If you lead distributed teams, what are you doing differently now vs. how you led them when they were co-located?
One of my boss’s favorite sayings was that leadership is a contact sport. It was never truer than when leading distributed teams. Personalized support, emotional connection, and objectivity are critical in this context.
Here are my thoughts on what needs to get more attention and energy as you manage, develop, and engage employees in distributed teams –
Managing teams – As a leader, you must establish clarity and empower employees by setting clear goals and providing objective measures of success. Stay clued in on whether any team members are struggling to perform and whether their workload is manageable via regular check-ins. Combine this with psychological safety so employees can freely express their concerns and ask for support when required, but do not micromanage them. In short, leaders must set clear objectives and performance metrics, empower and trust team members, conduct regular check-ins, and step aside to let teams do their jobs.
Developing employees – Gauge what your employees need to perform well today and in the future. These needs could differ for different people as the hybrid way of working is still relatively new and evolving. You need to figure out what various employees might need, how to provide it, and how to connect and empower people to solve problems collectively. There is also a higher need for mentoring and coaching to help people cope with changes and succeed in the new environment.
Engaging employees – When teams are physically distributed, the need for emotional connection increases. You must determine what works for your people in the new environment, so they feel –
- They can rely on each other and their leaders.
- Their perspectives are respected, and they are accepted despite their differences and
- They can share what they think and be authentic.
This is achieved by leaders walking the talk – showing what trust is, being vulnerable, actively and empathetically listening, making people feel seen and heard, for example, not multi-tasking while interacting with teams, not canceling meetings in the last minute or conducting them with little or no notice.
To succeed in the hybrid and remote working environment, leaders must have the ability, empathy, and patience to provide each employee with the skills, tools, and support necessary to succeed. They need social intelligence, flexibility, strong communication, and emotional intelligence. They must remember that they are dealing with humans as employees, fellow leaders, customers, and stakeholders and must lead with that.
I work with leaders to increase their capacity and effectiveness by managing themselves and others better. If this is on your mind, let us explore how I can help you – https://discovery-meeting.youcanbook.me