Blog
How to Lead a Team While Working from Home (From Someone Who’s Done it)
With everything going on in the world lately surrounding COVID-19 and avoiding its spread through social distancing, working from home is becoming more and more relevant. Studies show that employers that offer this flexibility to their team members will see an increase in productivity. If you’re a team leader that is nervous about being asked to work from home, here are some pointers to put your mind at ease.
Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash
With all of the media coverage of COVID-19 lately, you’ve probably seen a lot of articles about “social distancing” and “self quarantine”. Many states and local governments are enacting temporary bans on large assemblies of people. This means that if you work for a company with 100 or more employees in one space, you may be asked to work from home for the time being.
Working from home sounds very appealing to some. You can sleep a bit longer, roll out of bed, and work in your pajamas. For others, working remotely may seem kind of intimidating, especially for leaders. What if you run into distractions? What if you struggle to stay efficient? What if your team members are hitting roadblocks and you’re not there to help them?
As someone who not only worked from home for three years, but remotely led a team of creatives for two of those years, I’d like to put your mind at ease by sharing some of the strategies that helped me stay focused and motivated, even with distractions at home.
Nothing Works Without Trust
If you’re nervous about your team working from home because you don’t trust them to actually work, I have a legitimate question for you: Why did you even hire them in the first place?
Unless you’re leading a team of middle-schoolers, you should be able to trust them to do their job, no matter where they’re working. If you’re a manager that thinks your team won’t be as productive if they work from home, I have some news for you. A 2019 study showed that 85% of businesses that switched to a more flexible work-from-home policy saw an increase in productivity. Working from home also increases morale and reduces stress in employees.
Learn to trust your employees. They’re adults, and they will appreciate being trusted to do their job from home.
A Little Structure Goes a Long Way
One thing that employees working from home for the first time might miss is a bit of structure in their schedules. Even if your team doesn’t typically hold many meetings in the office, it might help to schedule a quick conference call a few times a week to catch up on each other’s progress and support each other in your projects.
It might be worth building a habit of tracking your time if you don’t do so already. When I first started working remotely, I used Toggl to track the time I spent on each project and give my supervisors peace of mind regarding my productivity. Now, my whole team uses it to track their time spent on each client. It’s a great habit to build to hold yourself and your team accountable.
Set a Good Example
Another good habit to build when you work from home, aside from working a consistent schedule, is to get up and get ready for “work” the same way you would if you were going to the office. If your morning ritual includes showering, doing your hair and makeup, and getting dressed, it helps to do that even if you’re just going to be working from your couch for the day.
It may not sound as much fun to work from home if you’re still wearing your office clothes and getting up around the same time, but it will really help you stay focused on work and set a good example for your team.
People were always amazed to hear that I got up and got ready for work every day during my three years of working from home. Truthfully, it really helped me get in the “working” mindset and stay productive during my workday!
Be Strategic About Distractions
Surprisingly enough, having a distraction might help you be more productive. As Erik Devaney writes for HubSpot:
It's like Newton's law of inertia: If you're in motion, you'll stay in motion. If you're at rest, you'll stay at rest. And busy people are in fast-enough motion that they have the momentum to complete anything that comes across their desk.
If you’re dealing with a distraction, such as a child (or, in my case, a furbaby!), you can use breaks like kids’ naps or loads of laundry to go into ultra-efficiency mode with your work. Just make sure you’re focusing on one “distraction” at a time!
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash
Think About Your Work Environment
If you’ll be working from home long-term, you’ll benefit greatly from creating a dedicated space to work. No need to invest in office furniture if you don’t have a desk; even just a spot at your dining room table will help you be more productive if you use it as your “working space”.
However, some creative-types will benefit from switching things up now and again. I will sometimes take meetings off-site or allow the creatives on my team work from home if they’re needing some inspiration.
If you find that your work environment is getting stale, go to a quiet coffee shop or your local library for a refreshing change. This is especially helpful if you tend to feed off of productive environments, like me.
Force Some Social Interaction & Communication Using Technology
The one thing I really missed when I was working remotely was the in-person collaboration that occurs with my team. I had to heavily rely on technology to still be able to communicate effectively with them to brainstorm new ideas, help each other through roadblocks, and really just avoid losing my sanity. Regular phone and video calls, daily emails, and group chat messages helped me navigate this. Here are some of the tools that helped me:
Google Hangouts for chats and video calls with the team
Zoom for meetings with outside clients
Slack for messaging with large groups of people and teams
Taskworld for assigning and collaborating on specific creative projects
Putting it All Together
The thought of being a leader while working from home shouldn’t feel so daunting, but it also shouldn’t be seen as a vacation. Some people will really thrive as both an employee and as a leader when they are asked to work from home, while others will find they really appreciate working at the office again. As a leader, it’s important to recognize this and to pay attention to which situations work best for your team. After all, providing that flexibility will make you much more valuable as an employer.
Five Struggles You’ll Face as a Female Professional (And How to Face Them)
In honor of International Women’s Day, I wanted to shed some light on some of the struggles that female and nonbinary professionals are still facing in 2020. There are so many women that have paved the way for the rest of us over the past 40 years, but we still have a long way to go.
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash
In honor of International Women’s Day today, I wanted to shed some light on some of the issues that women face while advancing their career, in any industry. I have faced many of these struggles myself, but I wasn’t always so sure how to deal with them.
Whether you’re a fellow female or nonbinary professional that faces these struggles, or a male professional that is looking to support more of your fellow coworkers, here are just a few of the struggles women face in the workplace, and how to deal with them.
1. The “double bind”.
In a 2019 interview with the New York Times, Katherine Phillips discusses the “double bind” that working women face:
If they’re perceived as nice and warm and nurturing, as they’re expected to be, they don’t show what it takes to move into a leadership position. But when they take charge to get things done, they’re often seen as angrier or more aggressive than men. It’s like a tightrope women are asked to walk: Veer just a bit one way or the other, and they may fall off.
Although the double bind appears in other aspects of a woman’s career, such as asking for a raise (more on that below), this specific example rings true in leadership. It starts at a young age, too. Young girls that are assertive are seen as “bossy”, while young boys that display the same behaviors are seen as “future leaders”. The result is that female leaders are either seen as competent or likeable, but never both.
How to deal: Be an advocate for other women’s advancement in their own careers. Speak up against words or phrases in the workplace that bolster the bias. In my personal opinion, things like “she’s so emotional” or “she’s very abrasive” require responses like “By ‘emotional’ you must mean ‘passionate’” or “I think ‘assertive’ is a better word.” Also, make sure to celebrate the successes of other women in the workplace. Build (or find) a strong community of women that actively advocate for each other!
2. Experiencing burnout.
“Burnout” is a syndrome related to a lack of motivation and feelings of hopelessness. It’s linked to work-related stress by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Although men work more hours each week on average, women are actually more likely to experience burnout. This is in part due to the frustration that comes from being less likely to be given positions of power.
Burnout can have some damaging effects not only on a woman’s mental health, but also her career. With more women experiencing this syndrome, this means there are more women that choose to change careers and start all over, making it even more difficult to advance their career.
How to deal: Practice self-care and other stress-management activities to prevent bringing work home as much as possible—at least the bad parts. Prioritize yourself in your free time whenever you can.
At the same time, it’s important to recognize when enough is enough. Sharpen your skills and start looking for new opportunities with employers that celebrate women and provide a better work-life balance.
3. Being paid less money for the same work.
Not only are women still getting passed up for promotions more than men, they are still being paid less than their male counterparts that do the same work. It’s 2020 and studies still show that the gender wage gap is still a very real thing, but why?
The answer lies in the double bind we talked about earlier. When negotiating salary, women that ask for more experience social consequences. Less people are willing to be on their team. This doesn’t ring true for men, and it’s why many women just accept what they’re offered rather than negotiating a higher salary.
How to deal: Ask. For. The. Raise. Supporting yourself and knowing your worth is so much more important than being accepted by biased coworkers. Along the same vein, be sure you’re not also practicing this bias; encourage and advocate for your female counterparts that negotiate better pay. As women, we need to work together and do what we can to shrink the gender pay gap.
4. Not having a female mentor.
One thing I regret when I began my career in marketing was not looking for a female mentor sooner. With more men in power than women, it can be tricky to find a strong female mentor that knows you and your goals and will push you to reach them. Although there is nothing wrong with having a mentor in your career who is male, it can be challenging for men to fully understand the struggles that you face as a woman.
How to deal: Freda Lewis-Hall, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Pfizer, advises building a “board of directors” for your career. Here is what this board consists of:
Mentors - who “know your heart” and can give you advice not just in your career, but in your personal life too.
Coaches - who “help you close specific gaps” in your skillset.
Sponsors - who will “put their name on the line for you” and advocate for you for new opportunities.
Role Models - who you may not have ever met, but still choose to emulate.
Prioritize networking with other female professionals—both within and outside of your industry—to build this “board of directors”. These roles can be filled by both men and women, and don’t need to be filled by those who “rank” higher than you in your career either!
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash
5. Guilt about your work-life balance and having a family.
Women are still largely seen as caretakers in the household. Sure, we are typically more nurturing than men, but that doesn’t mean we should feel so guilty about working just as many hours (or less hours) than men do!
Men still experience guilt when they’re at work and away from their families or children, but our society doesn’t feed into this guilt with men the way they do with women. Women today are still asked to essentially choose between being a mom or having a successful career, and it doesn’t help that the US has one of the worst maternity leave policies in the world (with a grand total of zero weeks of paid maternity leave).
How to deal: Samantha Walravens, author of Torn: True Stories of Kids, Career & the Conflict of Modern Motherhood, provides some tips in an article for Johnson & Johnson: Set clear boundaries between work and home, and make sure to communicate with your boss or your partner at home if you need help with something. Keep in mind that any time you’re prioritizing the needs of your family, there is no need to feel guilty. Also, don’t compare yourself to other women that you might think are “superwoman”. Instead, cheer her on and support her.
Sometimes the hardest part of dealing with these struggles is thinking you’re alone in fighting these battles. Keep in mind that other women and nonbinary professionals across the country deal with these issues every day. Seek out support from these other professionals by going to female-focused networking events and building a support system. You don’t have to face these issues alone!
Five Ways to Overcome the Sunday Scaries
90% of American professionals say they have experienced the Sunday Scaries—the anxiety that comes on Sunday afternoons in anticipation of the dreaded Monday morning. This comes from the pressure to be productive during our Monday-through-Friday work week. Thankfully, there some methods you can use to take back your weekend and overcome the Sunday Scaries once and for all.
Photo by Victoria Heath on Unsplash
It’s Sunday afternoon, and your mind is racing.
You want to enjoy the rest of your weekend, but all you can think about is the start of the work week tomorrow. You might be regretting that you weren’t more productive this weekend or thinking about your growing task list for the work week. This anticipatory anxiety could cut your relaxing, already-too-short weekend even shorter than it needs to be.
If you find yourself experiencing similar feelings on Sundays, you’re not alone. According to a recent study by LinkedIn, 80% of professionals experience something called the “Sunday Scaries”, which is a feeling of anxiety that builds up around the end of the weekend.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that you hate your job. This “low-grade, existential dread”—as one professional describes it in an article by The Atlantic—comes in anticipation of having to be “on” for five days in a row, which feels like a lot of pressure after a weekend of being “off”.
Transitioning from a weekend of freedom to the work week of responsibilities is never very pleasant, but it doesn’t have to fill you with dread. Here are some tactics that can help you overcome the Sunday Scaries.
1. Use your Fridays to make Monday more bearable.
Many professionals use Friday as a “catch-up” day to finish up any projects that need some loose ends tied up. Take it a step further and begin to plan the next work week before it even starts! Write down a list of tasks and goals for the week on Friday afternoon so that when you come in on Monday, you already have an idea of what to focus on.
Take it a step further on Fridays by asking yourself if there are any items on that task list that you can get a head start on. Don’t let your brain turn off for the weekend before starting (or even completing!) one of those tasks. You’ve won Monday morning before you’ve had your coffee!
2. Plan something (other than chores) for Sunday.
Take some time on Sunday to do something you actually enjoy. I love writing, and that’s why I write my blog posts on Sunday afternoons. It keeps my mind from worrying about the upcoming work week, and it really relaxes me.
Other things you can plan are a nice walk outside with the dog, lunch or dinner with a friend, a movie with your partner, or cooking your favorite meal. Stop freaking out about the task list that you may or may not have gotten to this weekend and spend some time actually relaxing. If you’ve spent ANY time of your weekend relaxing, you’ve already been more productive by taking care of yourself!
3. Focus more on the positives about Mondays.
Tackle Monday mornings on Sunday by practicing positive self talk. Find the things you really like about your job and put more focus on thinking about those things and creating more to look forward to. These positives can be anything from working on a fun project to enjoying the delicious (free) coffee from the office’s new coffee machine.
Make your Mondays even better by building the habit of putting on a motivational podcast for your morning commute or grabbing a bagel from your favorite coffee joint on the way. Treating yourself isn’t only reserved for the weekends!
If you struggle with finding the positives of your job, change your focus to your longer-term professional goals. If you’re trying to get promoted, focus on the tasks you will complete this week to help you get there. If you’re looking at other opportunities, think about what you are and can be doing to gain new skills needed for another role.
4. Develop a relaxing routine to help you wind down.
Find something you can do on Sunday night to help you clear your head and transition to a productive week. I’m not saying to start a yoga and meditation routine, although that is one direction you can go!
This routine should primarily focus on relaxation, and different people find different things to be relaxing. You might make some tea, take a bath, and watch YouTube videos, or you might go for a run. The important thing is that it’s some sort of structure to your night that helps you transition to more structure in your upcoming work week.
5. Get plenty of sleep on Sunday nights.
Shooting for 8 hours of sleep might seem like a no-brainer, but it can be difficult to put into practice when your mind is racing and you can’t fall asleep. Make sure to turn off the electronic devices and get to bed a little earlier than usual on Sunday night to ensure that you’re able to start Monday off well-rested and energized. Some will carve out some time before bed to write down their thoughts in a journal to help clear their mind. Either way, remember that sleep is the best medicine, so make sure to prioritize that over your to-do list.
Although there are many great benefits of having a 9-to-5 job with a regular schedule, it also has its own setbacks. The American work culture is plagued with a lot of pressure on professionals to be ultra productive during their Monday-through-Friday work week. The Sunday Scaries may trouble most professionals, but there are ways to prevent them from cutting our weekends short!
Top 7 Biggest Myths About Social Media Marketing
There are a ton of misconceptions about social media marketing best practices, and what generates the best results. I’m here to debunk some of these myths, as well give you some tips to help you get the most out of your small business’s social media marketing strategy.
It’s 2020, and by now we know that social media isn’t just a fad, but something that is ingrained in the lives of nearly every single person on the planet that has internet access. As a small business, social media can be used to get in front of a new audience and connect with them on a deeper level. Here are some common misconceptions about social media marketing for small businesses, along with some tips to make your social media efforts go even farther.
Myth #1: Your business needs an active presence on every platform.
In the real world, you can’t be everywhere at once, and the same applies to social media. It’s much better to have a strong presence on 2 or 3 platforms where you’re fully engaged rather than 7 or 8 platforms, most of which are not supporting any customers or potential customers that are reaching out to your brand. Decide which platforms are most popular amongst your target audience (here is a post to help you), and work on having a strong, consistent presence on those networks first.
Myth #2: You need to post something every single day.
Notice the word I just used: “consistent”. The secret to social media success doesn’t rely on posting the most often, but the most consistently. Consistency is what creates an audience of captive followers, because over time, they will find that they can rely on you to share something valuable to their feeds.
If your business is just starting out, don’t sweat it. Even one post per week is an improvement from zero. Start there and work up to posting more often as you feel more comfortable with hitting that goal.
Myth #3: You need to use as many hashtags as possible.
Hashtags are a great way to get your posts in front of more people, but sometimes, less is more. Stuffing your posts with tons of hashtags that aren’t all related to the content of your post could end in spam reports of your content, and ultimately, less trust in your brand. Additionally, some platforms like LinkedIn might mark your post as spam right off the bat if you use more than five hashtags in a single post.
A good rule of thumb is to focus on the relevancy in your hashtags. If you were searching for posts with the hashtag #AffordableWeddings, you would want to see content that gives tips and examples on how to save money when planning a wedding, not price lists from drone companies.
Myth #4: You need a call to action in every single post.
Ask yourself this: when YOU are on social media, what are you looking for? More times than not, the answer is interaction and entertainment. Social media users are looking to be entertained, not to be told to buy something. Even so, you can be strategic about the posts from you and your brand on each of the different platforms.
Even if you’re not linking to your website, talking about your products or services, or asking people to give you a call or email, you can create value for your target audience that will (over time) equate to revenue. Share some insights or information that will appeal to them and that aim to create trust. Interact with them by asking questions. Take some time to actively listen to what their daily struggles are. This helps build the strongest business-customer relationships.
Myth #5: You can’t really measure the success of your social media efforts.
Photo by Georgia de Lotz on Unsplash
There are a ton of metrics and KPIs that you can track to help you build a better social media strategy for your small business. Here are just a few of them:
Engagement (likes, shares, comments)
Reach
URL clicks & referrals to your website
Video views
Conversions
You’ll want to track a combination of these metrics for posts on each of your accounts. There might be additional metrics that are unique to your marketing goals, such as mentions of your company in forums that relate to your industry.
As you grow your business, it might be worth investing in additional software, like HubSpot, that will help you track your customers’ acquisition and behavior on your website much more closely.
Myth #6: Posts from your company page will always be the most successful.
This myth may be surprising until you think about it this way: it’s easier for people to connect with other people rather than a faceless business. We see a great example of this on LinkedIn, where individual profiles outshine company pages in terms of both reach and engagement. This is also why 80% of marketers say that they find influencer marketing to be an effective strategy. People listen to people because people like people.
As a small business owner, think of yourself as the “face” of your brand. Switch up some of your social media tactics by sharing content from your individual account, as well as by commenting on other pages and posts relating to your industry.
Myth #7: B2B companies won’t see any success from social media marketing.
Like I said at the beginning of this article: it’s 2020. Your target audience is most likely spending some time on social media, and it’s your job to find them, connect with them, and create enough value to convert them to customers. If you’re a B2B company, there are likely groups or forums on social media where people in your industry connect and share ideas with each other.
It’s still important to have a profile for your company on these networks, but think about having an active presence as an individual as well. Remember what we’ve already talked about: people like people. It will be easier for other business owners to take advantage of your products or services when they see value in what you bring to the conversation as well.
Social media marketing really isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Every business will have different goals and strategies for success. One thing that applies for any business, however, is that when you shift your focus to having a presence on social media that is relevant, consistent, and valuable, it will be easier to see a return on the time and money that you invest in social media marketing.
Four Reasons Your Small Business Needs to Start a Blog Tomorrow
According to Quoracreative, more than 3/4 of online users read blogs consistently. Starting a blog is an easy and effective way to attract more visitors to your website, connect with your customer base more closely, and create trust in your brand. You can totally start a blog tomorrow by keeping some important goals and statistics in mind.
Photo by Corinne Kutz on Unsplash
Your next marketing move should be starting a blog.
I know what you’re thinking, but hear me out. According to Quoracreative, more than 3/4 of online users read blogs consistently. People read blog articles to learn more information or gain new insights on things that interest them. You may be wondering what kind of information your business could provide in a blog, and how this could possibly lead to more customers and more revenue.
The simple answer is that the customers will come pouring in when you write to provide value to them. Here are some reasons that 55% of marketers say blogging is their top inbound marketing priority.
It boosts your marketing ROI.
A blog is a great way to increase your return on investment, mostly because it’s low-cost and super easy to get started. According to a 2018 report by Hubspot, businesses who prioritize blogging efforts are 13x more likely to see positive ROI in their marketing efforts.
If you’re in an industry that has a target audience that is hungry for information, and your competitors don’t currently have blogs, you’re in a great spot to get started! Don’t freak out about your writing ability either, there are free tools, like the spelling and grammar check in Google Docs, that will help you improve your skills as a blogger.
It gives your business more credibility.
People that need your business’s products or services are looking for a solution to a problem. Help them realize how you can be their solution by sharing your knowledge and experience within your industry. What is something they don’t know that you can provide insight on?
After learning more about the inbound marketing approach to attracting more customers at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing tactics, we know that once you identify what issues your customers face on a daily basis, you learn more about how to attract them, convert them, and delight them.
It can be your strongest lead magnet.
Oozlemedia reports that companies with updated and optimized blogs tend to get 67% more leads than those who don’t. Make sure you’re writing your blog posts with a simple goal in mind: you want your reader to take a particular action by the time they’re done reading your post.
To do this, make sure to include a call-to-action (CTA) in every single blog that you write. Your CTAs should be related to the content of your blog and provide even more value to the reader.
You can see an example of a call-to-action a few paragraphs above. I mentioned a previous blog post of mine that can provide more information on inbound marketing in the last section, so I linked to the blog post once again just below that paragraph. That way, it will still catch the attention of anyone that is simply skimming my blog post.
Other examples are free content offers within your posts that your readers can use to help solve their problem. I use these in my blogs too, with a brief form asking for my readers to fill out so that I can track downloads.
To implement a strong CTA, simply brainstorm what other questions your visitors might have while reading your blog. Then, create an action associated with helping them answer that question.
It’s great for search engine optimization (SEO).
When your ideal customers search for solutions to their problems, you want to make sure they land on your website. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a marketing strategy in which you optimize your web pages to rank first organically on search engine results pages (SERPs).
By creating a blog, you’re increasing the number of pages on your website, boosting your site’s authority in search engine algorithms. Additionally, businesses with blogs receive up to 97% more links to their website, or backlinks, which are also an important factor in ranking on SERPs.
Although you may not be ready to start your blog tomorrow, consider these blogging statistics when building your small business’s marketing strategy for 2020.
Hi! I’m Jennie.
Thank you for visiting my blog! I write about marketing tips for small businesses and how to succeed as a female professional. I write from experience about the things that I love.