Some two (very) long years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the verdict is clear: the hybrid work model is here to stay, and you’ll be leading hybrid teams for the foreseeable future. Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, and Intel have all announced that they will allow employees to work completely or partially from home if they want to.
And it’s not just tech giants who are institutionalizing “flexible” work schedules: Coca-Cola and Deutsche Bank, to name just a few name-brand legacy corporations, are also offering employees a partially remote work experience if they want it.
The reasons for this change go beyond just COVID safety. Business leaders have readily acknowledged that the pandemic has exposed the many shortcomings of the old, in-office model, such as the limitations that come from hiring only people who can afford or have the ability to work in some of the world’s most expensive metropolises or who aren’t able to work typical office hours due to caretaking or other responsibilities.
What’s the Secret to Leading Hybrid Teams?
Well, expecting team members to be able to guess your intentions certainly isn’t it
Leadership in a Hybrid Work Environment: Ensuring Equity for Leaders and the Led
The marketing software company Drift offers a good example. At the beginning of the pandemic, the company was extremely worried that productivity would drop, CEO David Cancel told CNN in a February 2022 article. He quickly realized that a remote workforce could be just as high-performing—possibly even more so—than a “traditional” one. Not to mention, having a remote workforce greatly expanded the company’s pool of potential applicants.
So in 2021, the company announced they were becoming fully remote (with a few exceptions for communal meeting space). “People that were in the office with the managers….they got disproportionately favored for promotions and opportunities,” said Cancel. “I wanted to make sure we were equitable that no matter where you were…you would have equal opportunity to everything in the company.”
With these big guns leading the way, millions of other companies across the globe, of all sizes and (generally, white-collar) industries, have followed suit. Perhaps your own company has made a permanent turn to a hybrid work environment.
While these new work arrangements offer exciting new opportunities for stronger collaboration and better work-life balance, they also come with serious challenges. Thoughtful hybrid workforce leadership is required if you want to succeed.
Don’t Get (Too) Lost in the Familiar
Take going back to the (physical) office. With severe Covid cases seemingly on the wane—for the time being!—more and more employees who have been working exclusively from home will be returning to the office part-time. But though the transition to work-from-home (WFH) may have been hard, the transition back to the world of the workplace may actually be harder.
Why? In part this is because of how our brains make sense of unexpected change. When we transitioned to WFH two years ago, there were few precedents guiding us. Figuring out how to turn dining rooms into offices and basements into classrooms—all this was foreign.
Feeling “lost in the unfamiliar” made sense, and as our adrenaline kicked in, we became more resourceful, creative, and eventually, adapted. But, even when it is induced by stress or necessity, creativity often feels rewarding. When we conquer something we’ve never done, we feel a sense of pride, not just for the result, but also for overcoming our fear and inexperience in doing so.
When we go back to our old work environment, however, we will expect a return to the familiar. Our brains have an autopilot mode that is composed of shortcuts we’ve made to help us undertake routine tasks with minimal mental effort. That’s why you can drive to work without ever remembering how you got there.
However, back at the office, if your brain reaches for the autopilot version of a familiar routine, it will get short-circuited by your new reality. When that happens, you may feel “lost in the familiar,” confused by feeling stuck halfway between the past and present. Here are some tips for getting back on solid ground.
Get Flexible
“Flexibility” sounds great, right? But while everyone seems to want it, few would define it the same way.
A flexible work schedule to a mother of two kids under three may mean the ability to work early mornings and after dinner, while a strict 9 to 5 may be much more desirable for a childless twentysomething with an active social life. Yet another employee may prefer to work longer days Monday through Thursday, leaving them with three-day weekends.
The possibilities are endless—as is the potential for conflict. To that end, Pepperdine Graziadio Business School professors Bobbi Thomason and Jennifer Franczak have identified “three main tensions that organizations and teams need to manage”:
- the tension between allowing a hybrid workforce to work when they want and expecting them to be available all the time;
- the tension between employees feeling isolated when not working from an office and feeling invaded by communication technologies;
- the tension between what practices are possible in a hybrid workplace and what is preferred and rewarded.
For a hybrid role to function properly, much less optimally, all of these tensions must be considered and successfully navigated. Take some time to think about what “flexibility” looks like for you, and how you can make it a reality.
“The right balance for each organization will vary based on organizational priorities, and on its employees and their interests. But identifying—and naming—these tensions will offer leaders a place from which they can start strategizing,” write Thomason and Fraczak. Not unsurprisingly, it takes specific hybrid skills to bring excellence to hybrid jobs.
Call-out/Tip
Leading hybrid teams can be particularly stressful because it may be that much harder to account for everyone. To overcome this, try to carve out some time in your schedule for keeping in touch with key colleagues and direct reports. Depending on your role and needs, this could require no more than fifteen minutes every few days. Doing so can help ensure the lines of communication remain open—and peace of mind isn’t out of grasp.
Embrace Patience
You should expect the protocols your company has in place to shift over time, or in some cases, even overnight. New information and an ever-changing work environment will require you to adapt, sometimes on the fly. Whenever this happens, try your best to respond with patience and flexibility so that each time something changes, you don’t become irritated or nervous.
Try not to perceive unforeseen changes as a sign your company “doesn’t know what they’re doing.” More often, it’s a positive sign when organizations are open to learning and development, even if they must do it as they go.
– George Penn, VP at Gartner
Quotation Call Out “Success in a hybrid work environment requires employers to move beyond viewing remote or hybrid environments as a temporary or short-term strategy and to treat it as an opportunity.”
Learn What Hybrid Leadership Is and What Your Leadership Teams Need to Succeed
Manage Your Expectations
We often form assumptions about other people to ease our discomfort with ambiguity. The more uncertain things are, the faster and more absolute our assumptions become. Whether you are part of leadership in a hybrid work environment others or are an individual contributor, this applies to you. Preempt misassumptions by speaking up when you need to and committing to advocate for yourself in a way that’s respectful and open-minded.
In a hybrid work environment, this means if you are still working out childcare or homeschool logistics, let your boss know that, and if need be, ask for the kind of schedule you need. For all you know your boss is just as overwhelmed and/or confused about their new hybrid workplace as you are. Let this be an opportunity for them—and, if applicable, you—to model leading hybrid teams.
Know that You’re Not Alone
The transition to whatever the “next normal” is will be laden with unknown bumps and possibilities. Much of that is out of our control. Further, the transition will feel different for each of us, especially if our company is pivoting to a fully remote workforce—a major change, to say the least.
Our highs and lows won’t always match those of others. What we can manage is our responses to our transition and how we support others through theirs.
Build Connections Where You Find Them
One of the best ways to make the transition to a hybrid workforce smoother is by finding ways to make the process better or easier for others. Once you settle in, strike up casual conversations with colleagues either in person or online. It’s a small thing, but this sort of sincere effort can give rise to a new sense of community.
Be especially mindful of those colleagues who are working fully remote; they may begin to feel left out or worry that they are missing in-person opportunities. Show them sensitivity by taking extra steps to make sure they feel connected and included.
If you can do this, you’ll be forging relationships that are strong enough to weather the inevitable ups and downs of being part of a hybrid workforce.
Why Is Your Hybrid Leadership Program Talking About That Organization?
How will leaders lead a hybrid team if don’t understand their own organization’s values?
Create high-impact leaders with hybrid leadership training that’s aligned with your goals and your organization’s needs.