Successful Hybrid LeadershipIf the last couple of years have taught us anything about leadership, it’s that the way we once led isn’t so fit for purpose in a hybrid or completely remote team environment. Yes, we need to be flexible, adaptable and keeping up with change at rates like never before. And then there are the fundamental things that, if we aren’t doing, will make it harder to adapt, lead through change and truly engage with our people. The things that if we aren’t doing them at a basic level, will erode trust. The trust you have in your team and the trust that you have in yourself to be able to lead effectively.
Below I hit the high points for what you can be doing to get the basics right in a hybrid or remote team environment. 1. Ensure alignment with clear directional objectives Ensure your team are pulling in the same direction, no matter where they are located, and that everyone in the team is on the same page regarding the:
When we are clear and transparent about these three directional levels, your people will know where and how they need to be investing their energy. Importantly, our experience shows that it also creates a collaborative and connective team dynamic that is so essential for success in teams that are virtual or hybrid in nature. Be brave enough to ask your team how they feel about sharing their individual objectives; introducing this level of transparency can help reduce the psychological distance and increase collaboration when we realise that our actions, no matter where we are located, may be able to contribute to the success of a colleague and therefore the team. Track and discuss all team objectives openly and regularly – they are the binding factor of your team – so use them to your advantage. 2. Set Your Team Up for Success When we don’t trust our people to get on with things in a remote or hybrid environment, this can often say more about us than our people. We’ll talk more about us a bit further on, but when it comes to our team, we can remove doubt by applying a couple of simple strategies:
3. Set Yourself Up for Success
The final word…Reflect Carve out time each week to reflect on the team and yourself. This is a practice that is fast becoming a non-negotiable for leaders in a hybrid world that helps us stay in touch with reality, ourselves and our team. Reflect on yourself and your team through the lens of the points in this article. What’s working well? What could be better? Then build this discipline into your week, because leading to get things done through others is the big part of your job…and how we do this is changing faster than ever.
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We know that the ability to build trust is a critical characteristic of effective leadership. Whether directly, when you are the manager, or indirectly, like in a matrix where influencing with integrity is the key skill. It also underpins the achievement of healthy employee engagement - after all, a position of trust is what we aspire to as engaging leaders. Over the years I have seen good leaders suffer because they get the trust dimension so terribly wrong; and most times it is not because they don’t understand the importance of trust, it is because they expect trust to be given almost immediately. If you are new to a leadership role, either for the first time or as an experienced leader transitioning across, it won't matter that you have a great track record as a leader, or that you are technically competent. Nor will it matter if you have immense pressure to get fast results. In fact neither your technical or leadership track record give you the right to demand immediate trust. You are a stranger. Even if you are from the same organisation and you are known, or some people have worked with you in the past; the fact is that 'new' trust has to be built in the context of your new role. Being known as a colleague is much different than being known as a leader. There are different qualities and attributes required in each role. So how can you build trust and honour the relationships you want to build? Here are a few important things to remember: Trust Cannot be DemandedRather, trust is one of those elements that demand the respect of time and effort. Trust is after all about respect for the other person, or people, and the respect for that space that exists between you and the group you are either leading or seeking to influence. Rituals are Critical for Building Trust People structure their time to either be involved, or opt out. In Transactional Analysis, there is a key concept called Time Structuring. If you understand that people structure their time to move through stages of relationship building, each designed to increase the level of engagement and interaction with other people or groups in a safe way, then you will understand the pathway to building trust. These stages require us to establish rituals that allow us to share about 'who' we are, and this includes where we've been, what we've done (our war stories that build credibility). There are other stages as reflected in the Global Engagement Framework, but these are the key building blocks. Honour these steps. Do not take short cuts. What You Do - or Don't Do - CountsUnderstanding the above point does not mean you will automatically gain trust; your demeanour and behaviour may prevent the progression of genuine growth of the relationship. As a leader it is true that if you say one thing, whilst believing something different it will show. That’s because our body language, the tone of our words, the way we structure our sentence and the history of other conversations all add up to paint a different picture. In fact, think of the shady second-hand car salesman (no offence to the good ones!). Their words tell you that this car is perfect for you. But everything else about them screams “I only want your money!” And in the end your mind and intuition is telling you to “run away as fast you can!” The same principle applies in leadership. If you are in the role to look good, or to make others look bad, or perhaps for quick superficial wins, then this will come through loud and clear and push people away rather than draw them closer. Don't Use Trust as a WeaponTrust is not a weapon, or something with which to threaten others; if there is a need to do this then it is time to question your motives for being in the role. Threatening to remove trust, or questioning trust, is often a signal that no genuine intent to build trust exists from the beginning. Finally, trust is not something that needs to be spoken of or made explicit. It is something that occurs organically as a natural respect co-existing between two people or groups that has been earned. Aside from healthy results, you will know when you are in a high trust relationship or team…you will just know.
Is it really possible for every leader to be as vulnerable and authentic as we think they need to be to create a safe space for us to work and play in? And will our people always naturally respond to the efforts of leaders in encouraging 'authenticity' at work? The short answer is no. If you have managers or employees who are having challenges being as open and ‘real’ as we’d like them to be then in some respects that’s being vulnerable as well. They are letting us know that they either don’t know how to be more authentic, aren't ready for it or that they are unwilling. As leaders we have a role to play in making it ok for people to relax and engage with what they are doing on a daily basis and who they are doing it with. This article explores how we as leaders can start to shift our approach in making this happen. Being vulnerable happens differently for all of us...there is no cookie cutter approach Not knowing ‘how’ to be vulnerable can be remedied through learning and experience. We know that coaching, mentoring and specialist courses in this area can certainly help. However, the unwilling aspect is a bit different. If they are unwilling does it mean we give up on them? No; but the workplace is not a therapists couch, so we can’t dive into the role of counsellor. Yet the reality is, people show up for work each day who are not so open (or completely closed) to the idea of vulnerability. Have they had a bad experience playing with this idea at work before? They opened themselves up and were ridiculed or it was used against them? Or is it their belief system learned from a very young age? Another reason related to this is national culture…in some cultures being more emotionally restrained is considered appropriate, whilst in more collectivist cultures (eg; Asian, eastern European, Middle East) sharing occurs over time as a relationship genuinely develops, because for these groups the door to trust is opened based on ‘who’ you are and not ‘what’ you do. And then there is organisational culture. Is your culture open and supportive of this way of being? There is a whole different article on that alone waiting to be written; but for now we will stick with who we are as leaders and what we can be doing. Enabling vulnerability means acknowledging and using your potency As leaders this means that our role is to be thinking about how we create the opportunity for vulnerability to grow. And the solution evolves around psychological safety, which applies to all aspects of work life around the world. Leaders have a certain potency that comes with their role that can be overlooked. That is, our ability to create a safe place where people feel ok to bring ‘who’ they are into the role and the workplace. I remember when I started my working life, this was an optional and largely unknown aspect of leadership, and if you had a leader who did this then you really had landed on your feet! Today is different. We know more about human development and motivation, and the links between performance, culture, engagement and happiness at work. We also know more about the role that we play as leaders in making it ok for our people to bring as much of themselves to work as possible, and not just a persona shackled by a strong defensive boundary. How do we make it ok? It’s simple to understand in one respect and at the same time, depending on our own frame of reference, can be difficult to do. We lead by example in making the environment inclusive and non-judgemental. We give people time to colour their role with ‘who’ they are, and we don’t enforce a time limit on the development of trust and engagement. In fact, by expecting that trust or engagement should be occurring by a certain time could be saying more about our personal needs as a leader than it does about the people we are leading. Unconditional Leadership - The key to vulnerabilityReally, the key to this is about being unconditional in your style. Accepting that as a leader you may be creating the opportunity for rapport to build, but it may not be reciprocated, or it could take time before others start to relax and share. Others may be ready for it and it happens quickly and naturally.
But being unconditional in your style is a central pillar to building a psychologically safe and enjoyable place to work. It's easy to understand...not necessarily easy to do...but highly rewarding. For everyone. Having a sense of purpose is central to effective employee engagement, and there are three dimensions to this, that if understood, can contribute effectively to organisational engagement strategies. I call these dimensions:
Below is a short descriptor of each type of Purpose. Intrinsic Sense of Purpose This is really about those fundamental questions like; Who am I? or What are my values? We may never fully know the answers to these types of questions, but for most people there tends to be a sense of what the answers are, especially on the values side of things. I like to think of this as being our internal compass and life vest all rolled into one. It gives us direction, and in those times when the direction isn’t clear, or we lose our way, our values can act as our life vest to keep us afloat until we regain traction. If we are unable to access, develop or acknowledge our Intrinsic Sense of Purpose, we aren’t in the best position to optimise our Extrinsic Sense of Purpose. Extrinsic Sense of Purpose This is the part of us that the rest of the world can see when seeking to fulfil our Intrinsic Sense of Purpose, whether it be in our career, our personal activities or the way we engage with family and friends. Ideally, in a professional context, we would like to think that what we do for a living is an extension of ‘who’ we are and the reality is that this is true for all of us, no matter what our country or culture. In Asian and Middle East cultures, for example, our work team really is an extension of our family on many levels with individual purpose being reinforced through acceptance of, and belonging to, the group. This of course relies on knowing ‘who’ our colleagues are and what they stand for and is as important, if not more important, than knowing ‘what’ we are here to do. Whilst in cultures, like that found in Anglo countries, there is a continuous need for organisations to understand and express its Intrinsic Sense of Purpose in an effort to attract and retain employees by demonstrating that what it stands for is good for the Intrinsic needs of the people it hopes to attract and for those who already work there. So our Extrinsic Sense of Purpose serves the purpose of being fulfilling on a practical level (I enjoy what I do) and reinforcing our Intrinsic Sense of Purpose (I enjoy how I do what I do and why I do what I do). Adapted Sense of Purpose This is an interesting place to be as there are times when our Intrinsic and Extrinsic senses of Purpose aren’t in alignment. This can be when we aren’t sure of ‘who’ we are but we are finding ways to sustain ourselves externally with the hope that this will provide clarity on who we are. This can be caused by a major life event which creates the need to re-evaluate who we are, and can sometimes seem like it’s always a work in progress. There are also those times when we are sure of who we are, but our Extrinsic activities are out of alignment. For example, when we are starting out in our career, there is sometimes the need to take what we can get to build up experience. There are also those times when we are caught up in a restructure or major organisational change; and then there is the more stark situation that comes with expats moving from one country to another. In all of these situations we are required to adapt temporarily until we can find that common ground, or reconcile between who we are and where we find ourselves. The Challenge and the Opportunity It is in the Adapted space that we can lose people…no matter the circumstance. It is in this adapted space that we see the largest turnover of expats during the assignment and upon return due to culture shock, reverse culture shock and a lack of planning to support effective return of the expat. In change management, we lose people because the change plan didn’t take into consideration how people will feel, react or perceive the change. In restructures, it is more obvious because who we can often be wrapped up in what we do. This challenge also represents the greatest opportunity for both the individual and the organisation. It is in the Adapted space when there is the greatest opportunity for personal and professional growth. If you are able to identify those moments in your organisation when at either an individual, team or functional level, there is likely to be gap between the Intrinsic Sense of Purpose and the Extrinsic Sense of Purpose, that’s where the work is to be done. That’s precisely the place where concerns are planned for, fears are addressed, excitement is harnessed and progress can be created. We often miss this piece as we are focussed mainly on the external factors, for example, what I want you to be doing compared to what you are doing today. And our change plan supports this in a structured and behaviourally focussed way. However, if we are prepared to explore the space between who our people are (and therefore the reason why they likely joined your organisation) and what we are asking them to do differently, (and therefore the intrinsic impact this will have on them), we are in a better position to drive genuine engagement. Author: David MorleyDavid is developer of global-minded leaders, teams and businesses. |
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