How do employees stay engaged? How can management ensure their teams are in fact staying disciplined? Having a good manager is the answer to both. Managers need to understand factors that can make remote work especially demanding and equip themselves the best way possible to manage expectations both from and of employees.
Hear from Lana Ireland, General Manager ANZ at Enablo on how she is managing her team in this turbulent time.
How does a remote working environment impact you and the way you work?
I am settling into remote working life – there are some benefits and some disadvantages. Working remotely I have extra time in my day without the commute – that is an upside. To make sure I keep a healthy balance with my time though, I need to use my calendar to schedule and stick to a routine that includes all of the usual suspects – movement, nutrition, and rest. My self awareness, self regulation and own discipline really matters to my performance as a leader. I am finding I spend more time on chat and calls to stay connected with my team; our partners, Facebook; and our customers. I am grateful the team has taken all of our usual office chit chat and banter fully online!
What qualities do you think are most important for women within the Tech Industry?
Adventurous, innovative, collaborative, curious and creative. A sense of adventure will help resiliently bring innovative ideas to fruition. Bringing collaboration into the mix can be one of the most valuable additions to teams or project groups and being curious and creative in leadership is essential. That curiosity and creativity is suddenly even more important in the COVID context.
How has your unique background prepared you for success in the industry?
I am a psychologist by training, and my genuine passion for people, teams and performance is a lovely balance to the incredible talents across the rest of our organisation. Our people all really care about what we do, and when they shine our customers are happy. It also helped that I got started in the tech industry very young, co-founding several start-ups through the late 90’s and 2000’s. Probably too young to have a sense of limitations! I’ve kept that sense of fun… it’s very cool to be involved in projects that are “first in the world”, and very often “best in the world”.
Who are your role models for women in the tech industry?
My role models in the tech industry include various men and women. I admire any person who is at the top of their game.
Do you notice a lack of women in the technology industry? If so, why do you think that’s the case?
The statistics are concerning. Multiple sources report women hold between 10-20% of tech jobs in Australia. Day to day I do notice the gender disparity, especially in engineering. There has historically been a very small representation of females that aspire to become engineers at a young age – it seems the tech dream so far hasn’t been the norm for girls. It would be great to see that change.
What do you feel companies should offer their women?
Individually targeted opportunities and support to develop. Trust and conscious empowerment when it matters most. And a company mindset and culture that is limitless in order to encourage its female team members to be ambitious, set goals and work hard, with confidence and faith in a good future.
Right now, companies need to work with all of their people to get through COVID-19. I am a fan of the self-determination theory of motivation that identifies people have three innate psychological needs – autonomy, competence, and relatedness. There is a stack of research identifying the benefits of supporting those needs at work, and doing so under remote working conditions is a next-level challenge for leaders at this time.
It’s clear that the ‘Remote Working Women of Enablo’ are all experiencing these unprecedented times in different ways. Keep an eye out of our final blog next week. Learn how Enablo can launch your organization with Workplace in five business days.
