Removing the Obstacles to Remote Work

 The McKinsey “The State of Organizations 2023” report cites one of the ten shifts that are transforming organisations as “True Hybrid: The new balance of in-person and remote work.” The McKinsey research named two benefits of getting the right balance: attracting and retaining talent, and increased productivity - both of which I have spoken and written about recently.

A remote work model is required for organisations to thrive, which means every part of an organisation will need to adjust physically, mentally, and emotionally.

It names three obstacles that need to be addressed to achieve this shift.

1. Many managers feel uncomfortable leading remote teams

2. Remote employees sometimes don’t feel seen in hybrid settings

3. Boundaries between work and life can blur in a hybrid context 

I would like to add two more to this list.

4. Status quo thinking is the biggest obstruction

5. Apathy reigns over empathy

I want to explore the obstacles and how they can be overcome if there is a commitment to do so. Next week I will look at what McKinsey calls “Finding The Right Formula” – new norms for a new workplace.

Many managers feel uncomfortable leading remote teams

The McKinsey research of over 2,500 business leaders around the world found that more than half of respondents report that team leaders are either uncomfortable or barely comfortable leading remote and hybrid teams. Only 15% said they were very comfortable.

My response is, “Of course they are uncomfortable.” Most leaders have never led a remote or hybrid team before. It is unchartered territory. You cannot just pick up the old policies and practices from a totally in-person working model and drop them into a remote or hybrid model. Those who have tried have failed miserably.

We need new norms for a new way of working. Add to the obstacle that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Every organisation is different and will need to determine the working model that works both for the employer and the employee.

Leaders need education, training, coaching, and mentoring to be effective leaders of hybrid or remote teams.

They can be enabled to move from a position of past-paralysed to future-ready as illustrated in this infographic.

 Way back in February 2021, I wrote an article called “How To Successfully Lead Your Hybrid Team” and introduced my Distributed Leadership Model.

 I also created an eBook that discusses the indicators that most leaders are not ready to lead a distributed team and explores each aspect of this model in detail. You can register for a copy of the eBook here.

When there is an understanding of what it takes to effectively lead the distributed team, you can take the necessary steps to unlock the capability. 

1. Raise awareness of the unique leadership attributes required to lead the distributed team with all the leaders in your organization.

2. Perform a distributed leadership capability diagnostic to determine the gap and development needed in your organization.

3. Devise a learning and development approach to address each of the identified gaps and elevate your distributed leadership competency to a new level.

4. Measure progress with a capability diagnostic and continue to evolve and improve.

Remote employees sometimes don’t feel seen in hybrid settings

Without a carefully conceived working model, organisations can unintentionally create a two-tier system within a hybrid team - those working in the office and those working remotely.

This is what is often referred to as proximity bias.

Proximity bias is when a manager puts a higher value on the person and the work being carried out by someone, they can physically see doing the work over that being carried out by someone they cannot observe.

In the hybrid environment, In-person workers may still be at an advantage just by the mere fact that they are more visible to management. 

Often leaders play favourites with those in the room. And research has shown that those who are in the same physical location as the leader feel closer to power and begin to ignore the contributions of those who are not present. 

To overcome this often-unforeseen obstacle, leaders must resist the temptation to give more information, more attention, and more access to those who are around them physically. 

As a leader, you need to ensure that all employees are treated equitably. You need a people-first approach regardless of employee location.

It is the responsibility of every leader to make sure that all employees feel connected. This may mean more intentional inclusivity to keep everyone informed, increase collaboration and enable everyone to contribute to decision-making.

Boundaries between work and life can blur in a hybrid context

A key reason employees prefer a hybrid or remote working model, is the work-life balance it can bring. The ability to plan your professional life around your personal life rather than the other way around, is a great and welcome shift.

The downside can be the blur between work and life that can ensure once the hybrid or remote working model is underway.

The nature of the true model is not only does it allow employees to work where they want, it also allows them to work when they want, within parameters agreed by the team. This can result in emails, phone calls, messages and the like, arriving outside the intended working hours of one employee, as other employees are still working.  This can create disquieting uncertainty for the receiver which may increase depending on the seniority of the sender.

The receiver wonders whether they should respond immediately as if they do not, they may be perceived as shirking their responsibility. If they do respond immediately, that may set a precedent that they will always do so in the future.

This obstacle is overcome by teams having communication norms. Teams need to master the use of synchronous and asynchronous communication channels to optimise productivity and flexibility.

Teams must decide on which channels are best used for the different forms of communication. Does it make sense to gather the entire team together (synchronously - online) for an announcement that could have been recorded and made available to everyone to access asynchronously - offline? It really depends on the message and the urgency of its receipt.

Channel identification must be key to the norms of team communication. For example, do not send me a text if you do not need a response for a few days. Don’t send me an email if you need an immediate response.

Response expectations can be defined upfront. For example, emails must be responded to within 48 hours of receipt. Texts must be responded to within 2 hours of receipt. These expectations can guide employees in the use of the right communication channels.

Status quo thinking is the biggest obstruction

Those who just want to return to the way it was before March 2020 will be the downfall of the organisation. There must be an intentional and concerted effort to bring about an organisational-wide acceptance that there is no going back.

In his book Future Shock (1970), the American futurist Alvin Toffler wrote:

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn”.

The era post-pandemic must be one of unlearning. In the Future Forum Pulse 2022, executive Leader Brian Elliot summarised the leader situation.

“In times of disruption, leaders can either lean in and learn new skills or fall back on what worked for them - often decades ago. Given macroeconomic stress, it’s understandable that many want to go back to what worked in the past. But two generations of digital natives have now entered the workplace. Workforces are more diverse, and there’s an accelerating pace of change and competition. That means that the job of leaders must change as well. And change, for everyone, can be daunting.”

Future Forum data shows that workforce policy planning is largely happening at the executive level, with 60% of executives surveyed saying they’re designing their companies’ policies with little to no direct input from employees. This means they’re deciding these policies based primarily on the perspectives of people who share the same experiences and stressors as them.

Rather than unlearn and relearn that (a) that there is no going back and (b) the way forward is to cocreate the future with employees or alienate them, leaders are falling prey to confirmation bias. This is the mental shortcut that results in us seeking out, preferring, and remembering things in a way that suits what we already believe. Leaders will search, interpret, favour, and recall information that confirms or supports their belief that everyone must return to the office.

Overcoming the confirmation bias obstacle is a significant mindset shift. The first and biggest step is to realise that you have fallen prey to confirmation bias, and it is controlling your thought process.

You must seek out other people with opposing views. Talk to your employees who disagree with the direction you a proposing. This is not about an argument but about listening, asking open questions, and being willing to hear views that you don’t agree with. Seek out other sources to digest arguments different from yours such as research and media opinion.

You must have an open mind. It is not going to work if you seek out other sources of information but refuse to listen to them. You must recognise when the information is credible and substantiates a change in your position. This is the time to unlearn and relearn.

Overcome the danger of being subject to confirmation bias by being open to the opinions of others, accepting that you may not always be right, and always being curious.

Apathy reigns over empathy

A lack of empathy can be described as apathy =- the inability to consider the emotional state of others.

I recently wrote an article called “Erosive Empathy” which explored the findings of the Empathy in Business Survey 2023 conducted by EY. The key message was that authentic empathy is key to organisational success.

We need empathy as an integral part of our conversation about the future of work. There is no empathy when a CEO demands that employees return to the office. During the two-plus years of the pandemic, many employees changed their lifestyles. Some expanded their family with the addition of a pet. Others moved to locations where larger housing, more suitable for working from home, was affordable. This may have put them outside a reasonable commute to and from the office, but they were under the assumption that having proved the working-from-home experiment a massive success, the arrangement would continue. Others moved even further away to be near family as they knew they could work anywhere that had connectivity.

Leaders must appreciate how employees’ lives have changed over the past few years, the varied experiences they have had and what their current desires, aspirations and needs are. Leaders must acknowledge that every employee is different and therefore the methods of communication and engagement must differ too. There is no one-size-fits-all approach.

Leaders must overcome this obstacle by having true and authentic empathetic conversations with employees to determine the best way in which to address their needs whilst achieving business outcomes. Just demanding a blanket return to the office because you want to go back to the way it was before March 2020 is apathy.

Summary

The move to a hybrid or remote working model will not be without obstacles but it is not a move that can be ignored. If you wish to do so, do it at your peril.

The obstacles described here can all be overcome with commitment, cooperation, collaboration and effective communication.

It’s the rocky road, not the smooth path, that leads to greatness…