Recently, Petra Coach hosted a Coaches’ Corner – a 1-hour session of live Q&A with Certified Petra Coaches. This webinar featured coaches Marshall Martin, Jason Rush and Accountability Coach Katherine Foster.

The content is invaluable to leaders during this unprecedented time.

You can find the full recording here.

To augment the recording, below is a brief recap of questions and answers from the session.

 

Q: How do you know when to come back into the office?

Start with setting a date. Set up cleaning protocols and set designated areas for each person to work. If you have a large team, alternate groups of people to come in or work from home, then switch the groups. Make sure that each individual feels safe to come back. If there are people who don’t feel comfortable, accommodate their needs.

 

Q: We’ve been doing 30-day intervals of plannings. Should we go back to 90-day planning sessions? What will plannings look like?

We were having Adaptive Plannings early on when things were very unknown. Now that things have settled down a little, they may not need to happen as often. June is probably when we will start thinking of Q3 as a whole quarter rather than broken into 30-day segments. In those plannings, we will re-look at targets set for the year and key annual initiatives, set an annual plan and then set Q3 priorities.

 

Q: What pivots have you seen? What is the most interesting pivot you’ve seen?

Examples:

  • A company that supplies food to local schools now supplies food to homes by home delivery
  • A construction company took their business to a virtual superintendent model that removes a lot of human interaction, but still moves the project forward responsibly. This also allows the superintendent to be over more projects.
  • Some restaurants are changing their model from high dining service to very scaled down. They have more options: lunch and dinner, catering and bringing a bartender for a home festivity, etc.

 

Q: How can we interact without giving hugs or handshakes?

Use FaceTime instead of a phone call to actually see one another. Be intentional with your calls to check in with others.

 

Q: How often should we be looking at and revising our priorities and KPIs during the transition back?

If the priorities you have are not what you need to be working towards, then they will need to be looked at and revised. Be aware of your communication rhythms, especially if teams are not together in person – always be communicating. Think about what has to be worked on, needs to be worked on and would be nice to be worked on. Find out what absolutely has to get done. New priorities will come out of what we are seeing come out of these times. Don’t drag the past with you – if what you’re doing now works, then continue and push that forward.

 

Q: What can we do to be taking better care of ourselves?

If you are focusing on the positive and what is going well, then you won’t have a negative mindset – practice gratitude exercises. Small things like taking a walk are very helpful.

 

Q: Now seems like a time we could use coaching but things are also tough financially. Where could I start?

Back on Track in Q3 Workshops

  • A coach will walk you through setting up a plan for the rest of the year

We offer a variety planning options to fit your unique situation

  • Group plannings
  • Virtual plannings
  • In-Person (starting back in June)

Find ways to offset the expense of coaching.

Go to our website for more resources – Reach out to us!

 

Q: What do we do to think differently when it comes to strategy?

Create a meeting specifically to focus only on strategy and nothing else. Look at where your strengths, weaknesses and trends are using a SWT worksheet and make a plan. If you are having plannings every 30 days, in between you need to think strategically about what you are doing to attack those plans.

 

Q: How do we bring people back to the office? If some people are working from home and some are in the office, how do you keep that culture alive?

Be aware that you still need to keep the ramped up communications. Even though there are some people in the office, there are still people remote that need information from inside the office.

 

Q: How do you decide which furloughed employees to bring back and how?

Someone has to make the selection. Look at the needs of the business, the setting and finances. Look at why they were furloughed in the first place.

This is a good time to evaluate who you have on your team and evaluate if maybe some of those people don’t need to come back – people that you know you should have let go a long time ago. Now is the time to do that.

 

Q: What can we do to improve on employee engagement?

Ask the questions:

  • Why aren’t you engaged and what can we do to get you engaged?
  • Why are people not engaged, what’s missing?
  • Are they not being treated the way they want to be treated?
  • Why are they coming to work?
  • Do they wake up and know why they are coming to this job?
  • Are they the right fit for the company?

 

Like what you hear? Click HERE to get yourself and your team registered for next week’s Coaches’ Corner today!