The evolving challenges of remote management

The evolving challenges of remote management

An inspirational mentor of mine insisted that it was important not to have a comfortable workspace at home. He argued that human instinct would see people recline into soft cushions, develop a daytime TV or extended browsing habit, and, meanwhile, the office energy and productivity would be depleted just enough to degrade not only performance but also the collective experience of office life.

I believed him. I understood. We were building and coaching great sales teams across the globe and the currency was influence – influence how customers view the challenges they needed to solve, influence of resourcing priorities, influence of networks and the decisions they make. None of this happened sitting at the kitchen breakfast bar or on the sofa! 

But the world of work has changed at an uncomfortable speed leaving managers and teams with no choice but to embrace home and hybrid working.

Regardless of the role or environment the evolving world of work presents new challenges and new terms of engagement, especially for managers. Collaboration calls for increased effort and new skills, recognising behavioural preferences becomes more critical but difficult to achieve and, while employees demand ever more from their employers, their individual needs become harder to meet at scale, especially in volatile trading conditions.

Further, in a remote working environment there is less opportunity for impromptu chats or to recognise signs of struggle. We become adept at presenting a curated best self on video calls bound by screen size and duration, and willing to mask anything that doesn’t fit the profile they want to share. The widely referenced study of non-verbal communication by Albert Mehrabian* concluded we achieve around 7% of our understanding through words and a further 38% through tone of voice. The remaining 55% of understanding is reliant on body language! 

So, we can see the challenge facing modern managers as they wrestle to build cohesion and alignment in pursuit of unrelenting goals while their teams become more remote, often connected only by technology. Having held and coached such roles I’ve seen the size of the task and learned many lessons from both failures and successes. It can be a wild ride!

Here are 9 nudges, reminders and prompts I’ve picked up from characters wrestling with the challenge of managing teams remotely‍

1. Establish clear expectations and check they are holding.

• This is hard! Agree clear expectations at a human interaction level and check in to make sure they still make sense to both parties. 

2. Find the balance between leading and lagging performance measures.

• Only talking to a target is a fast track to becoming disconnected. Agree activity or project based milestones that are meaningful to the individual and shared progress.

3. Focus discussions on how things can be done, not just if they have been done.

• Sounds easy but as pressure ramps and demands are pushed down there is the risk of progress updates adopting a checklist style with heart and soul being stripped out.

4. ‘Home and hybrid working’ isn’t an instruction.

• Get out and see people! Even after you are handed the keys to your beautiful Mybridity bespoke garden office

• make the effort to spend time with your team.

5. Research local matters.

• Take a little time to find discussion points that impact their environment. Yes, time is short, but showing some interest beyond a progress report brings a dividend.

6. Explore talent development.

• Change is happening for everyone. A co-ordinated approach to give access to new skills and ideas helps promote fresh discussion and a positive mindset.

7. Be the standard for call etiquette.

• Set agendas or target outcomes and make an effort for calls to run to time. This also gives licence to expect everyone arrives prepared and actively participates.

8. Establish and respect personal boundaries.

• A tough one in an ‘always on’ world. Consider what is genuinely urgent and resist building a culture of blind subservience. There are two sides to this equation but we want to work with energised people, not automatons.

9. Think before you press ‘send’.

• Technology encourages us to press ‘send’ on often ill-considered notes, especially when we are remote. It’s too easy to confuse ‘lazy’ with ‘time poor’. Being a manager should not excuse low standards!

Margin notes

Remote management is not easy. It takes a great deal of emotional capacity as well as physical effort and, even then, I suggest we are a long way from establishing a shared understanding of recognised post Covid norms. 

Perhaps the best, and simplest, idea I’ve seen put in place for a remote team is the invitation for any team member to create and share a playlist. I would never have thought of this but I could see it was an inspired thought that encouraged people to share something of themselves and build a connection with colleagues some of whom had never been in the same building at the same time.

For a free, initial discussion about your individual workspace, contact Wayne at wayne@mybridity.com.

*Link to Mehrabian's 'Inference of Attitudes from Non-verbal Communication in Two Channels' on Mind Tools