3. Failing Forward: How to Lead A Remote Workforce During Covid-19

“Change is inevitable. It’s how we grow as human beings, it’s how we motivate teams, it’s how organizations are built, why my company exists and how individuals and businesses thrive.” - Erin Diehl

 

Each week, your failed it! podcast host and improve it! founder Erin Diehl, will take you on a comedic journey that flips the “highlight reel” of Instagram on its head and shows you the grit, creativity and determination it takes to overcome your disappointments, embrace the suck, and design the career you’ve only dreamed about. 

 

Welcome to failed it!

 

In this episode, host Erin Diehl addresses how she and her company, improve it!, are adapting to the effects of Covid-19 and how she’s leading her remote workforce.

 

Here, you’ll hear the “real Diehl” on how Covid-19 has completely shifted leadership and how to pivot through this crisis or any crisis that may come after this. Prior to this pandemic, the improve it! team already consisted of three remote employees. Erin shares with her fellow leaders the tips and tricks that her company uses to make remote work a part of their business prior to this pandemic:

 

• [1:11] The Charlotte expansion
• [2:30] Differences in having remote employees
• [3:32] #FAILS
• [4:41] Grab your notebook & pen
• [5:04] How to lead a remote team using remote control *wink wink*
• [6:14] Online tools RULE
• [7:30] Zoom zoom zoom
• [8:14] “Your tone sets the tone for conversation”
• [11:49] improve it!’s WFH (work from home) membership
• [13:29] Stop, collaborate, and listen
• [14:06] Free, online tool resources (Asana, Calendly, Dropbox, Evernote)
• [17:01] Trust your people
• [17:44] Team weekly check-ins
• [18:31] Yes, and
• [19:49] Celebrate change
• [20:55] Shoutout to Rachel Hollis
• [21:43] You can’t control everything
• [22:53] Think about these questions to benefit your team
• [23:56] “You can do hard things”
• [24:09] And remember…
• [24:46] Screenshot you listening and tag us using #faileditpodcast!
  • Instagram: @learntoimproveit
  • Facebook: @improveit

 

Erin Diehl is the founder and Chief “Yes, And” officer of improve it! and host of the failed it! Podcast. She’s a performer, facilitator and professional risk-taker who lives by the mantra, “get comfortable with the uncomfortable.” Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin has created improve it!, a unique professional development company that pushes others to laugh, learn and grow. Her work with clients such as United Airlines, PepsiCo, Groupon, Deloitte, Motorola, Walgreens, and The Obama Foundation earned her the 2014 Chicago RedEye Big Idea Award and has nominated her for the 2015-2019 Chicago Innovations Award.

 

This graduate from Clemson University is a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional as well as a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater, and The Annoyance Theatre.

 

When she is not playing pretend or facilitating, she enjoys running by the lake and patio dinners with her husband and son, and their eight pound toy poodle, BIGG Diehl.

 

You can follow the failed it! Podcast @learntoimproveit on Instagram and facebook, and you can follow Erin here on Instagram. We can’t wait to connect with you online!