For the management, team expansion would often be interpreted as more pressure, heavier workloads, and less personal time; yet Hiwin Ho's experience defies this stereotype. While her team has doubled in size over the past three years, she in fact spent less time managing her team than ever.
In addition, she felt more relaxed and with more personal time for her family, travel, volunteer work and even academic studies. The reason for this unorthodox situation is Hiwin began applying Autopilot Leadership to her management style three years ago, allowing the entire team to perform at full capacity and eliminating unnecessary work procedures. Not only did she find it satisfying; but her team members of all positions also became more productive while maintaining a work-life balance.
Perform Respective Roles & Increase Meeting Efficiency
With over 20 years of frontline experience in the insurance industry, Hiwin is now a Senior Wealth Management Manager at AIA. Three years ago, she began learning about Autopilot and incorporating it into her management style. She soon realized that she has been applying Autopilot at work without even realizing it, “With more experience in Autopilot application, I have unconsciously integrated it into my usual leadership model.”
She believes the biggest change over the past few years in her management style has been the reduction of face-to-face interactions with her colleagues. “I used to conduct daily meetings with my team, taking care of their needs, such as helping them with preparation before client meetings. But now, they work independently and only seek my assistance when they encounter difficulties or require my special approvals.” Despite meeting time is reduced, the entire team functions well with minimal supervision, which is the desired result of Autopilot Leadership.
Take Advantage of Technology & Cut out Unnecessary Meetings
With the rapid development of technology, Hiwin believes that communicating with co-workers remotely by phone calls or messaging is sufficient to handle most of the daily tasks, and it can reduce the time spent on team meetings. “Due to the pandemic this year, leveraging of technology in team management has become more widespread. For example, I can conduct training sessions with new colleagues flexibly through video conferencing based on their preferred schedule. These are what I have learned from Autopilot, with colleagues taking the lead more and myself playing a supportive role.”
Hiwin describes her team as having a good rapport, as they have their private time, and meetings will only focus on matters that require consensus; only priorities and work schedules will be discussed. “Since time is limited for everyone, I prefer to spend time only on doing things that are beneficial for the team as a whole, as well as maximizing the time of my colleagues,” she says. Such leaders would certainly be more popular among their colleagues.
Moreover, Hiwin encourages her team to utilize technology in assisting their daily business with communications software, as well as corporate mobile applications which are convenient to maintain relationships with clients. She also encourages clients to text her team whenever something important comes up, so that her team can effectively revert back as soon as possible.
In recent years, Hiwin has started producing short videos to explain frequently asked questions for her clients as well, experimenting new ways to enhance her business differently.
Empower Senior Colleagues to Make Their Business Plans
Throughout the past three years, Hiwin’s team has grown from five people to a dozen. Among the team, she mostly spends time on her two new co-workers whom she trains around three times a week. While teaching practical knowledge and skills to newcomers, Hiwin embraces her senior team members sort out their own development plans. Although all her experienced colleagues now have families to take care of, they are still motivated at work on their own pace. They also feel more comfortable with full control of their work scope and rhythm.
Compared to other teams within AIA, Hiwin sees her team's culture as rather different after being transformed by Autopilot Leadership. She says that many other teams still rely heavily on face-to-face interactions with frequent team and client meetings. “On the contrary, my team may seem to focus on taking care of new colleagues who need more guidance, our overall team bonding remains close and intact via frequent messaging other teammates; especially during the pandemic when physical meet-up is difficult with social distancing measures. Whenever there are important issues though, we still proactively support each other in an Autopilot manner.”
As mentioned in Autopilot, a leader should concentrate on experimenting new ways to inspire your team to resolve issues with their own approach, rather than immediately involving yourself as a direct resource or giving advice. Once co-workers feel enlightened at work, we as leaders can then focus on managing the bigger picture.
If you also wish to explore how Autopilot Leadership can inspire your company, transform its culture, and lead it to success and achieve business continuity, schedule a one-hour free consultation session with us today via hi@allab.com.