you were doing this face to face, you're able to guide them through pictures or videos on your screen or you're just able to sit back and have a beverage and talk with them like you used to because you can still do it. The piece about the virtual, no matter if you're using 365, Zoom, Google has their own platform. There's a lot of platforms out there. It's just talking to someone who's been using like five or six just because the people she's working with and it doesn't matter if that's facial, that the connection that we have by face to face it's the need is what we need and it helps us. So, you know, being a more intentional about looking for different ways to, to connect on that sale side and continue to at least develop the relationships you've had and then exploring ideas with your team about how do we know network, how do we get introduced to new people, what might, what might that look like now, not later. Right? Right. I think these are such amazing tips, Michelle. I'm really excited about some of the takeaways, really talking to your employees, communicating clearly,

being a little bit vulnerable and don't forget to ask for feedback. I think that all of those are really great tips and I'm really excited that we are going to do a survey because we want to know from our listeners what does your flexibility now look like? What's your thoughts on remote work? And we're going to do a just a super quick two minute survey and we're going to pin it to the top of our Chatterkick Facebook page, and Revela's Facebook page. Please take the survey, share your thoughts and ideas, and we will come back and actually talk about the findings in an anonymous way in the next episode. So we're excited for that. And Michelle, thank you so much for the awesome discussion today. I think people got a lot of really great information and we look forward to our next episode. Well, thank you so much. And, next time I want to ask you a few questions, too. It was great. Well, talk to you soon and thanks everybody for joining us. Thank you everyone. Thanks so much. Bye. Bye.

Social MediaChatterkickMay 5, 2020social media tip, crisis communication, covid19