C-Suite Corner -- Lesson 3: Leading Remote & Hybrid Teams
Are you ready for this new reality? We are not going back to the old work-in-the-office days as companies commit to a hybrid model (2 or 3 days/week in the office) and others completely vacating office space altogether. Do your current leadership and work management processes enable successful remote and hybrid working environments?
Imagine thriving in these remote and hybrid environments.
At Excelerated Leadership Partners, we believe there are some key points to leading remote and hybrid teams.
- Building trust – Trust is the underpinning of all effective relationships and developing trust with remote teams is more challenging and will likely take more time, patience, persistence, and creativity. Making time for small talk and getting to know your team members matters. Communications and accountability improve when you extend trust first!
- Communicating clearly and frequently – Clear communication is a foundation for success, regardless of whether it is face to face, remote, or in a hybrid working environment. It also helps to have a communication guideline. Some guidelines (expectations) might be: respond to emails within 24 hours (excluding weekends or defined non-working hours), respond to voice mail by COB same day, respond to text within 2 hours, say URGENT in a text or email only if it is truly urgent. Also, use multiple channels and leverage tech tools to communicate the same message and repeat the message frequently while simulating real presence when applicable.
- Engaging team members in meetings – If meetings feel like a waste of time, you must look in the mirror. Every successful organization uses meetings to brainstorm, share information, troubleshoot, and maintain focus and alignment on key metrics. It is critical to engage team members and pay attention to nonverbal cues. Encourage engagement from everyone by calling on random participants to force engagement.
- Hiring and onboarding remotely – Hiring the right people is the most important task for a leader. Key attributes to look for in the ideal team member and that are even more important as teams become hybrid are problem-solving/resourcefulness, communication skills (verbal and written), organization and prioritization, self-motivated, assertiveness, emotional intelligence, and relationship-oriented.
- Coaching and developing team members – You have hired great talent and developing and nurturing them is critical to keeping them. Establishing SMART goals combined with consistent coaching and frequent feedback are critical to keep good people challenged and engaged. It is also critical to address team challenges and performance issues in a timely and productive manner.
- Building and sustaining a strong culture – Leaders lead by example and set the tone. Establish a culture of performance and create peer teams with mutual goals. This creates a natural culture of accountability among your high-performing team members. Revisiting company values and norms periodically to ensure they still match your organization’s reality is important. Also, keeping things fun enhances collaboration and innovation – make it a game!
Who do you need to engage even more today?
If you would like to engage in a 30-minute (no fee) session to learn more about how to better engage your remote and hybrid team members, please contact Excelerated Leadership Partners: robin@elpadvantage.com today. We will help you create a high-performing remote & hybrid culture.
