Principles for Leading Your Company through COVID-19 Crisis

Published on: 20 November 2020 Last Updated on: 04 September 2021

Ever since the COVID-19 outbreak in the UAE, the government and other institutions have been fighting to curb its spread. The virus spreads when a healthy person inhales droplets from a person who is infected. It also spreads when you touch surfaces that are contaminated then touch your eyes, mouth, or nose. It is necessary to adhere to the recommended health guidelines like washing your hands or using an alcohol-based sanitizer, maintaining social distance, avoiding crowds, etc. Employers should ensure that the workplace is safe and can accommodate employees without compromising their health.

Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 at the Workplace

Keeping your workplace COVID-19 free does not have to cost much; maintain hygiene and cleanliness. Ensure that surfaces like tables and desks, keyboards, and telephones are wiped and disinfected regularly.

Encourage regular hand washing by workers and customers. Provide sanitizers and hand wash soap at entrances, exits, washrooms, etc. Ensure that sanitizer dispensers never run out. You can also hang informative posters on the importance of washing hands to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. Promote the use of face masks at all times and practice good respiratory hygiene. Make sure your employees are well aware of Coronavirus Health Insurance.

How to Lead Your Company during the Coronavirus

Leading a team during the COVID-19 can be tough; there is uncertainty, and employees are constantly worried about their families and health. Here are principles you can use to lead your team during this time of crisis.

Preach Hope

Your employees will mirror your behavior, so as you talk to them about the present and unclear future, it is necessary to remain optimistic. Be truthful and assure them that the company will withstand the hard times, and things will be back to normal. You need to give them hope, act like a leader.

Taking leadership training Dubai lessons teaches you how to handle overwhelming situations in the workplace. Although preaching hope is necessary, avoid giving false assurances as this can break their trust in you and the company.

People-Centered Approach

You need to be in tune with how the staff feels and thinks during this crisis; watch for changes and respond to any concerns. Employees are going to be worried and anxious about job security and health. Executives who take leadership training in Abu Dhabi classes know how to act even in a crisis. Show genuine concern for your workers; some risk their health to be at the office while others work from home juggling family and workload.

Effective Communication

Communicating is not enough; you need to ensure that the message is understood and not blown out of context or misinterpreted. Try to maintain personal but professional communication with each member. Be transparent, and keep the employees informed, but don’t bombard them with too much information.

Communication is a two-way-street; listen to your team and receive feedback without judgment. When employees are free to issue their concerns and opinions, they feel appreciated and valued which leads to job satisfaction and improved productivity.

Collaboration

Don’t pretend to know everything; nobody expects you to. This is the ideal time to rely on your resources, employees, and all team members. Create taskforces, sub-taskforces, and explain each person’s role; this makes them feel that they are contributing positively to the workplace during this crisis. Collaboration fosters cohesion and builds trust within the team. When people work together they can come up with better solutions to problems. It also helps employees to adapt to the new norm. Change is inevitable, and organizations need to adapt accordingly.

Establish a Common Vision

Focus on setting out a simple, shared vision; this fosters a sense of purpose. As the crisis escalates, a shared vision reminds the team to work on what is needed at every stage and to focus on important issues. It also helps employees to focus on the organization’s goals without getting distracted by the outside world. It steers employees in the right direction. Having a clear vision ensures that every member is on the same page. A good vision is not enough; you need to communicate correctly to let everyone know their responsibilities and expectations.

Be Present

It’s crucial to be present at the workplace to interact and support your team. It is also necessary to do the same if you have a virtual team. Most organizations have all or some of their employees work from home. It is necessary to schedule regular meetings through video conferencing. This makes remote working employees feel seen and included in everyday routine and decision-making processes. You don’t have to be physically present to lead your team. If you lead managers, you need to keep a tab of their daily routine and continue with your coaching conversation.

The COVID-19 crisis has changed the workplace; some people work from home while others continue with their normal routines while observing health recommendations. It can be overwhelming to lead a team during a crisis; some workers are confused while others are worried and frustrated. As a leader, you need to develop strategies to keep your team focused during these times.

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The Need to Settle End of Tenancy Issues Before Leaving

Small businesses usually rent a small office space given the number of employees who need to work in the same place. If you decided to rent a small office in a popular commercial establishment, you could sign a lease for about a year. Once the contract is over, you can decide to continue it or not. After a year, if your business has already grown drastically, and you intend to hire more employees to join you, it does not make sense to stay in the same place. You need to find a bigger office where you can successfully conduct all your operations. Before you leave the current office, you need to deal with the end of tenancy issues. You don't want to have problems with the owner of the space and not get your deposit back. Read the contract: You need to go through the agreement again to determine what you need to do as your tenancy is about to end. You might have to inform the landlord a month or so in advance that you don't intend to continue your lease. There might also be other stipulations you need to be familiar with before you decide to pursue the next steps. Deal with repair issues: A part of the contract is to keep the place in good condition. Some contracts might have clauses about damage due to wear and tear, which is perfectly fine. However, there might be other severe damage that you need to repair before you leave. Otherwise, the landlord could charge the amount to your deposit, and you won’t get it back in full. Clean the office: If you intend to leave soon, you need to start looking for a new place at least three months in advance. You will then have enough time to ask your employees to pack their stuff and move to the new office. If they will be busy packing their things, you can’t expect them to deal with general cleaning too. Besides, they are also doing their regular job while moving. You need professional cleaners like the ones at www.twinkleclean.co to do the job. They will make sure that the place will look as good as new. When the landlord checks the site, it will feel like no one rented and used it. If you feel satisfied with the services provided by the cleaning company you choose, you can partner with them again when you move to your new office. Pay any outstanding bills: you won't leave, you need to settle all your bills. You might still have packing them to pay. Tell your employees to do the same if they borrowed something from nearby establishments. You don’t want to start in a new office elsewhere with issues still unresolved in your old office. Once you finish doing all these things, you will be ready for a fresh start. Keep in mind everything that you do when you leave the old office since you might go through the same process again in the future when your new lease expires. Read Also: Necessary Spaces To Include In Building Your Office Choosing Open Office Space Vs Cubicle Office Space

Starting A Small Business – Finding Your Target Market And More

Starting a small business can be an exciting step towards entrepreneurialism, yet there are numerous considerations when embarking on this path. As part of your startup plan, it is vital that you save enough cash to launch your business successfully. Furthermore, creating a marketing plan to reach out to specific demographics and psychographics of target consumers should also be top of mind. Find your target market Finding your target market can seem like a daunting challenge when starting out in business, but starting by talking to existing customers can be the key to unlocking success. Start by talking to those who already invested their hard-earned cash with you: They provide invaluable information about why they shop with you, what they like about it, and their goals for doing so. Look at your sales data from POS and CRM systems to gain a clear understanding of which products and services are selling well in your area, which gives an indication of what the target market wants and allows you to tailor marketing efforts towards satisfying that demand and bringing in more business. When trying to identify your target market, it's essential to keep in mind that finding an optimal focus requires treading a fine line between having too narrow a focus and going too wide. Aiming too broadly will lead to wasted efforts and may prevent your business from receiving its due consideration from customers; yet too narrow of a focus may impede business expansion efforts altogether. You can visit https://magneticmarketing.com/blog/why-your-secondary-target-market-matters-more-than-you-think for more information. The more research you conduct at this stage in your business, the better prepared you will be. Once you have identified your target market, the next step in starting up a business should be finding additional funding. This will enable you to expand operations and reach more customers as well as scale up products or services -- such as by opening physical locations or hiring employees. Get to know your customers Before starting your small business, it's crucial that you conduct sufficient research into who your ideal customers are. That way, you can create a strategy to get in front of these potential clients; those who will return again, recommend your brand to friends, and praise you on social media - the people that will drive its growth. Getting to know your customers is an integral component of starting up a small business. By understanding their wants, needs, and buying patterns you will be better equipped to target advertising and marketing efforts and offer exceptional customer service resulting in long-term customer loyalty and increased sales. Researching your target market means first understanding their preferences and spending habits as well as their preferred brands and products. This knowledge will be crucial in creating your business model, product offerings, and marketing strategy; additionally, it will prevent unnecessary resources being wasted on products that don't resonate with their target demographics. Preparing to start your own business means setting aside enough funds to cover startup expenses and remain ahead of bills until profitable. This involves setting aside savings and investing in your company, as well as managing cash flow to pay off debts, purchase inventory or supplies and cover daily bills until profitable. Be familiar with local resources available to small businesses, including the Small Business Administration and local chambers of commerce. Many of these organizations provide free workshops and webinars designed to give you the knowledge and tools you need for success. Do not forget to register your business and secure any necessary licenses and permits, such as articles of incorporation or operating agreements, an EIN (employer identification number), DBA name (doing business as) name registration forms as well as income tax forms as soon as possible. Additionally, obtain any relevant industry and location-specific licenses and permits needed. Get to know your competition As you develop your business idea and market, it's essential to get acquainted with existing companies filling this niche. Conducting a competitive analysis can help you distinguish yourself from them and draw in customers. As part of starting your small business, it is also essential that you become acquainted with all laws and regulations associated with doing so. Speak to an accountant experienced in small business accounting to gain more insight into these requirements that apply specifically to you. Once you've decided on all the details surrounding starting a business, it is time to save up for startup costs. Many small companies choose to fund themselves through personal savings while reinvesting any profits back into the venture; if your plans are more ambitious than this though, additional funding might be necessary. Before selecting the optimal method for funding your business, you'll also need to set up an accounting system and evaluate the costs associated with running it. Register your company and buy insurance coverage that will protect against financial losses, theft, property damage, and customer lawsuits. You can visit this site to learn more. Create a marketing plan Your marketing plan serves as an essential guide that will enable you to set goals, understand your audience, and optimize the impact of campaigns. It also serves to keep everyone on your team focused on what really matters. First and foremost in developing your marketing plan is stating your mission, vision, and values. Doing this puts all the information contained within it into proper perspective while helping to explain why you're undertaking such efforts. After identifying your target market and competition, the next step should be defining your marketing strategies that will reach them - this may include social media posts, email blasts, and billboard ads. Be sure to consider what competitors are doing as you formulate your approach; pay particular attention to any response they're getting from their audiences when developing this list of tactics. Your marketing plan should also include a budget that outlines how much each of the strategies will cost to execute, helping create realistic expectations about them and setting out what could happen if something does not go as expected. Once your marketing plans are in motion, it is crucial to create a timeline. This will allow you to assess when results from your efforts will begin appearing and allow any necessary modifications or modifications if needed. Read Also: How You Can Invest In Your Small Business 6 Incredible Tips To Reach Your Small Business Customer How To Apply For And Get The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) For Small Businesses

The Best Methods To Build Strong Customer Relationships

Despite the plethora of advertising resources available in the digital marketplace, one key issue still has not been resolved - how do you build strong customer relationships? As a direct link between you and your customers, an email address will allow publishers to build a personal connection with an audience. Below are further marketing tips that can be used to develop a stronger client relationship using email marketing. The Best Methods To Build Strong Customer Relationships 1. Move The Social Media Audience To A Direct Channel By Gaining Their Email Address: To strengthen your target audience relationship, you should reconsider how you view Facebook. You cannot connect with a target audience on a platform where all algorithm tweaks reduce its reach and take you further from your potential customers. Instead of playing "cat and mouse" using Facebook's algorithms, it is recommended that you utilize the social platform as a channel for acquisition. Making use of social media platforms CTA features will help you support your email newsletters to the target audience and lead the social audience to your company's email list. From this point, you will be able to engage with them without any interference from the social platform. 2. Using Email Capture Apps To Connect With The Site Visitors In An Inbox: When visitors arrive on your website via an organic search or from social media, they are likely to leave the site as soon as they arrive. By utilizing onsite capture resources to collect their email addresses before they leave, you will be able to set up a direct and long-term form of communication with the audience. Not only will email subscribers build up more lifetime website visits than visitors from Facebook, but they also tend to view more site pages during their session. To maximize the email conversions, it is recommended that you utilize active capture widgets with a contextual newsletter offer. This is likely to convert passing visitors to the website into lifetime subscribers. In this way, you will be increasing the likelihood of engaging users in the long-term and nurturing these subscribers with new content. 3. Building Strong Reading Habits With The Audience Via Newsletters: In the traditional text publishing world, the typical delivery of publications builds reading styles with their target customers. The newsletter via email is the option most similar to that traditional form of publication and habit-forming print media. By sending a constant street of relevant content to the audience's inbox, you will engage the audience continuously; thereby, demonstrating the value of paying for your website's content. You can deepen this engagement through cross-promotion and encouragement of the audience to subscribe to additional newsletters. The quality of newsletters is why the New York Times found that people are more likely to pay for a subscription if they first subscribed to their newsletter; therefore, the email newsletter is the ideal resource for building relationships necessary in the digital publishing environment. Before online transactions and exchanges became the norm, brands were responsible for fostering physical and in some cases emotional connections with their clientele. This resulted in a strong and loyal brand audience, repeat purchases, and other immeasurable value for the business. In today's society, the majority of brands will opt for social media and social marketing to engage with consumers and substitute human interaction. Understanding that humans require relationships in their personal lives and when purchasing items, businesses acknowledge the need to build relationships with consumers, form user engagement, and drive more beneficial sales. While some companies engage with their consumers well using online measures, not all brands are as fortunate. So, how can we stand above our rivals when trying to engage with a target audience? There are several ways in which a smaller company can drive more sales by building strong online consumer relationships. 4. Surveying The Consumers And Gain Their Opinions: Providing your consumer with exactly what they want is potentially the best method to make sales, increase trust in the company, and gain repeat customers. It is the ideal situation and is a building strategy that can help a company get its way with almost any customer. The question remains, however, how do you discover what a consumer's needs are and how do you meet them? Simple, find out what they want by sending them surveys. Before marketing became digital, practical market research was performed via traditional questionnaires or surveys. The original question of how much you agree with a statement would find out if the person strongly agrees, strongly disagreed, or was somewhere in the middle. Regardless of the standard of error metrics that tend to bore the average person, this technique can provide companies with good insight into their consumer market. Customer feedback and surveys can now be conducted using email, via social media platforms, or on different websites. One of the survey platforms available allowing companies to send targeted surveys to consumers through social media and emails is SurveyMonkey. Companies can also gain insight from consumers using Qualaroo as they provide information as soon as the consumer visits the website. 5. Using Email To Communicate: Forming an email list is potentially one of the most significant methods a business can remain in contact with its consumers, build trust, and make sales - unless you are a spammer. If all emails you send are "sale-sy", then you are engaging incorrectly and will more than likely be considered spam. Emails should provide valuable information for the customer to share and once you have provided content to address their needs, you can build rapport and foster the digital relationship to be successful! They can also act as promotions later with the help of a Houston search engine marketing firm. By creating an aesthetically pleasing and informing sales copy to go along with your email, it can make a great impact! Real-Time Video Chat For Consumer Support Real-time video chat is considered one of the hotter topics with businesses that are looking to build relationships with online customers. In late 2017, Amazon implemented the "Mayday Button" - a new feature on the Kindle Fire to allow a user to receive video communication with a client support agent. Never before had this type of online support been available and the user is now able to speak with a representative in an innovative manner. Today, Amazon notes that consumers can use video chat in under 15 seconds and this is much better than waiting on the telephone for a new customer agent to take your call. Read Also: Not All Customers Are Always Right How To Write And Design An Article That Attracts New Customers To Your Business 5 Steps On How To Market Your Business Using Social Media

Principles for Leading Your Company through COVID-19 Crisis

Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 at the Workplace