Recently, Petra Coach hosted a Coaches’ Corner – a 1-hour session of live Q&A with Certified Petra Coaches. This webinar featured coaches Andy Bailey, Jennifer Faught, Mark Comiso and Chip Gallent.

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: Is it okay to start actively selling again?

Think about how it’s not just about selling. It’s about the mojo in your organization and your team members – getting the wind back in your sails and getting the team back to being excited and motivated.

 

Q: How are companies boosting morale? Other than just a virtual happy hour?

  • Third party team building exercises over Zoom
  • Virtual cooking classes – show each other how to cook a meal
  • For information shared with the team, keep in mind you will need to repeat things more than once or twice – since we’re not in person, it needs to be shared and reiterated more
  • Keep up with huddles – score them at the end to make sure you are having quality huddles
  • Give your team visuals
  • Think about incentives

 

Q: What are your thoughts on working from home? Will this be long term or short term?

Think About:

  • Where are there opportunities?
  • Where are there obstacles?
  • How does the team need to change?

This may be a long-term thing – maybe through 2021. There are also a lot of people that have adjusted to working at home – another reason it could stay long-term. Everyone’s situation is going to be different.

Potential Obstacles:

  • Employees may not be as productive due to circumstances at home (i.e. childcare). Think about how can you support them
  • PTO policies and work from home policies will need to change

Potential Opportunities:

  • More flexibility in schedules
  • If teams decide to work at home, there won’t be as much office space to lease
  • Can start with a blank page and create a new process

 

Q: Do you think it’s a bad idea to tell your employees they will be working from home through the end of the year, or should we just say August and reassess then?

It’s important to be transparent and upfront, knowing it may change. Share what you know and what you don’t know.

 

Q: What about the silos that will happen between those who decide to stay at home and those who decide to go into the office?

Expect that the “water cooler talk” will happen with both those at home and those in the office. Address any chat that is happening and be upfront with your team.

 

Q: Should I or should I not keep my PPP Loan?

If you have the money and don’t feel like you fall into that category, then maybe you don’t need it. If you don’t need it, then you can refund the money so that the others that do need it can get to it. If you do keep it, approach it like a loan and spend it wisely.

 

Q: When is the right time to do a postmortem meeting on how our organization addressed everything we did around the pandemic? What are good questions to ask our team for if this happens again?

Ask yourself why you want to do a postmortem. This is an ongoing thing, so it’s not totally over – it may not be necessary.