Design for Life: How do I get my leadership strategy right?

Dear Expert,

I run a small business and I wanted to ask for some advice on how to get my leadership strategy right. I’ve been in the job for two years and it’s been fine, although there have always been a few staffers who I’ve experienced obstacles with. Sometimes I think it’s because they don’t like answering to a woman, particularly not a woman younger than them. I took over from the owner of the company. He is now retired from the day to day, but was there for 30 years and hired most of the people who now report to me. It was a very old-school business, without a lot of structure to it. Now that we are working remotely, some of the effort I put in to get better business practices such as using employee handbooks and yearly assessments, have been eroded. Gradually, a lot of the old ways that some people had are returning. It feels like I have to win their respect all over again. People aren’t even showing up to Zoom meetings sometimes. It’s all gone very lax. Then there’s the stress of Covid-19 itself. We can’t give people a Christmas party and we don’t know what the future holds. I’m finding it hard to sleep at night. I’ve considered asking the owner for a bit of advice, but don’t want to seem weak. Are there any tactics you could recommend?