Before 2020, I often had this conversation with my customers, where they tried to explain why a hybrid work model is not possible for them: „How do managers know what employees are doing when they are not sitting together?“, „We need to track working hours. There is no way how to do this when people work from home!“
How do managers know what their employees are doing, when they are not in the same room?
Too many organizations till March 2020
Since March 2020, the questions have changed. The urgency raised due to the Corona pandemic has led to more openness and the sudden need to find an ideal way to continue business: „How do you do it?“, „We need to work from home. How can we ensure that teams still work together?“, „Which best practices can we share with managers so that they can continue leading their team?“, „How can technology help us?“
Remote Leadership, digital Leadership… never before have people thought about this as much as in the past year. Never have more articles been published or studies conducted. Even though, there is no clear definition, remote leadership is not the same than digital leadership.
Digital leadership has many faces. It could mean leading a digital transformation or digital time. Or it could mean knowing the latest digital trends, developing new digital products. Also, it could mean remote leadership.
Let me share some insights I gained as an employee working for more than three years in a hybrid work environment, with my manager in another city, the team spread all over Germany, as well as through conversations with customers and sessions like the Hearts and Minds Barcamp by Microsoft in January 2021.
The characteristics of a great remote leader
An overview:
Be proactive
Act as a role model
Lead with flexibility and trust
Manage results, not time
Set up social time
Demonstrate empathy
What can remote leaders do?
First things first. It has never been more important to be proactive, to be independent, to be intentional. This is true for us all, no matter whether you just started a new job in a 100% digital and remote work environment or you are leading a team or an organization for over 20 years.
Be proactive
Not being in the same office and not seeing each other in person led to a drop in social interaction and the, at first glance, random conversations on the corridor or coffee machine. Oh, and we miss them, so much! Running into each other and having a minute before or after a meeting in the same room provides you with so many possibilities to see how people are, address questions or provide support. As a remote leader, it is necessary to create room for these seemingly random conversations. It is important to proactively set aside time to check in with every single team member in 1:1 meetings. One on one conversations are a great window to connect with your colleagues and your team.
It has never been more important to actively take responsibility for your employees. Thus, ask intentional questions: How are they? Are there any challenges in their private or work life? Listen with presence. Understand and support them with their individual challenges. Think about how you can coach and support them. Be transparent. Share your experiences, challenges, and learnings.
Remote leadership requires empathy and proactivity more than ever: Reach out to employees and colleagues early and regularly in order to have open conversations in which own experiences and challenges are shared and in which you are actively listening.
Tanita Martin
Act as a role model
Many companies were not prepared for the sudden change or working from home, which came with the Corona outbreak. Employees do not know, where boarders are and where possibilities begin. For every organization and leader, it is essential to drive the cultural change. Great, if you have used the past to be prepared for remote work. For those who have not: I recommend taking the advice of acting as a role model. You as a leader have the power to live the guidelines and chances which come with remote work to demonstrate opportunities as well as limitations. Let me provide you two examples.
Your kids are at home, because they cannot go to school. They need attention from time to time. Instead of turning off your video during online meetings or ban your children from your work life, demonstrate that we all are human, and that this is okay: Leave your video camera on, and let your child come to you during meetings. Maybe you want to allow them to sit on your lap. Same for your cat or dog.
Set up breaks and working hours and be respectful about them. You currently train for a marathon or have this dinner ritual with your family? Let your team know about the situation, be open and transparent about it. As a leader, this is a great way to demonstrate that it is okay, to not being available 24 hours a day.
Remote leadership also means becoming a role model, helping employees understand and exploit the opportunities and limitations of this new (perhaps 100%) digital world.
Tanita Martin
Lead with flexibility and trust
Coming back to the quote at the beginning of this article: How do managers know what their employees are doing, when they are not in the same room?
Honestly, I am always surprised to hear this question. Are we really still in the century of not trusting our employees? Apparently, many are. What about trust your employees first and then watch them flourish? What about leap of faith? It is not new, that employees provide better work results, and are more confident and successful in their work, when we trust them. As a leader you can demonstrate trust by encouraging autonomy and stoping micromanagement. Of course, there is always this person who sneaks out of their responsibilities. Spoiler: If someone does not work at home, they also manage to do so in the office.
The great aspect about modern work is, that we can work when we are most productive. And this might not be during the ‚official‘ working hours. Our lives should not be characterized by sitting at a desk from 9am to 5pm anymore. Also knowing, that based on recent research 9 to 5 workdays may fade away in future.*1 Our personal and work life are connected. At work, we might book a doctor’s appointment in between two meetings. And we might think about work in our private lives.
Unless your business sells services by the hour, it makes little sense to measure your employees by the hour. Instead employers should measure their employee’s success by the results they produce.*2
Irv Shapiro, CEO of DialogTech
Working 100% from home does not fit everybody. Being forced to stay at home, and managing your life can be very stressful, especially during a pandemic. One more reason to be flexible to your employees‘ needs and the changing situation. Plus, „Providing people with more autonomy leads to a reduction in negative psychological symptoms such as anxiety, stress, and depression.“*3. This is for sure another reason to believe in and trust your employees, by giving them more autonomy.
To bring in a second view on trust: It is not only about trusing your employees. But also about being a trustworthy leader. „The true transformation starts with building Credibility at the personal level, which is the foundation of trust. When a leader’s credibility and reputation are high, it enables them to establish trust fast.“*7 Hence, not only having trust in your employees, but also trustwortheness are characterisitcs of a great remote leader.
Manage results, not time
What can you do? Instead of focusing on how much time your employees spend with work, measure their results. Needless to say, that when measuring employees on results and not time, it is necessary to clarify beforehand, and often, what the expected results are and how they are measured – for the team and every person individually. Think about how regular you want to check in on the status with your employees, as a team and in 1:1 meetings. In remote times, turn your video camera on to create an open and trustful environment and to allow an honest conversation with your employees. Be aware, that remote work and remote leadership requires more time. Guidance and real conversations just take longer.
Don’t forget that micromanagement is out! ;-). Be there when your employees need you, be their coach, support them. And value their results. When they do great work, honor it accordingly. Be reliable.
Set up social time
To begin with, there is no limit for your creativity. Latest research has shown, that nearly 60% of employees feel less connected to their team with remote work.*3 But there are many ways to connect with coworkers and employees. Virtual team meetings are a great way. Actually, over 50% of the surveyed persons in The Future of Work Study value that online meetings became more inclusive since everyone is in the same virtual room.*1
Thus, leverage technology to drive your remote culture: Organize ‚coffee talks‘ during working hours (How about twice a week?), and after work get-togethers or fu** up nights (How about once a month?), invite special guests in your team meetings (How about alpacas or someone inspirational?). Keep in mind, that everyone has different work-life-flows. Thus, avoid scheduling these meetings always at the same time, for example when parents tend to bring their kids to bed. Also, encourage your team to organize manager free social time, too ;-). And don’t give up when it takes time to establish these formats or not everyone wants to participate.
Online meetings can be more fun when you leverage features such as individual background pictures, whiteboarding or polls (try One truth, two lies) in your meetings. Sometimes, you might want to send little parcels as an addition to your online events to your employees to enrich your virtual get-together.
[Empathy] It’s the ability to step into the shoes of another person, aiming to understand their feelings and perspectives, and to use that understanding to guide our actions.*6
Roman Krznaric
Demonstrate empathy
It might sound choppy, because the word ‚empathy‘ is in everyone’s mouth currently. Yet, empathy is an important factor for remote work. Luckily, there are interesting findings in the Harris Poll survey commissioned by Microsoft in May 2020: „Working from home drives more empathy among colleagues worldwide“.*1 With the pandemic, we received insights in the private lives of our colleagues. Our screen is a small window to connect with our coworkers, see how they live, meet their families, and get „a better view of their life at home“.*1 Gaining a better understanding of our counterparts‘ situations and lives, helps us to be empathic.
„Empathy is a competency that allows you to read people.“ states Annie McKee in her article in 2015 about why empathy is key to a great meeting. In 2012, Roman Krznaric already defined empathy as „the ability to step into the shoes of another person, aiming to understand their feelings and perspectives, and to use that understanding to guide our actions.“*6 And here we circle back to the first attribute of a great remote leader: proactivity. Empathy is not something everyone brings to the table naturally. But it can be learned. Being proactive is a great way to start to be empathic. Note, that time is a key factor. Plan regular check ins with your employees and ask them about their well-being. Ask intentional questions and listen carefully.
Closing
We can all be leaders. We can all be great remote leaders. Sharpen your senses, be vulnerable and intentional and I’m sure you will be great in leading a successful team.
You want to add something or you have feedback? Send me an email to tagelima.tdc@gmail.com :-).
Resources
In general conversations and own experiences in the past years. Additionally:
*1 ‚The future of work – the good, the challenging & the unknown‚ by Jared Spataro, M365 Blog, (2020) See https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/07/08/future-work-good-challenging-unknown/ (accessed 07/02/2021).
*2 ‚Measure your employees’ results, not their time‚ by Sarah K. White, CIO, (2016), See https://www.cio.com/article/3086690/measure-your-employees-results-not-their-time.html (accessed 07/02/2021).
*3 ‚What is more important for national well-being: Money or autonomy? A meta-analysis of well-being, burnout, and anxiety across 63 societies‘ by Dr Ron Fischer and Diana Boer (2011), Published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 164-184.
*4 ‚Microsoft Viva: Empowering every employee for the new digital age‚, Jared Spataro, (2021), See https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2021/02/04/microsoft-viva-empowering-every-employee-for-the-new-digital-age/ (accessed 05/02/2021).
*5 ‚Empathy is key to a great meeting‚ by Annie McKee (2015), Published in Harvard Business Review
*6 ‚Six Habits of Highly Empathic People‚ by Roman Krznaric (2012), See https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/six_habits_of_highly_empathic_people1(accessed 04/02/2021).
*7 Abbu, H., Mugge, P., Gudergan, G., & Kwiatkowski, A. (2020, June). DIGITAL LEADERSHIP-Character and Competency Differentiates Digitally Mature Organizations. In 2020 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation (ICE/ITMC) (pp. 1-9). IEEE.
