Q&A: Marketcircle CEO on workplace leadership tomorrow
trasna digital transformation efforts, there is a growing recognition of the growing importance of communication and collaboration – even as some processes become automated. More and more, developers are looking for ways in which technology can boost teams in a hybrid age.
With that in mind, I spoke with Alykhan Jetha (AJ), the president and CEO at Market circleto gain their views on the leadership qualities required for future work.
Daylite little future workplace
Marketcircle’s Daylite is a CRM solution for Apple products. It is built for collaboration, both externally and internally within teams. The software itself integrates customer relationship management, scheduling, contact, sales, and project management into a single native Ma-c, iPhone-, or iPad application.
Over the years, the company has enhanced Daylite to maximize the value of customer connections, including the ability to hold useful data on historical interactions. Recently, the company update the synchronization system Uses daylight so that it keeps more users and larger amounts of data in sync.
At the most basic level, some people see Daylite as Apple’s alternative to Salesforce. It is because the company already creates tools for hybrid teams that Jetha’s insights into the future of work will be invaluable to other enterprise professionals. This Question and Answer gives some of his insights to share.
What are the three most important qualities for leadership when managing remote teams? “It’s essential to have the right people in the right place, but how do you get there?
- Know and understand your core values. This is important when hiring people as it makes the other steps (below) easier.
- Take time to understand the strengths and weaknesses of those of you. You can gather this information through face-to-face meetings or by spending time with them.
- Know and understand where the company is going (or at least where the team is going), so you can try to put the right people in the right positions.
- Recognize that people are sometimes not well suited to certain jobs / circumstances. Try to find a better fit for them. Listen so you can (I hope) identify these situations. If the problem persists across multiple projects, then the person may not be a good fit for the company.
- Ensure ongoing alignment around goals. In a remote environment, such continuous alignment is even more important. [At Marketcircle] we do this in the following ways:
- We have a quarterly ‘hands-on’ meeting where we remind people of our long-term goals.
- We hold a monthly meeting where we remind people of our quarterly goals and where we stand on those goals. We must face the inevitable challenges and delays.
- Each team has a weekly ‘huddle’ in which monthly or quarterly goals are restated.
“[You need to] eliminating or minimizing information silos. One of the patterns we see a lot is what we would call silos or duplicate information. In a remote environment, it can be even more challenging for teams to be on the same page. One way to make a business more efficient is to bring together all that information – including notes and conversations you have or the markets and projects you are working on. This way everyone can talk to customers in a unified way. That saves time. (It’s something that also enables Daylite.)
“Provide a safe environment so that issues / problems / solutions can be discussed in public ways (Slack / Teams). (While it is clear that people or personal problems should not be discussed in public ways.) Some people refer to this as’ asynchronous communication. ‘
“Manage disruption and continuous work. There are two other common patterns we see, one is fixed questions / answers on Slack / Staff, so much so that it intersects working hours (especially due to time zone differences). You need to set some limits otherwise it will cause some people to fire and the inability to actually work for others. “
Emotional connection is essential for teams – how can technology help management build strong connections with employees they have never met? “Before we were isolated, we were a small group. We ate lunch together, played games and enjoyed all sorts of activities. By doing so, without even realizing we were sharing our values and learning how to trust each other.
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“When we went remote, we suddenly did not have the opportunity to engage in these activities, so now we have to be much more deliberate about these connections and much more repetitive.
“What worked for us was to find ways to incorporate the technology we use for work, such as Slack, Zoom, and Confluence into our team building strategies. In Slack, for example, we have ways that are specifically named for us to share common interests.Not necessarily related to work such as cooking, photography, music, etc. face-to-face or any meeting, we can easily view our staff schedule and find time that works . “
Many business leaders complain that remote work lacks casual communication opportunities. Is that a management problem, or a technology problem? “I think the last two years have accelerated the opportunity to communicate differently and optimize remote work solutions. A few years ago, you wouldn’t have thought of having so many customer meetings remotely. pandemic forced us to do it and then we learned that we can be more productive if we do some parts of our work remotely.
“There’s still some communication that you can’t replace, such as face – to – face meetings – because you can’t remotely replace that part of relationship building. It’s not impossible, but it’s difficult. Going to dinner with a customer or Video conferencing can’t replace some of that social time But the frequency of business travel and personal customer meetings will decrease. In my view, it means that businesses will have more flexibility for their employees to work from home more often.
“One of the most difficult things people saw during the pandemic was that they were so used to sharing information orally, but now they need to have systems in place to share the same information effectively and bye.
How can technology recreate informal spaces where people can share and grow? “This is difficult to answer. We have not yet shrunk this nut enough. We think some of the things we are doing can help, such as:
- Provide safe spaces so that people can comfortably ask questions and provide answers. This can organically benefit others from learning through observation even though it may not be within the scope of their current job.
- Create recreational spaces where people interested in similar objects can freely share and exchange ideas and information. Some of this can be personal growth for others, such as discussing ways to balance work / life).
- The ‘drumbeat alignment’ can also help with the prospect of setting and continuing goals.
“We need to continue working on this one.” [Author’s note: cf. Apple hybrid work challenges.]
For management, will tomorrow’s management skills look the same as today’s skills? “The pandemic has taken us from 100% of our working time in the office to 100% of remote work. What I am seeing now is a trend towards 60-70% at home, and 30-40% to personal or home office.I think that trend will continue. I think it’s important to have a whole team working in one of the modes – ie, the whole team is in an office, the whole team is hybrid on the same days or the whole team is remote. Mixes and matches within a team will not work.)
“Of course, with such hybrid models, you need to be disciplined about where your data / information is. Unifying information in one place allows you to have a conversation with your customers without having to go after everyone before. meeting to find out if they have spoken to that customer and receive an update on what has been discussed.
“Tomorrow’s management skills will be much more dependent on having all your tasks in one system, so that you know what everyone is doing and when they will be doing it without being always looking for updates. That saves time and is one of the things that Daylite allows. “
How can remote workers access success? “By giving them autonomy, which is easier to do when the core values are adapted, and the technology they need to succeed. We give them a space where they can do their best work, making sure they know what we are trying to achieve and providing them with the tools they need to excel. Fortunately, one of these tools is our own product, Daylite, designed to help small and medium – sized teams collaborate and maintain productivity. Everyone in our team has access to our database and we make sure they always have all the information they need. That’s how we provide an environment where people can be successful.
“It’s also critical to know what kind of support each individual needs so they can maintain performance and growth to manage remote teams.”
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Q&A: Marketcircle CEO on workplace leadership tomorrow
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