Luck favors the prepared.ĭoug Van Dyke is a leadership development expert, executive coach, strategic planner, and team builder.
And make certain that your team members have the tools they need to succeed. Keep your fingers on the pulse of your culture. The good news is that excellent leaders do what it takes to maintain excellence. They can also alter the cultural focus of the broader organization. Younger workers call for old skills used in a different way. High performing leaders are sharpening their skills and building new ones to keep pace with a changing workforce.
Building cross-functional collaboration.Leading DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging).Time management (and teaching it to team members!).Here is a cross-section of skill areas in which savvy leaders need to be elegantly effective. It is imperative that leaders are equally comfortable (and skilled) with leading onsite workers, offsite workers, and hybrid workers. It also calls for leaders to leverage winning skills in a different way. Effectively leading a remote workforce calls for leaders to be at the top of their game. Purposeful posts on favored social media (Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.).Internal newsletters showcasing everyone’s life activities and work accomplishments.High quality videos and internal presentations for virtual employees (as well as in-person workers).What channels of communication does your hybrid workforce prefer (i.e., email, text, Zoom, what about after-hours communication?).Also, be strategic about the frequency and the communication channels you leverage. Using a long-tail subject line can make certain team members open your email more quickly. If we send an email, it needs to be succinct and targeted. A huge part of effective leadership is ensuring that two-way communication has occurred. Remember: Just because you speak or send an email does not mean that communication has taken place. Sharing & reinforcing a meaningful vision.For leaders to support and grow a healthy work culture, they should be laser focused on the following: Yet, a healthy culture is essential for an organization to thrive. Based on my findings, it’s fair to say that a strong culture is not dependent upon every team member being onsite. While conducting one-on-one interviews with CEOs on the topic of culture, something became very clear to me: Not once was co-location mentioned as essential to their culture. Do our people feel like they belong here? Especially in young workers, a sense of belonging coupled with a strong community connection are the catalysts that keep them with your organization. Do our people feel valued by their direct leader? 3. Do our people feel valued by our organization? If so, why? 2. Aside from a large pop in pay, two of the core reasons team members leave organizations has to do with not feeling valued or possessing a sense of belonging. If remote workers are sore by the end of the day or develop carpal tunnel, their productivity and job satisfaction will plummet.
Instrumental in maximizing their productivity is to make certain their offsite workspace is ergonomically terrific.
The blocking and tackling of leading hybrid workers is to ensure that while working remotely team members have the proper technology setup, security protocols, and professional atmosphere. Savvy leaders will be keeping the following areas in the forefront of their minds. With this in mind, it becomes imperative that leaders are adept at leading a remote workforce that will be offsite a large percent of the time. If there are any detractors who doubt that a distributed workforce is the new norm, consider this: A recent Wall Street Journal Article stated that less that 4% of organizations will be going back to work totally onsite. Newsletters Effectively Leading a Hybrid Workforce Volume: June 2022