WFH Advisory: ‘Check-in your virtual baggage. No room in cabin!’
Carrying excess baggage into important discussions will diminish leaders' gravitas.
By ET CONTRIBUTORS | Updated:
iStock
Leaders find their workday calendars ‘blocked back-to-back’ with a plethora of important, urgent and, sometimes irrelevant, meetings.
By Rajeev Raju
“How do I listen better during my endless, and series of, virtual calls and meetings?” “I am stressed from my previous meeting and unable to focus on my next, important call.” “After an agitated leadership call, how can I put on a smile and speak with genuine warmth to my team, or even a client?!”
These were the questions posed during a leadership coaching session with Asian and European sales leaders in a global telecom company. They were dabbling between:
keeping their attention spans high,
table sensible opinions,
ask pertinent questions,
grow their visibility, and…
…so on, while putting up with technology glitches, participants speaking over each other and worrying about their previous or subsequent meetings.
Leaders find their workday calendars ‘blocked back-to-back’ with a plethora of important, urgent and, sometimes irrelevant, meetings. In the current WFH scenario, new complications have arisen including, distractions within home, space and privacy constraints, switching on and off between workplace and domestic matters, etc.
Consequently, frayed tempers, unreconciled matters, transactional conversations, lessened empathy and dilution of relationships are now the norm. At an organisation level, ambiguous communication, poor collaboration, heightened mistrust, non-aligned objectives and delayed decisions lead to incalculable costs. In the current WFH scenario, new complications have arisen including, distractions within home, space and privacy constraints, switching on and off between workplace and domestic matters, etc.
ADVERTISEMENT
To give their best, and not let situations spiral, leaders should:
create adequate buffers between meetings
consciously detach themselves from their previous meeting
‘check-in’ early to their next meeting
invest the initial minutes of every meeting in informal or small talk
intentionally build rapport at the beginning, and while ending, than diving into the agenda straightaway
give undivided attention to their colleagues or clients and enable decisions.
Carrying excess or old baggage into important discussions will diminish the leader’s gravitas and impact the organisation’s effectiveness. Leave behind distractions and step into your cabins, virtually or otherwise, for a safe flight.
- The writer is a global leadership coach and mentor, based in Mumbai. He believes in passionately inspiring CXOs to build their Gravitas. He has a decade’s experience coaching diverse leaders across industries and geographies and spent 20 years in leadership roles in investment banking, private equity, consulting and strategy.
Keep Calm And Work From Home! Tech & IT Giants That Are On WFH Mode Till July 2021
1/8
The Covid-19 pandemic posed a plethora of challenges before humanity - the cancellation of major events, economic slowdown and job crisis to name a few. One of the biggest challenges was faced by workplaces around the world, as they struggled to work out an arrangement where employees could stay productive without being physically present in the office.
However, workplaces soon embraced the new normal and got accustomed to the changing times, so much so, that many of the tech and IT giants decided to extend their WFH policies even after the pandemic has subsided, with many of them deciding not to return to offices till summer of the next year.
Here’s a look at all the major companies that are on WFH till July 2021.
The Covid-19 pandemic posed a plethora of challenges before humanity - the cancellation of major events, economic slowdown and job crisis to name a few. One of the biggest challenges was faced by wor..
Read More
Google became the first global tech giant to announce work from home for its employees till July 2021 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Setting a precedent for other tech and IT companies to follow through, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, in an internal email written to the employees on July 27, said, “To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we are extending our global voluntary work from home option through June 30, 2021 for roles that don’t need to be in the office.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, the extension is valid not just for Alphabet Inc’s US employees but also for major offices across UK, India, Brazil and elsewhere. Pichai reportedly decided to offer WFH till mid-2021 after discussing plans with an internal group of top executives.
However, that’s not all, Google also gave a $1,000 allowance for home office needs.
Google became the first global tech giant to announce work from home for its employees till July 2021 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.Setting a precedent for other tech and IT companies to fo..
Read More
After Google announced that it will allow its employees to work from home till summer 2021, Twitter went a step ahead and allowed its employees to work from home ‘forever’.
In an email first reported by Buzzfeed News, the company said that Twitter was “one of the first companies to go to a WFH model in the face of Covid-19, but [doesn’t] anticipate being one of the first to return to offices.”
The company said that the employees who are in roles and situations where they can continue working from home, even after the pandemic subsides can continue to do so and that the company ‘will make it happen’.
“If not, our offices will be their warm and welcoming selves, with some additional precautions, when we feel it’s safe to return,” the statement read. The company began encouraging remote work in early March and is one of the first to announce a permanent work from home option.
After Google announced that it will allow its employees to work from home till summer 2021, Twitter went a step ahead and allowed its employees to work from home ‘forever’.In an email first reported ..
Read More
After Google and Twitter set new precedents by allowing the majority of their workforce to work from home till at least 2021, Facebook followed suit by extending its WFH policy till July 2021 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
As a part of WFH allowance, Facebook announced that it will give its employees $1,000 for ‘home office needs’. "Based on guidance from health and government experts, as well as decisions drawn from our internal discussions about these matters, we are allowing employees to continue voluntarily working from home until July 2021," said Nneka Norville, a Facebook spokesperson in early August.
However, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg went a step ahead and announced that the company will embrace WFH beyond the coronavirus pandemic. Zuckerberg said that he expects as many as half of the social media giant's employees to work remotely by 2030. The shift will be gradual and will require new tools to offset lost in-person interactions, said the chief.
After Google and Twitter set new precedents by allowing the majority of their workforce to work from home till at least 2021, Facebook followed suit by extending its WFH policy till July 2021 in resp..
Read More
San Francisco-based software company Salesforce, too, joined the trend and offered its employees the option to work from home for the rest of 2020, regardless of when their local office opens up.
"For us, the timing of when we bring employees back into our offices will be unique to each office—we'll make those decisions on a city-by-city basis, in a way that's consistent with local government guidelines and in line with the advice of our medical experts," Amy Weaver, chief legal officer, wrote in a blog post on August 19.
The company compared its reopening process to a ‘light dimmer, not a light switch’.
"We're not going to open up the doors and have everyone at the company back at their desks on day one," Elizabeth Pinkham, Salesforce's global head of real estate wrote in a blog post in May. "Instead, we are looking at the return as a phased approach starting with the employees that are most critical to our office operations."
San Francisco-based software company Salesforce, too, joined the trend and offered its employees the option to work from home for the rest of 2020, regardless of when their local office opens up. "Fo..
Read More
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) embraced the new normal and became one of the first major IT companies to announce work from home for its employees in April. The IT firm announced that by the year 2025, it will have 75% of its 4.48 lakh global employees, out of which, 3.5 lakh are in India, working from home.
The new model, called 25/25, is expected to require far less space in offices than occupied today. "We don't believe that we need more than 25% of our workforce at our facilities in order to be 100% productive," said TCS's chief operating officer NG Subramaniam.
The decision came after the firm briskly moved 90% of its workforce to an operating model called Secure Borderless Work Spaces.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) embraced the new normal and became one of the first major IT companies to announce work from home for its employees in April. The IT firm announced that by the year 20..
Read More
Following in the footsteps of TCS, IT firm Infosys, in the month of June, announced permanent work from home for 33-50% of its employees.
With nearly 93% of its 2,40,000 employees having been able to work from home within the first few weeks of the Covid crisis, the IT services major said that it will focus on introducing a 'flexible work from home model' for its employees permanently.
Infosys Chief Operating Officer (COO) U B Pravin Rao told shareholders during the 39th Annual General Meeting on Saturday that the work from home model has not impacted the productivity of employees so far.
Following in the footsteps of TCS, IT firm Infosys, in the month of June, announced permanent work from home for 33-50% of its employees. With nearly 93% of its 2,40,000 employees having been able to..
Read More
In the month of August, out of 1,81,804 employees at Wipro, 95% were working from home.
According to a report in TimesNow, India's top 5 IT majors--TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra together have over 11.38 lakh employees on their rolls for the quarter ended June. A 95% average would mean 10.81 lakh employees are working from home, an incredible feat of execution and technology.
In the month of August, out of 1,81,804 employees at Wipro, 95% were working from home.According to a report in TimesNow, India's top 5 IT majors--TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra toge..
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of www.economictimes.com.)
