Managing Freelancers: 4 Challenges and How to Face Them

The US freelance workforce is currently 53 million strong, and growing fast. In fact, right now freelancers make up 34% of our national workforce. Sarah Harowitz, executive director of Freelancers Union says, “This is an economic shift on par with the industrial revolution.” Are managers prepared to work with this new type of workforce?

Let’s talk about the four major challenges managers face when working with freelancers, and discuss the most effective ways to handle those challenges.

1. How to Manage Inefficient Communication with Freelance Employees

When it comes to freelancers, you are managing people who could be at their desk, poolside, or writing you from an airplane. Tight communication between the freelancer and manager is needed for this arrangement to work. Let’s take an in-depth look at how inefficient communication can be avoided with freelance employees.

2. How to Create a Positive Collaborative Environment for Freelance and Full-time Employees

Freelancers typically don’t have the opportunity to forge personal relationships with full-time employees, who may have worked together in the same office for years. Learn here how managers can help relieve the anxiety that comes when freelancers and full-time employees try to collaborate.

3. Managing Freelancers? How to Help Freelancers Meet Your Project’s Goals and Make Deadlines

It’s inevitable that you and your freelance employee will be somewhat disconnected. You don’t see them and you don’t know what else they have on their plate. The good news is location doesn’t matter. With the right tools, managers can help their freelance employees meet their goals and hit their deadlines successfully.

4. Four Steps to Maintain Organizational Culture with Freelance Employees

Organizational culture is crucial in creating a workplace where employees can work together as a team and contribute to furthering the company’s values and vision. Maintaining that culture in a shared office space is one thing…but when your freelance staff is scattered all over the country, maybe even the globe, that’s a different story.

Are you a manager who has freelance employees? What have you noticed is most difficult about managing them as opposed to employees you see in the office day-to-day? I’m very interested in your experience.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send us an email, or find us on Twitter.

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Beyond The Covid19 Crisis – The Future Of Work

 

There are many articles discussing the impact of Covid-19 on the workplace, ranging from how to go back to work, when to go back to work and what is the new normal.

I understand these concerns. And, I think leaders need to shift their focus and look past this crisis to the future. Let me explain.

There are three phases of Covid-19’s impact on the workplace:

• Phase One: Work from Home (WFH)
• Phase Two: Return to Work (RTW)
• Phase Three: Future of Work (FOW)

Phase One

Phase one was about “How to WFH?”. Every organization asked, “How the heck do we all work from home full-time?” Video calls replaced face to face meetings while home and work merged in to one. There was personal stress and employee stress as the world navigated change, market uncertainty, business continuity, job security, child and elder care and reduced revenue. Organizations used tools to work from home as well as innovative ideas to manage the new norm. Basic organizational practices such as onboarding a new employee had to be recreated into a new virtual system. New communication strategies were subject to constant iteration.

Phase Two

The near future is Phase Two as people consider returning to work and questions such as “Which job category must be done in an office and which does not? What office re-design is needed to meet the mandated guidelines? What are the liability issues to consider? Why do we even need to work in the same physical space?”

Most organizations still wrestle with the needed decisions for this phase, including managing employee mental health, driving innovation while socially isolated, and maintaining strong organizational culture and employee engagement.

According to Deborah Tannen, a Georgetown University linguistics professor, in “Corona virus will Change the World Permanently. Here’s How”, “the comfort of being in the presence of others might be replaced by a greater comfort with absence, especially with those we don’t know intimately. Instead of asking, ‘Is there a reason to do this online?’ we’ll be asking, ‘Is there any good reason to do this in person?’

Organizational leaders will have an enormous challenge re-acclimatizing their employees, both those who return to the physical building as well as those who continue to work from home. By understanding the employee challenges, organizations will be able to identify the potential problems with their RTW plans. Effective two-way communication between the organizational leaders and the workforce can turn this crisis into an opportunity to bolster the organizational culture, increase engagement levels and improve productivity over a long run.

Finally, in addition to the safety issues in this phase, we need to consider a name change. We constantly see the phrase ‘Return to Work’, yet that assumes we are not working when we work from home, which is incorrect. Many people are now working longer hours at home than before the pandemic struck. So, Phase Two is not returning to work; it is returning to the physical office building. I often say that words matter, so what do we call this phase that describes the benefits of collaborating in the same physical, bricks and mortar space? I suggest ‘Collaborate in Person’.

Regardless of what you name this phrase, be sure to communicate clearly and often in this phase. Double down on your communications so your teams understand what to expect.

Phase Three

Focusing on Phase Three is vital to a leader’s success. Why? Because Phase Three is the strategic reshaping of the future of work. I do not mean office redesign; I mean business redesign. There are three sets of questions to ask now in preparation for this phase.

1. Products and Services

The key phrase to remember here is enduring change. What current changes will endure so a product shift is needed? And what current changes will not endure in the future? Where will the organization be in 4-6 months? What products or services need to sunset because they are no longer relevant or in demand? What new products or services can be created thanks to the Corona disruption?

2. Talent

Once the products and services are determined, think about your staff. If some of your staff were hired for a product you will no longer offer, how will those people be retrained for future work? And if you create a new product or client solution, what are the skills and abilities your staff need to innovate and sell that new product? How will you hire and develop those new staff when hiring is no longer restricted to your geographic region and you can literally hire anyone in the world because of WFH? Finally, once they are hired, what are the new team charters and norms that will create a wildly successful team?

3. Organization and Culture Shift

After determining the staffing needs for the future, it is time to codify those changes with a new organizational structure. That’s the easy part. The harder part will be managing the organizational culture shift that will occur with the new product solutions, teams, and organizational design. In times of crisis, you find out what type of culture you have. What pieces of your culture do you want to leverage and what cultural artifacts may need to shift to meet the future of your work? How can you communicate the organizational purpose in ways that excites and engages your employees?

Phase Three demands meaty questions that need to be discussed now. I know organizations are in crisis mode and it’s hard to find the white space to hold these conversations. Yet the organizations that think strategically now will jump ahead of the crisis. So set your future vision, communicate it, and commit to it now. There is no time to waste.

We would love to hear from you. How is your organization managing Phase One (Work from Home)? How do you plan to cope with challenging in by Phase Two (Return to Work)? What plans do you have for the Future of Work (Phase Three) in your organization? Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send us an email, or find us on Twitter.

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How to Onboard Employees Virtually

The COVID-19 quarantine has changed a lot and changed the way we used to do business. Onboarding new employee is just one perfect example. We can no longer welcome a new employee in person at the office due to COVID-19 pandemic. The organizations have to rethink how to create an employee experience virtually. Check out the 3-step process to virtually onboard employees.

Listening: The Do’s and Don’ts and How To Master It

The human mouth plods along at 125 words per minute, while a neuron in the brain can fire about 200 times a second. No wonder our mind wanders when there’s so much time in between the words of a conversation. This is part of the reason we remember only 25 to 50% of what we hear.

Yet listening is an incredibly important skill for everyone—including leaders. Why? If you’re not listening at work, it’s easy to misinterpret a discussion as a decision. You may underestimate the importance of objections and ambivalence. And not listening is a quick way to dissolve trust between leaders and their teams.

From my experience, leaders could use some listening practice. Why don’t they listen? Though Richard Branson once joked that leaders love to hear their own voices, there are two main reasons. For one, in general, people are not taught how to carefully listen. And secondly, society expects leaders and entrepreneurs to have all the answers.

Truly listening to someone is more difficult than it seems and requires practice. Yet practicing takes more than just “keeping it in mind” throughout your day. Let’s look at five levels of listening, the do’s and don’ts of listening, and steps you can take to improve your listening skills.

There are several levels of listening, but here are five I find most important.

Highlight: Five Levels of Listening

1.    Ignoring is something we have all done. Someone is talking to us, but we are exploring things on the Internet, checking text messages, or thinking “what’s for dinner”. We are not actually hearing much of anything. 

2.    Pretend listening occurs when a person acts as if they are listening but is not following the full story of what is being said. They nod and smile but do not actually take in the message. This is a skill that can be finely honed by people who do a lot of inconsequential listening, such as politicians and royalty. We all do pretend listening at times; be careful because it can damage relationships when you get caught.

3.    Selective listening involves listening for particular things and ignoring other things. We hear what we want to hear and sometimes block out details that we are not interested in, or simply don’t want to hear. We listen for what we agree with, and then only remember that. Or we listen only for ways we don’t agree (this is usually as a result of a conflict), which can be quite frustrating when trying to come to an agreement.

4.    Attentive listening is what many of us do most of the time. This is when we listen to the other person with the best intention, yet become distracted by our thoughts of how we will respond. In attentive listening, we dip inside our own heads for a short while, try to determine what the person really means, and formulate questions for the person before we start listening again. If you find that you’re doing this, ‘fess up! Let the other person know that your mind wandered and say, “Could you please repeat that?”

5.    Empathic listening happens when the listener pays very close attention to what is being said, how it is being said, the message that is being portrayed, and what is not being said. Empathic listening takes much more effort than attentive listening, as it requires close concentration. It also requires empathy and understanding. You’re listening for the emotions, watching the body language and listening for needs, goals, preferences, biases, beliefs, values and so on. In other words, you’re listening in surround sound.

How to Be a Better Listener

Listening is actually a little painful. When we talk, we get a rush of chemicals sent to our reward and pleasure centers, so it is a selfish brain activity. There is no reward like that for listening. When you listen, you are halting your natural ways of thinking; it’s like holding your breath. Yet listening is a skill that can be learned, like a fitness test of the brain.

The first step to better listening is to choose to be a better listener and decide that it’s an important skill to you. It takes effort and a strategy and much like any sport, you will want to learn the steps, and then practice, practice, practice.

A Listening Acronym to Keep In Mind

Here is an acronym to help you become a better listener: NALE it.

N         Note what is being said.

A          Ask questions to clarify the story, and refine ambiguous words.

L          Look at what the other person is doing. Are they relaxed, tense, looking             away? This is all part of the communication they are sharing with you.

E          Evaluate what you think is really going on with the person. You are not   a psychologist yet, with a little empathy, you might pick up on some messages that are not being said. This gives you an opportunity to ask more questions. Stay in a curious state and you will learn so much more in less time.

Listening Do’s and Don’ts

To improve your listening, DO:

• Be 100% present. This means turning off all electronics, and keeping your eyes on the person.
• Be content to listen and to stay in the conversation until they feel like they are fully heard.
• Ask questions and take notes, including clarifying meanings of words. Many words in the English language have more than one meaning, or can vary drastically (such as the word “soon”).
• Show courtesy in your posture and your tone of voice by leaning into the conversation, and keeping your voice level.
• Allow emotions to flow freely, and acknowledge the emotions with your words.
• Pretend that you will be tested on what you heard and understood, if you are finding it difficult to concentrate.
  
  

To improve your listening, DON’T:

• React emotionally. Stay calm and focused on the other person.
• Offer suggestions or advice. This is a hard one! Yet if you are truly listening, all you’re doing is pulling information out. As soon as you start suggesting solutions, you are no longer listening.
• Talk about yourself. Even if you have had the same experience, don’t tell your story. It takes the attention off the person and back onto you. A simple “I have been there” can do the trick.
• Look at anything but the person. Stay focused on the person’s eyes, facial expressions, and body language.
  
  

Are you good at fully listening to others? Is listening a challenge for you? We’d love to hear your ideas about why listening may be difficult for leaders. Also, if you have experience working on your listening skills, let us know what steps you have taken.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Online Learning Increases Employee Engagement: Seven Learning Styles

“On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction,” concludes a report by the Department of Education (DOE). In fact, in the DOE’s report “Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online learning,” students doing at least some of their course online ranked in the 59th percentile compared to wholly in-classroom taught students, who scored in the 50th percentile. This performance was found to be statistically significant, meaning these results are not due to random error or chance.

If this is the case, why aren’t more organizations using online learning to improve training, increase retention, reduce travel costs and minimize time away from the office?

Perhaps organizations don’t know why online learning matters, what it is, or how to execute it. Let’s start with why it matters.

WHY DOES ONLINE LEARNING MATTER?

Adults learn in different ways. The more learning ways that a training program includes, the higher chance of knowledge retention. In other words, using a variety of learning styles in a training program will help the trainee remember the new skills longer and deeper. Online learning offers the best chance to incorporate many learning styles at once.

Seven Learning Styles For Designing Training Materials

1. Spatial Learners

Interconnected ideas rather than linear, sequential processes are easier to digest for spatial learners. Bulleted lists don’t do it for this crowd. This learning style leans heavily on patterns and visual pictures to explain a concept.

Here are three examples of designing for spatial learners:

a) Image-based Power Point

Sometimes it’s hard to get away from presentations, but they can still be fashioned for visual learners. Presentation Zen is one of my favorite books. If you browse through Ted.com, you’ll also find fantastic examples of effective, visual Power Points.

When using tools as communication aids, it’s important to understand their purpose and role. Visuals make it easier for spatial learners to recall or apply a concept. Powerful visuals can help your audience remember your content, which is at the core of knowledge transfer.

b) Game Simulations

Timed exams can make spatial learners extremely anxious as the pressure of translating their mental images into words can take longer for them than others, which creates a stressful situation for them. Game simulations make it easier for visual learners to create a link and memory, to better absorb the information.

The Use of Computer Simulations and Gaming to Enhance Authentic Learning from zollnera

c) Mind Mapping

Mind mapping is an increasingly popular tool to visualize ideas and brainstorm ideas effectively. Though this might be more difficult to do in a traditional setting, there are lots of online tools which help facilitate the creation of mind maps, providing an easy way for a group to brainstorm together, versus the traditional outline model. Mind mapping can be incorporated in a variety of ways to assist in planning presentations. Mind Tools has a great article explaining how to use mind maps effectively.

 2. Linguistic Learners

Written words best explain a concept to these individuals, so activities involving reading and writing appeal the most. Spoken word can also be effective with this crowd.

These learners respond best to reading and writing assignments, so think of how to incorporate blogging, articles, white papers or online discussion boards into the training. These learners also like to debate, so assignments that look at two sides of an argument can be an effective way for these individuals to apply knowledge and increase engagement.

3. Intrapersonal Learners

Using auditory information, and then allowing the participant a time of internal reflection, best helps these learners retain information.

These individuals like to control their environment and take in new information at their own speed, which allows them time to process and think about a matter deeply. Two examples that best demonstrate this style are:

a) Podcasts

Radio shows have received a comeback through the form of Podcasts. One of my favorite podcasts is This American Life which distills 2-3 short stories with common themes and presents them to listeners in an hour-long podcast. These engaging podcasts allow listeners to absorb the information while also prompting them to think deeper as the show continues.

b) Lectures

Sometimes traditional lectures are essential to get your point across; however they can still be peppered with the other learning styles mentioned here. Make sure you insert questions and other activities throughout lectures in order to keep listeners engaged. TED talks are full of excellent presentations for this crowd.

4. Interpersonal Learners

Using group dynamics to explain a concept is most effective for this group of learners.

Dynamic conversations can be a fantastic way of explaining concepts, especially when dealing with sensitive topics. Discussions can integrate other engaging activities, such as role play or games to get the discussion going. Planning ahead is necessary to achieve the desired learning outcomes. Do you want participants to remember and understand a concept, apply and analyze on a deeper level or evaluate and create something new? One tip is to ask open-ended questions that prompt, justify, clarify, extend, redirect and help guide group discussion.

5. Musical Learners

Using music as the trigger to remember new knowledge is powerful for this group of learners.

Playing The Who’s song, Talkin’ Bout My Generation, during a presentation to Baby Boomers helps this group of learners remember that time in their lives. This then evokes a powerful memory which keeps them engaged during the training.

6. Bodily-Kinesthetic Learners

Using the bodily senses to describe and ‘feel’ a concept help this learner remember new knowledge.

Do you exhibit at conferences? If so, let the conference attendees touch your product so they can physically experience the product features. If this type of in-person exchange isn’t possible, think of how you can demo your product and use the web to relay this in-person sensory concept.

7. Logical-Mathematical Learners

Using mathematics to describe a concept allows this group of learners to effectively learn new information.

Graphs and data can really bring it home for some learners, as they are both visual and applicable. One of my favorite presenters is Hans Rosling who brings statistics to life!

As I said earlier, the more learning methodologies that a learning program includes, the more the trainee will remember. Why? Whether they realize it or not, people have preferred learning styles. Think about it; when you have to learn something new, do you prefer to hear it, read it or touch it physically? Do you naturally make up songs about things? Do you see the patterns in something new? Or do you learn best when you can discuss it with someone?

Whatever your answer, that’s your preferred learning style; most people have two to three preferred styles. So if a training program offers one or two of your preferred learning styles, you’ll likely remember the content better. If a training program incorporates six to seven learning style approaches, then the chance of everyone in the class retaining the knowledge increases even more.

In the classic face-to-face, live, organizational training, the course participants sit for 3-6 hours, listening to the ‘teacher’. Some classes include videos, role-plays, interactive theater or games to increase retention. However, it’s difficult to do this on a regular basis. Technology makes it much easier.

If I create an online course, I can easily add in video links, podcast links and simulation games, which covers two learning styles. Then I add PDFs of white papers that explain the patterns and academic context, covering another learning styles. I can also add in real-time ‘Journals’ allowing participants to post their homework for the rest of the course to see, which then allows others to comment and start an online conversation, covering another learning style. Finally, to ensure group dynamics stay strong, I could create group phone calls or some face-to-face sessions, covering more learning styles.

So you can see that it makes sense why the DOE found higher retention with online learning. In my next post I’ll talk more about the relationship between online learning and the seven learning styles.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Three Tips to Manage a Toxic Work Environment

Organizations are full of individual and group relationships. Even if you work on a small team in a mid-size organization, it’s possible to have over 25 different working relationships when you consider a relationship with each person on your team, peers, colleagues on other teams, clients and vendors.

According to the 2014 Globe force survey, 78 percent of people who work between 30 to 50 hours per week actually spend more time with their coworkers than with their families. Having friends at work increases organizational commitment, improves employee engagement and increases overall employee satisfaction levels. However, unhealthy work relationships decrease each one of these factors. 

Impact of unhealthy work relationships

A Harvard Business Review article states that there are three traits top leaders use to maintain healthy and powerful relationships: a clear purpose, an understanding of the kind of relationship needed and a commitment to pursue that relationship even in the hard times. In addition, healthy relationships include trust, integrity and respect.

While we all want healthy work relationships, unhealthy work relationships can develop. Unhealthy work relationships lead to workplace stress, higher disengagement and lack of loyalty. About $500 billion is lost by the US economy because of workplace stress. According to a study by Queens School of Business and Gallup, disengaged workers have 37% higher absenteeism, 49% more accidents, and 60% more errors and defects. Lack of loyalty leads to the increase in voluntary turnover by about 50%.

One thing that creates unhealthy work relations is organizational power dynamics, which refer to how different levels of employees deal with each other and where one of these employees / groups is more dominant than the other employee/group. This use of dominance does not involve use of force; instead it uses workplace influence, which could be created by gender, organizational hierarchy, ethnicity, social bias and other factors.

The development of careers, particularly at senior levels, depends on acquiring power. How does this happen? Individuals gain power in absolute terms at someone else’s expense. As most organizations have a pyramid structure, there is a scarcity of positions as one moves up the organizational hierarchy. This is what determines how the power dynamics play out.

How can leaders spot unhealthy power dynamics before the workplace relationships become toxic?

Three Tips for Managing Workplace Power Dynamics

1. Create clear, professional boundaries

Regardless of the organizational size, ensure there are established, professional boundaries in the workplace. For example, if a boss calls a direct report on the weekend, is the direct report expected to return the call on the weekend or on Monday? Is alcohol allowed on the workplace premises and if so, what are the norms when someone says something inappropriate or wants to drive while under the influence of alcohol? Finally, what is allowed or not allowed while traveling? Establishing workplace norms prevents an imbalanced power dynamic from occurring.

2. Monitor language

Words matter because words become thoughts and thoughts become behavior. So be mindful of the accepted organizational verbiage. Expressions such as ‘Man up!’ or ‘Don’t be so emotional and sensitive’ are generally said by one gender about another gender and therefore sexist. ‘You don’t understand how the game works’ shows an imbalanced power dynamic, as one person implies that s/he is smarter or more experienced than the other. Someone regularly saying, ‘That’s not what happened’ can create a feeling of gas lighting, making the other person question reality and become subservient in the power dynamics. So listen for language that may inadvertently create an unhealthy power dynamic.

3. Notice office volatility

Employees are human, and regardless of how talented they are, every person has flaws. Some of those shortcomings may create a volatile work environment, which creates havoc on work relationships and causes stress for everyone. The key to managing this volatile environment is to manage individual responses. Take time to learn what triggers people’s emotions and avoid conversations that can contribute to the overall volatility. Employees need to stay calm rather than engage in office drama.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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