Currently, employers are facing the most crucial test in a generation as the COVID-19 pandemic presents a massive threat to the psychological wellbeing of their staff. Remote working, furloughing en masse, and sector-wide uncertainties all pose major challenges to maintaining the mental health of the workforce.
With so many factors at play, from dealing with isolation to financial or health concerns alongside familial and caring commitments, safeguarding employee mental wellbeing is not an easy task. However, there are several initiatives you can take to protect and build mental resilience in your workforce.
Keeping people connected
Good working relationships are critical to both performance and emotional wellbeing. With remote working, there is a very real danger that the physical distance between team members can lead to social and affinity distance. Work becomes more task-focused rather than collaborative and, without face-to-face contact, important friendships and support networks disappear. In this situation, it’s all too easy for employees to feel isolated and overwhelmed.
Encouraging regular communication through online and video meetings, as well as emails and instant messaging, creates opportunities for both collaborative working and socialisation. This helps to retain the human element to the business, mitigating feelings of isolation.
It is also important to check in regularly with staff to discuss performance, as well as their mental and physical health. Allowing them to raise issues and speak freely, means you can offer support if needed and be proactive about potential problems before they occur.
Balancing work and life commitments
Balancing personal and professional life is also important for protecting mental health. However, with remote working, it can be very difficult to manage. With work notifications popping up outside office hours, and the demands of childcare or other significant responsibilities, home and work commitments run the risk of getting tangled up, contributing to stress.
Helping employees set a clear line between work and personal priorities by building mental barriers is key. Employers should encourage their staff to set a designated area of work, where they won’t be interrupted. It’s also important to remind employees of setting a schedule. A daily routine, perhaps starting with a call with a manager or the team, can help give employees an idea of when to begin and finish work. Defining a start and end time ensures they know when it is OK to ‘switch off’, turn away from the screen, and save those emails for the next day.
Highlighting support options
In situations like these, it is paramount that employees are aware of the resources available to them, and that they are encouraged to take advantage of them. Employers should consider building a community page where employees can connect, and HR managers can share tips, such as effective stress management and maintaining work/life balance.
You can also point them towards vital support networks. These might range from company-provided employee assistance programs and counseling services to links to organisations that offer guidance and support. The NHS and MIND are excellent resources you should consider.
Providing helpful resources demonstrates you care, and communicating clearly and openly that employees should not be afraid to seek help if they need it, will help them sleep easier
Beware the media
The way in which we consume our news can also have an adverse effect on our mental wellbeing. Keeping up to date with COVID-19 coverage is tempting and thanks to social media, these stories are highly accessible. However, it’s very easy to get lost in a sea of misinformation and fear.
Though organisations can not directly influence how their workforce is consuming media, leaders can and should provide clarity and guidance to their staff, communicating clearly about the situation and what it means for the organisation.
With the government announcement that employees should continue to work from home where they can, it’s clear that for many, remote working and social distancing will be the ‘new normal’ for the foreseeable future, prolonging potential dangers to mental health.
Businesses depend on their people, and people need support. If an organisation is to survive and thrive, taking a proactive approach to employee wellbeing – both mental and physical – has to be at the heart of a successful business strategy.
About the Author
Will Jacobs, a graduate of the London School of Economics, heads social media and authors content at Cezanne HR, a leading supplier of modern Cloud HR and payroll software.
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A lot of businesses now are within a niche area. There are plenty of ways to be successful still. The industry of plumbing for example, is a highly skilled area that will take you some additional steps before you can really see the business flourish. This is because it is a skilled job, as many niche industries are, such as building, architecture, medical equipment manufacturing, car manufacturing and they require a lot of hands on work.
Here are the first fundamental steps for starting in a niche market:
Know your niche.
Get training and experience – this includes knowing about plumbing as well as business and also the implications of hiring staff and their wages, insurance.
Take care of the legalities with the necessary insurance needed and all the important information relating to your businesses’ tax.
Make a business plan and look at what you would like to achieve in the first year or two of business.
Have a unique logo and create a business website to help drive sales – you should look at good web design to ensure that your business is being advertised in the right way.
Generate leads and be a good salesperson.
Have a license – this may vary from state to state, but often you’ll find that being a trade qualified plumber isn’t enough to obtain your licence. You may also need to prove you are capable in business, whether that is exams or additional skill sets that you can prove on paper and in practice.
Look At What You Need
If you are looking at the world of plumbing for example, you are going to need to look at a big supply of tools and equipment. With wholesale plumbing supplies, you can be sure that your business is well equipped to deal with all types of plumbing situations and that you can do your job well with good quality supplies. You want to ensure that you have reliable equipment and tools that will serve you well. You want to keep your customers happy with being able to carry out the work effectively and efficiently without any problems. This will keep your customers coming back time after time. This depends on how well you do the job, your expertise and the staff that you employ.
Another important thing to remember is that when you are working as a business, you will need a team of people behind you, so employing the right people is vital. You need friendly and reliable team members who will be qualified for the job and be able to prove their skills as well as offering a personable attitude to customers. Without this, your business is dead in the water. You must be able to look at the positives of business too, because you will need a lot of focus and determination. Look at the competition. What companies are you currently competing with before you start your business? What are they doing differently to you and how can you outsmart them and do better?
Starting any business is an exciting prospect but there are some additional things to consider in the plumbing industry. Start small, know your craft and see the benefits.
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The JSON which is an open-source and publicly available format for exchanging data and information across servers and to browsers and web applications, is the most common format for the web developers. Different techniques are deployed while saving data in this format. The method that involves is storing data in the form of arrays, objects, and even nested objects. It is considered as the most convenient way for the interchanging of data. You might know that servers only understand text-based formats; therefore, JSON is known as the most suitable way to correspond with servers. You can convert strings to JSON easily without even investing your time and money. There are many free strings to JSON online tools available on the web.
JSON – Exchanging Data with Servers
The string to JSON editor also assists you in improving the overall outlook of the files as well. You can easily rearrange the entire code, look for the outcomes, and alter the data according to your requirements. The tool comes with many programs, which makes it easy for you to modify the code easily as it displays the code in a tree format, which means it is aligned in a hierarchical way by containing values within values. People often argue in the web development sphere, which format is better XML or JSON. It is because people who are still using XML for coordination with the server, don’t prefer to switch to JSON.
You can erase all the unnecessary commas and spaces from the code with the aid of this tool. The available web tools don’t require any specific skill set to use them. In fact, they can be accessed from any browser but with a stable internet connection to get the best results out of it. Additionally, along with Windows, you can access them on other operating systems like Linux, iOS, Android, Mac, etc. and there’s no need for extra memory and the processing speed.
String to JSON – Expeditious Utility
String to JSON conversion wasn’t easy for the web developers at all before the inception of this tool. It has really made the task easier for them, and they’re now saving their time as well. The JSON, which is popular for its lightweight nature, doesn’t require you to add attributes and closing/ending tags. Along with it, the format is way more advanced than XML because it doesn’t require being extensive. But you can face trouble when dealing with hefty data and lengthy files. Still, in such cases, the editor and formatter utilities are also available for the users over the web.
You would be amazed to know that the internet is flooded with such tools, and you won’t have to invest your time in searching for any of the tools. The search engines will instantly fetch the results for you in a matter of instance. Now you don’t need to manually convert string to JSON as it is possible with the availability of web utilities.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/business-1839876_1280.jpg8531280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2020-05-21 07:00:252020-05-21 13:19:02The Vitality of String to JSON in Web Development
The coronavirus crisis is a wake-up call. It’s waking us up to what we need to pay attention to in order to live sustainable, healthy lives on this planet. It’s waking us up to the global leadership and cooperation that’s required to ensure our human survival. And it’s highlighting how the female brain is highly adapted to the actions that are needed — right now.
Across the globe, we’re witnessing shining examples of women leading nations through this crisis (here’s to you, Germany and New Zealand) and instances of the worst kind of dominant male behavior here in the USA.
Women, men, and the balance of power
In each of these cases, women have expressed their power differently than men. But why? Differences in neural connectivity and hormones combine to shape male and female power behaviors. Modern brain scanning reveals that neural connectivity in a female brain activates broadly across the left and right hemispheres as the brain analyzes the many facets of a problem. In contrast, male brain connectivity runs with equal intensity from front to back, focused inside of each hemisphere, but with little connection between the two sides of the brain, giving men a singular focus.
Neurochemically, women’s brains and bodies contain far greater quantities of oxytocin, the bonding hormone. For men, the quantities of testosterone are far higher. Under stress, men’s testosterone levels go up, and oxytocin goes down. In women, it’s the opposite; the stress response increases oxytocin.
Because of these combinations, women and men tend to have different takes on the world. Put simply: women create solutions; men fix problems. Women, by nature, are more inclined to connect, collaborate, and communicate. Men with higher testosterone tend to care more about their place in the pecking order.
To be clear, none of these responses are fully married to either sex. How we respond and react are unique to us, with our life experiences shaping these basic biological underpinnings. But we all know that women and men generally have very different ways of living in the world, based on millions of years of evolution. And, as we are experiencing with COVID-19, you cannot argue with Mother Nature.
Right now, a broad, collaborative, and connected perspective—one that sees the whole and isn’t about competition, ego, and turf wars — is exactly what’s required.
Our ‘new normal’ requires female ways of leading
Research shows that many pre-COVID-19 corporate cultures favored male-oriented brains, having been largely created by certain kinds of men for similar kinds of men. But in this new world of working remotely, female ways of leading are creating the space for neural diversity to speak up and find its voice.
Women who were often silent in big office meetings are speaking up online. So are the less-alpha men, along with introverts. Power and status symbols have been stripped away. Working from home is a great leveler and liberator, and it’s allowed female leadership to access the best of all the brains in the business.
COVID-19 has caused us to hit the pause button. To stop and think. Just like the impact of women coming into the workforce after World War II, we are experiencing the positive effects of a different kind of leadership at work. These coronavirus days are allowing female power to shine. There will be no going back, and the world will be better for it.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/Book-Cover-Front.jpeg622480StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2020-05-20 17:00:162020-05-20 22:35:55COVID-19 Has Revealed What We Need More of in Business: The Female Brain
Wasn’t it obvious? The MFH (meeting from home) trend had to follow WFH. The spreading pandemic has forced businesses into a world full of remote work arrangements and travel restrictions. So, in-person meetings are out for the moment.
Meetings have been an essential part of an organization’s workflow. They offer a platform for information sharing, debating and discussing ideas, decision making, reviewing processes, and simply staying in touch with the team. They are also a critical part of an employee’s casual training and social learning.
But virtual meetings are plagued with issues like lack of employee engagement, technical problems, and distractions. Further, in the past, organizations have used conference calls, teleconferencing, and telecommuting as ways to partly support their operations and offer flexibility to employees. Being forced into a fully-remote way of working all of a sudden, most of these firms lack the professional skills needed to effectively conduct virtual meetings.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, use this effective guide (below) to run a successful virtual meeting and maximize your outcomes. Alternatively, you can consider hiring a virtual events organizer to help you conduct those virtual team meetings.
1.Define the Meeting Objective and Agenda
This may sound pretty basic; yet, it’s critical to spell out the meeting agenda with each standalone item having a clear objective. If possible, send a pre-read to each participant, allowing them to come prepared with the required data and supporting documents.
Plan your meeting agenda in such a way that you are able to wrap up within 30-45 minutes. A short-duration meeting makes it easy for everyone to focus on achieving the objectives. Encourage the presenters to minimize their presentation length. Background information can be provided when asked for.
Factor in enough time for all team members to share their views and suggestions. Remember the ‘go around the table’ session that we are used to before making a decision? You need to do the same thing virtually!
2. Find Ways to Improve Employee Engagement
Keeping employees engaged during a virtual meeting is by far the biggest challenge faced by organizations going remote. When employees are connecting to a meeting from a remote location, it’s natural for them to lose focus and interest in the online discussion.
Here are a few effective tips to make your virtual meeting more engaging and productive.
A. Commence with an Ice-Breaker
Virtual team members often feel isolated and may not be comfortable with the remote way of running a meeting. Starting with a virtual icebreaker, such as ‘Show us your work area!’ or ‘Give us a one-word recap of your day/month!’ can be a great way to get the ball rolling.
Such conversations can get everyone talking and ease up the atmosphere. Further, it will act as a quick pulse check, giving you an idea of the overall attitude and emotional state of the team
B. Make Sure All the Faces Are Visible
Meetings done via the video conference mode are the closest you can get to mimicking the familiar and intimate environment of in-person meetings. Ask your team to use a webcam, allowing everyone to see each other’s facial expressions and body language.
Top video conferencing platforms like Zoom and GoToMeeting can help keep the participants engaged with their advanced features, namely video and audio dial-in, screen-sharing, and recording.
C. Encourage People to Share Their Views
The best way to engage employees in a virtual meeting is to ask them questions or call on them to share their experiences or opinions. This will achieve two basic requirements for a productive meeting.
There will be no passive listeners. Even introverts will be encouraged to share their opinions.
People will pay extra attention to what others have to say.
D. Learn from the Experts
Find out how other fully-remote firms are functioning globally. For more than a decade, Toptal, the world’s largest remote firm, has been operating in a fully-remote environment with more than 4000 employees in over 100 countries. They have no physical office!
How do you think they operate? How are they managing their large distributed workforce? How are they able to run effective virtual meetings? Getting to know about their remote working experience will offer you interesting insights, helping you adapt to this suddenly remote work environment.
Go through their remote work playbook which includes time-tested strategies to building a productive remote organization of your own.
3. Set Up a Video Conferencing Etiquette
It is tricky to dictate meeting etiquettes in a remote working environment. Yet, laying down certain behavioral terms for running a successful remote meeting can help your employees know what is expected of them.
Communicate this basic list of etiquettes with each of your team members to keep your virtual meetings productive and professional.
Let’s start the meeting on time.
Come prepared for the meeting. This includes adhering to the bare minimum dress code you would follow in a regular office environment.
Ensure that the device and software used is working well. This includes the mic, webcam, WiFi connectivity.
Turn your video on. We can see you! Also, please maintain eye contact with the camera.Mute your mic to cancel out the background noise that you think will disturb your colleagues.
Stick to the agenda and keep a track of time. Any concerns can be taken up after the meeting.
Avoid multitasking.
Share your views but actively encourage your colleagues by hearing them out. Only one person speaks at the time.
Avoid too many body movements to prevent blurring.
Avoid negative comments. Let’s be positive and boost each other’s morale!
Intervene politely if a discussion wanders off the agenda.
4. Get Rid of Technical Issues and Distractions
Nothing kills the momentum at the beginning of a virtual meeting like a delay due to poor WiFi connectivity, software update notification, or damaged hardware. Such technical issues are most common with employees using their own devices. A simple system update notifications and alerts can get everyone distracted, thus wasting time and bringing down productivity.
Make sure you do a thorough assessment of the system your employees are using. Encourage them to use office devices that are equipped with the required software, thus tackling such distractions.
Before starting the meeting, assess the quality of the WiFi network at your employees’ disposal. In case they are using a poor-quality connection and unable to afford a better one, consider reimbursing a portion of their monthly data connection expense.
Finally, though virtual meetings offer the convenience of connecting with the team from any location, things can go haywire if the attendants connect from an inappropriate place. For instance, the living room is the busiest place in a house. An employee connecting from here will experience distractions from family members, visitors, and pets, derailing the meeting decorum.
Encourage employees to log in from a quiet place like their study or bedroom to avoid such distractions from creeping into the meeting. Ask them to use the background screen and put their mic on mute when not in use for a seamless video conferencing experience.
5. Appoint a Master Yoda
I find Star Wars, the American epic space-opera, entertaining yet full of leadership lessons. The character Master Yoda is wise, authoritative, and plays a central role in inspiring, coaching, and aligning the thoughts of the team. He also calls out unacceptable behavior that’s letting the team down.
You need a Yoda by your side to point out any inappropriate or slack behavior without sounding disrespectful. In such a case, like the Star Wars’ Yoda, the assigned person can help keep the meeting conversation candid.
Further, the Yoda will help keep the virtual team receptive, guide the conversation, and ‘take the pulse’ of the team on certain critical questions or business decisions.
6. End on a Productive Note
At the end of the meeting, clearly outline the next steps with the time frame and accountability. This will fuel the agenda for your next meeting and so on. Have a minute taker who notes down the key meeting proceedings and future action areas. The minutes of the meeting should capture the What, Who, and How of each action item and share it with the team.
Also, capture employee feedback through online survey tools like SurveySparrow or Poll Everywhere. The feedback from the attendees will help improve the quality of virtual meetings in the future.
Summing Up
Technology is an enabler. But it cannot replace real human connections. The current pandemic situation has forced all businesses to rely on technology to connect with their employees. In such a scenario, running successful virtual meetings can be an overwhelming experience, especially for firms that aren’t used to a remote style of working.
Use the effective tips shared in this guide to get the most out of your virtual meetings.
About the Author
Pratik Dholakiya is the founder of Growfusely, a content marketing agency specializing in content and data-driven SEO. He regularly speaks at various conferences about SEO, Content Marketing, and Entrepreneurship. As a passionate SEO and content marketer, he shares his thoughts and knowledge in publications like Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, Fast Company, The Next Web, YourStory, and Inc42, to name a few. He can be reached at Twitter @DholakiyaPratik
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Business Programs
How employees’ mental health can be looked after during COVID-19
/in Managing Your People/by Will JacobsWith so many factors at play, from dealing with isolation to financial or health concerns alongside familial and caring commitments, safeguarding employee mental wellbeing is not an easy task. However, there are several initiatives you can take to protect and build mental resilience in your workforce.
Keeping people connected
Good working relationships are critical to both performance and emotional wellbeing. With remote working, there is a very real danger that the physical distance between team members can lead to social and affinity distance. Work becomes more task-focused rather than collaborative and, without face-to-face contact, important friendships and support networks disappear. In this situation, it’s all too easy for employees to feel isolated and overwhelmed.
Encouraging regular communication through online and video meetings, as well as emails and instant messaging, creates opportunities for both collaborative working and socialisation. This helps to retain the human element to the business, mitigating feelings of isolation.
It is also important to check in regularly with staff to discuss performance, as well as their mental and physical health. Allowing them to raise issues and speak freely, means you can offer support if needed and be proactive about potential problems before they occur.
Balancing work and life commitments
Balancing personal and professional life is also important for protecting mental health. However, with remote working, it can be very difficult to manage. With work notifications popping up outside office hours, and the demands of childcare or other significant responsibilities, home and work commitments run the risk of getting tangled up, contributing to stress.
Helping employees set a clear line between work and personal priorities by building mental barriers is key. Employers should encourage their staff to set a designated area of work, where they won’t be interrupted. It’s also important to remind employees of setting a schedule. A daily routine, perhaps starting with a call with a manager or the team, can help give employees an idea of when to begin and finish work. Defining a start and end time ensures they know when it is OK to ‘switch off’, turn away from the screen, and save those emails for the next day.
Highlighting support options
In situations like these, it is paramount that employees are aware of the resources available to them, and that they are encouraged to take advantage of them. Employers should consider building a community page where employees can connect, and HR managers can share tips, such as effective stress management and maintaining work/life balance.
You can also point them towards vital support networks. These might range from company-provided employee assistance programs and counseling services to links to organisations that offer guidance and support. The NHS and MIND are excellent resources you should consider.
Providing helpful resources demonstrates you care, and communicating clearly and openly that employees should not be afraid to seek help if they need it, will help them sleep easier
Beware the media
The way in which we consume our news can also have an adverse effect on our mental wellbeing. Keeping up to date with COVID-19 coverage is tempting and thanks to social media, these stories are highly accessible. However, it’s very easy to get lost in a sea of misinformation and fear.
Though organisations can not directly influence how their workforce is consuming media, leaders can and should provide clarity and guidance to their staff, communicating clearly about the situation and what it means for the organisation.
With the government announcement that employees should continue to work from home where they can, it’s clear that for many, remote working and social distancing will be the ‘new normal’ for the foreseeable future, prolonging potential dangers to mental health.
Businesses depend on their people, and people need support. If an organisation is to survive and thrive, taking a proactive approach to employee wellbeing – both mental and physical – has to be at the heart of a successful business strategy.
About the Author
How To Start A Successful Business In A Niche Market
/in Starting Your Business/by StrategyDrivenA lot of businesses now are within a niche area. There are plenty of ways to be successful still. The industry of plumbing for example, is a highly skilled area that will take you some additional steps before you can really see the business flourish. This is because it is a skilled job, as many niche industries are, such as building, architecture, medical equipment manufacturing, car manufacturing and they require a lot of hands on work.
Here are the first fundamental steps for starting in a niche market:
Look At What You Need
If you are looking at the world of plumbing for example, you are going to need to look at a big supply of tools and equipment. With wholesale plumbing supplies, you can be sure that your business is well equipped to deal with all types of plumbing situations and that you can do your job well with good quality supplies. You want to ensure that you have reliable equipment and tools that will serve you well. You want to keep your customers happy with being able to carry out the work effectively and efficiently without any problems. This will keep your customers coming back time after time. This depends on how well you do the job, your expertise and the staff that you employ.
Another important thing to remember is that when you are working as a business, you will need a team of people behind you, so employing the right people is vital. You need friendly and reliable team members who will be qualified for the job and be able to prove their skills as well as offering a personable attitude to customers. Without this, your business is dead in the water. You must be able to look at the positives of business too, because you will need a lot of focus and determination. Look at the competition. What companies are you currently competing with before you start your business? What are they doing differently to you and how can you outsmart them and do better?
Starting any business is an exciting prospect but there are some additional things to consider in the plumbing industry. Start small, know your craft and see the benefits.
The Vitality of String to JSON in Web Development
/in Online Marketing and Website Development/by StrategyDrivenThe JSON which is an open-source and publicly available format for exchanging data and information across servers and to browsers and web applications, is the most common format for the web developers. Different techniques are deployed while saving data in this format. The method that involves is storing data in the form of arrays, objects, and even nested objects. It is considered as the most convenient way for the interchanging of data. You might know that servers only understand text-based formats; therefore, JSON is known as the most suitable way to correspond with servers. You can convert strings to JSON easily without even investing your time and money. There are many free strings to JSON online tools available on the web.
JSON – Exchanging Data with Servers
The string to JSON editor also assists you in improving the overall outlook of the files as well. You can easily rearrange the entire code, look for the outcomes, and alter the data according to your requirements. The tool comes with many programs, which makes it easy for you to modify the code easily as it displays the code in a tree format, which means it is aligned in a hierarchical way by containing values within values. People often argue in the web development sphere, which format is better XML or JSON. It is because people who are still using XML for coordination with the server, don’t prefer to switch to JSON.
You can erase all the unnecessary commas and spaces from the code with the aid of this tool. The available web tools don’t require any specific skill set to use them. In fact, they can be accessed from any browser but with a stable internet connection to get the best results out of it. Additionally, along with Windows, you can access them on other operating systems like Linux, iOS, Android, Mac, etc. and there’s no need for extra memory and the processing speed.
String to JSON – Expeditious Utility
String to JSON conversion wasn’t easy for the web developers at all before the inception of this tool. It has really made the task easier for them, and they’re now saving their time as well. The JSON, which is popular for its lightweight nature, doesn’t require you to add attributes and closing/ending tags. Along with it, the format is way more advanced than XML because it doesn’t require being extensive. But you can face trouble when dealing with hefty data and lengthy files. Still, in such cases, the editor and formatter utilities are also available for the users over the web.
You would be amazed to know that the internet is flooded with such tools, and you won’t have to invest your time in searching for any of the tools. The search engines will instantly fetch the results for you in a matter of instance. Now you don’t need to manually convert string to JSON as it is possible with the availability of web utilities.
COVID-19 Has Revealed What We Need More of in Business: The Female Brain
/in Diversity & Inclusion/by Kate LanzAcross the globe, we’re witnessing shining examples of women leading nations through this crisis (here’s to you, Germany and New Zealand) and instances of the worst kind of dominant male behavior here in the USA.
Women, men, and the balance of power
In each of these cases, women have expressed their power differently than men. But why? Differences in neural connectivity and hormones combine to shape male and female power behaviors. Modern brain scanning reveals that neural connectivity in a female brain activates broadly across the left and right hemispheres as the brain analyzes the many facets of a problem. In contrast, male brain connectivity runs with equal intensity from front to back, focused inside of each hemisphere, but with little connection between the two sides of the brain, giving men a singular focus.
Neurochemically, women’s brains and bodies contain far greater quantities of oxytocin, the bonding hormone. For men, the quantities of testosterone are far higher. Under stress, men’s testosterone levels go up, and oxytocin goes down. In women, it’s the opposite; the stress response increases oxytocin.
Because of these combinations, women and men tend to have different takes on the world. Put simply: women create solutions; men fix problems. Women, by nature, are more inclined to connect, collaborate, and communicate. Men with higher testosterone tend to care more about their place in the pecking order.
To be clear, none of these responses are fully married to either sex. How we respond and react are unique to us, with our life experiences shaping these basic biological underpinnings. But we all know that women and men generally have very different ways of living in the world, based on millions of years of evolution. And, as we are experiencing with COVID-19, you cannot argue with Mother Nature.
Right now, a broad, collaborative, and connected perspective—one that sees the whole and isn’t about competition, ego, and turf wars — is exactly what’s required.
Our ‘new normal’ requires female ways of leading
Research shows that many pre-COVID-19 corporate cultures favored male-oriented brains, having been largely created by certain kinds of men for similar kinds of men. But in this new world of working remotely, female ways of leading are creating the space for neural diversity to speak up and find its voice.
Women who were often silent in big office meetings are speaking up online. So are the less-alpha men, along with introverts. Power and status symbols have been stripped away. Working from home is a great leveler and liberator, and it’s allowed female leadership to access the best of all the brains in the business.
COVID-19 has caused us to hit the pause button. To stop and think. Just like the impact of women coming into the workforce after World War II, we are experiencing the positive effects of a different kind of leadership at work. These coronavirus days are allowing female power to shine. There will be no going back, and the world will be better for it.
About the Author
How to Get the Most Out of Virtual Team Meetings
/in Managing Your People/by Pratik DholakiyaMeetings have been an essential part of an organization’s workflow. They offer a platform for information sharing, debating and discussing ideas, decision making, reviewing processes, and simply staying in touch with the team. They are also a critical part of an employee’s casual training and social learning.
But virtual meetings are plagued with issues like lack of employee engagement, technical problems, and distractions. Further, in the past, organizations have used conference calls, teleconferencing, and telecommuting as ways to partly support their operations and offer flexibility to employees. Being forced into a fully-remote way of working all of a sudden, most of these firms lack the professional skills needed to effectively conduct virtual meetings.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, use this effective guide (below) to run a successful virtual meeting and maximize your outcomes. Alternatively, you can consider hiring a virtual events organizer to help you conduct those virtual team meetings.
1.Define the Meeting Objective and Agenda
This may sound pretty basic; yet, it’s critical to spell out the meeting agenda with each standalone item having a clear objective. If possible, send a pre-read to each participant, allowing them to come prepared with the required data and supporting documents.
Plan your meeting agenda in such a way that you are able to wrap up within 30-45 minutes. A short-duration meeting makes it easy for everyone to focus on achieving the objectives. Encourage the presenters to minimize their presentation length. Background information can be provided when asked for.
Factor in enough time for all team members to share their views and suggestions. Remember the ‘go around the table’ session that we are used to before making a decision? You need to do the same thing virtually!
2. Find Ways to Improve Employee Engagement
Keeping employees engaged during a virtual meeting is by far the biggest challenge faced by organizations going remote. When employees are connecting to a meeting from a remote location, it’s natural for them to lose focus and interest in the online discussion.
Here are a few effective tips to make your virtual meeting more engaging and productive.
A. Commence with an Ice-Breaker
Virtual team members often feel isolated and may not be comfortable with the remote way of running a meeting. Starting with a virtual icebreaker, such as ‘Show us your work area!’ or ‘Give us a one-word recap of your day/month!’ can be a great way to get the ball rolling.
Such conversations can get everyone talking and ease up the atmosphere. Further, it will act as a quick pulse check, giving you an idea of the overall attitude and emotional state of the team
B. Make Sure All the Faces Are Visible
Meetings done via the video conference mode are the closest you can get to mimicking the familiar and intimate environment of in-person meetings. Ask your team to use a webcam, allowing everyone to see each other’s facial expressions and body language.
Top video conferencing platforms like Zoom and GoToMeeting can help keep the participants engaged with their advanced features, namely video and audio dial-in, screen-sharing, and recording.
C. Encourage People to Share Their Views
The best way to engage employees in a virtual meeting is to ask them questions or call on them to share their experiences or opinions. This will achieve two basic requirements for a productive meeting.
D. Learn from the Experts
Find out how other fully-remote firms are functioning globally. For more than a decade, Toptal, the world’s largest remote firm, has been operating in a fully-remote environment with more than 4000 employees in over 100 countries. They have no physical office!
How do you think they operate? How are they managing their large distributed workforce? How are they able to run effective virtual meetings? Getting to know about their remote working experience will offer you interesting insights, helping you adapt to this suddenly remote work environment.
Go through their remote work playbook which includes time-tested strategies to building a productive remote organization of your own.
3. Set Up a Video Conferencing Etiquette
It is tricky to dictate meeting etiquettes in a remote working environment. Yet, laying down certain behavioral terms for running a successful remote meeting can help your employees know what is expected of them.
Communicate this basic list of etiquettes with each of your team members to keep your virtual meetings productive and professional.
4. Get Rid of Technical Issues and Distractions
Nothing kills the momentum at the beginning of a virtual meeting like a delay due to poor WiFi connectivity, software update notification, or damaged hardware. Such technical issues are most common with employees using their own devices. A simple system update notifications and alerts can get everyone distracted, thus wasting time and bringing down productivity.
Make sure you do a thorough assessment of the system your employees are using. Encourage them to use office devices that are equipped with the required software, thus tackling such distractions.
Before starting the meeting, assess the quality of the WiFi network at your employees’ disposal. In case they are using a poor-quality connection and unable to afford a better one, consider reimbursing a portion of their monthly data connection expense.
Finally, though virtual meetings offer the convenience of connecting with the team from any location, things can go haywire if the attendants connect from an inappropriate place. For instance, the living room is the busiest place in a house. An employee connecting from here will experience distractions from family members, visitors, and pets, derailing the meeting decorum.
Encourage employees to log in from a quiet place like their study or bedroom to avoid such distractions from creeping into the meeting. Ask them to use the background screen and put their mic on mute when not in use for a seamless video conferencing experience.
5. Appoint a Master Yoda
I find Star Wars, the American epic space-opera, entertaining yet full of leadership lessons. The character Master Yoda is wise, authoritative, and plays a central role in inspiring, coaching, and aligning the thoughts of the team. He also calls out unacceptable behavior that’s letting the team down.
You need a Yoda by your side to point out any inappropriate or slack behavior without sounding disrespectful. In such a case, like the Star Wars’ Yoda, the assigned person can help keep the meeting conversation candid.
Further, the Yoda will help keep the virtual team receptive, guide the conversation, and ‘take the pulse’ of the team on certain critical questions or business decisions.
6. End on a Productive Note
At the end of the meeting, clearly outline the next steps with the time frame and accountability. This will fuel the agenda for your next meeting and so on. Have a minute taker who notes down the key meeting proceedings and future action areas. The minutes of the meeting should capture the What, Who, and How of each action item and share it with the team.
Also, capture employee feedback through online survey tools like SurveySparrow or Poll Everywhere. The feedback from the attendees will help improve the quality of virtual meetings in the future.
Summing Up
Technology is an enabler. But it cannot replace real human connections. The current pandemic situation has forced all businesses to rely on technology to connect with their employees. In such a scenario, running successful virtual meetings can be an overwhelming experience, especially for firms that aren’t used to a remote style of working.
Use the effective tips shared in this guide to get the most out of your virtual meetings.
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