Have You Got What It Takes?
Leading the Remote Team
This must be one of the best descriptions of what it is like for a leader making the shift to leading a remote team.
Driving on the other side
“It’s like learning to drive on the wrong side of the road. You must get to the same destination as before, but you now have different signals, cues, and controls — and that does take some time getting used to!”
This is Raghu Krishnamoorthy writing for Harvard Business Review in October 2022.
No one could have seen what was coming at the start of 2020. The move to remote working for many employees happened overnight in March 2020.
A Harvard survey in July 2020 found that 40% of leaders were unprepared to manage remote employees, and 41% struggled to keep their remote team members engaged. Similarly, only 40% of employees who were working remotely reported feeling supported by their leaders.
Two and a half years later, it is clear that remote working is not going away. In fact, employees are demanding it. The FlexJobs 2022 Career Pulse Survey found that 97% of respondents (n=4000) want some form of remote work. 57% stated they would look for a new job if they couldn’t continue to work remotely
Employees want to continue to reap the benefits that remote working has given them including cost savings, happiness, improved mental health, work-life balance, and reduced commute time.
However, many leaders are not on the same page and long for a return to the office. A Microsoft survey of 20,000 people across 11 countries found that 85% of leaders say that the shift to hybrid work has made it challenging to have confidence that employees are being productive.
Leaders are now faced with the task of choreographing the performance of team members across many locations and many are unsure of how to get the job done. This is one of the drivers for many organisations demanding a return to the office.
Raghu Krishnamoorthy investigated how effective managers engaged people and drove performance when they worked remotely in 2021 and 2022. His finding was a subtle but important shift in how employees expected their managers to work with them.
They wanted their managers to be:
· Present
· Hands-on
· Operationally vigilant without being intrusive
They didn’t want their managers to micromanage them but rather micro-understand their work.
This is how Raghu describes micro-understanding.
“Micromanagement is restrictive, with heavy managerial meddling that undermines trust, disempowers employees, and manifests itself, among other things, in the form of exhaustive reviews, checklists, and levels of approval. Micro-understanding is about better integrating yourself into your team’s workflow and problem solving remotely. The micro-understanding manager can identify vulnerabilities and construct a radar for potential trouble spots. Micro-understanding is about trusting but making sure there are no unanticipated bumps; delegating but being there to keep workers from stumbling; and being flexible, but always heeding the warning signs.”
I agree with Raghu when he says, “Remote or not, the role of the manager at its core remains the same: to motivate employees and organise resources to drive performance excellence. So, ‘what’ managers do remains the same; it’s the ‘how’ that changes.”
I would like to explore my perspective on how managers continue to do what they should be doing but in a different manner. How do they learn to drive on the other side of the road?
Trust
This year Microsoft coined the term “productivity paranoia.” In research, they found that 85% of leaders said the shift to remote working has made it challenging to have confidence that employees are being productive.
“This has led to productivity paranoia: where leaders fear that lost productivity is due to employees not working, even though hours worked, number of meetings, and other activity metrics have increased.”
This image from the Microsoft report says it all.
Productivity paranoia is evident from the increased global demand for employee surveillance software since the pandemic began. Whilst we would have expected a peak in March 2020 when unprepared leaders panicked that they could not see employees in person as they were sent to work from home, the demand has continued to increase, even as some employees return to the office as the workplace.
This is the chart from top10vpn which has been monitoring the increase in demand. The average monthly demand has actually intensified rather than fading away.
When leaders, managers or supervisors monitor employee activity, they are just screaming, “I do not trust you.”
The incongruity is that this behaviour is assuming that when you can see someone, in your vicinity, at a desk for 8 hours a day, you know they are being productive! No, you can’t. But the behaviour says, “If I can see you, I trust you. If I can’t I don’t.”
Just take a moment to think about how that would make you feel. This behaviour has an adverse impact on the mental health and well-being of employees. Many employees are currently stressed, anxious and concerned about how their location will impact their careers. They are concerned that if their boss cannot see them, they will be thought less of and passed over for promotion and interested projects.
Leaders must:
Measure performance on outcomes not hours at a desk
Manager as a coach
Just like the role of a football coach is to motivate, coordinate, align, develop, upskill, and improve the players, the leader’s role is the same. They do not micromanage to try and get results.
They do not get on the field to play the game. They allow their employees to do that. They are provided with autonomy, flexibility, and trust.
Leaders as coaches facilitate problem-solving and encourage employees’ development by asking questions and offering support and guidance rather than giving orders and making judgments.
Leaders do not direct, they provide direction. They do not dictate what must be done, they facilitate development.
As Sir John Whitmore, a leading figure in the coaching field, said, “Coaching is unlocking people’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.”
Non-directive coaching is built on listening, questioning, and withholding judgement. A way in which to practice non-directive coaching is the use of the GROW model first published by Sir. John Whitmore in his 1992 book Coaching for Performance.
The following images is from Performance Consultants, and I encourage you to utilise their resources to build your coaching skills.
With a few good coaching questions, a leader can quickly raise awareness and responsibility in each area:
G: goals and aspirations
R: current situation, internal and external obstacles
O: possibilities, strengths, and resources
W: actions and accountability
The key is to set a Goal that is inspiring and challenging then move flexibly through the other stages, including revisiting the goal if necessary. The final Will element is the barometer of success. It converts the initial desire and intention into successful action.
Alignment
A remote working environment needs management with precision. There must be clarity, prioritisation, and alignment. Everyone on the team must know what their role is, what needs to be done when it needs to be done, and by whom.
Everyone needs to be aligned behind a shared purpose. I wrote about leaders who carry both a telescope and a microscope in my June newsletter.
The vision a leader creates is often called the North Star. It points and moves everyone in the organisation in the right direction.
The leader points at the North Star and reminds everyone why they are heading in that direction.
They admit that there may not be a perfect plan but there is a clear direction and a united front.
The leader’s telescope keeps everyone’s eyes on the vision and the big picture. The leader’s microscope helps you zoom in and focus on the things that must be done in the short term to realise the vision in the telescope.
If you only carry a telescope, you only see the big picture – the vision and the dream. If you only carry a microscope, you will be lost in the weeds. You need both the telescope to know where you are going and the microscope to focus on what matters most.
When co-located it is often easier to read the room to ensure the team is aligned, it is easier to read body language and identify misunderstandings.
Check in
True leaders check in with their employees – they do not check up. Those who check up are the command-and-control dinosaurs and can only manage through micromanagement. Those who check in lead from a place of care and compassion.
True leaders intentionally check in regularly to find out how their employees are faring. They know the questions to ask and the signs to watch for that indicate an employee may be struggling. They know the appropriate actions to take if it is needed.
Leaders who care check-in, have the conversation and then leave. The check-in on employee well-being is not a preamble to another agenda item nor is it something tagged on at the end of a 1:1 meeting. Leaders as carers do not say, “Oh, and by the way, before we close, how are you doing?” The check-in is wholly and solely a check-in on well-being.”
Mark C. Perna described this in his Forbes article “Why A Lack of Human Connection Is Crippling Your Work Culture.”
“When you check in, check in and then walk away. Do not add anything else to the conversation. Do not bring up an assignment you need them to complete, don’t talk shop, don’t let it turn into anything else except a sincere conversation about them and their needs at that moment in time. Check in, and then walk away.
If you do ask someone to do something immediately after checking in with them, you’ve just invalidated the check-in. They see it as you simply making small talk, with your ulterior motive being what you need from them.”
Leaders must reach out to determine if employees need help. Many do not do this as they fear they will not know how to respond if an employee says that they are struggling. Leaders must realise that they are not expected to be medical practitioners, but that their role is to help the employee find the right assistance they need.
If you are a leader and have a concern about the mental well-being of an employee you must reach out and ask, “How are you going? or “What’s been happening?”
Mention what you have noticed that has raised your concern. If they don’t want to talk, don’t force them but let them know you are there for them and you care for them.
If they do talk, listen with an open mind. Do not judge and do not interrupt. Give them all the time they need to think and convey how they are feeling. Repeat back to them what you think you have heard them say to ensure you have understood correctly.
You now need to encourage action. Have they been in this situation before and what did they do about it then? Ask how you can support them. Encourage them to seek out the professional help they may need and offer to help find the right person.
You must check back in. Put a reminder in your calendar. The timing may depend on how much they are struggling. You may want to check in sooner than later. Find out what action they have taken and the impact it is having. Be prepared to listen. Keep in touch and always be there for them. Showing genuine care and concern can make a real difference. Micro-understand.
The other side
Every leader must make the time to learn to drive on the other side of the road – the new right side.