When Rachel Reeves stated earlier this year that it’s “for individual managers and their members of staff” in the public sector to decide on hybrid arrangements, she effectively signalled that Labour would be dialling back the fiery rhetoric of the previous administration around getting civil servants back in the office.
Sure enough, with the once weekly office attendance figures remaining unpublished since Labour came to power, it’s clear that hybrid working is here to stay in Whitehall. Of course, while the battleground on the pros and cons of hybrid working may play out most prominently in the public sector, the shift is just as pronounced right across the private sector too.
With debate continuing around the relative opportunities and threats presented by remote working, Lubna Haq argues that a more pressing concern is how to develop the leaders of today and tomorrow to effectively lead hybrid workforces.
New leadership challenges in a hybrid world
We’ve recently written about new research which has revealed that hybrid working does not have a negative impact on individual employee performance. Likewise, we’ve highlighted that there’s no one-size-fits-all best practice to how hybrid working should be approached at an organisational level.
However, it’s clear that leading a team that is partially or entirely remote presents a range of unique challenges that require new types of leadership – from maintaining team cohesion digitally, to ensuring clear communication and motivation when team members are physically isolated from one another.
Effective hybrid leadership therefore requires a blend of traditional management skills and new competencies tailored to remote work. Leaders also need to develop a keen sense of emotional intelligence to support, motivate and build rapport with team members they rarely meet in person.
With 23% of remote workers experiencing loneliness and 22% finding it hard to unplug after work, leaders additionally need to be able to effectively identify and address mental health and well-being issues that can go unnoticed more readily with hybrid working.
Succession planning in a hybrid workplace
A further challenge facing many organisations embracing hybrid working is how they support the professional development and career progression of the next generation of leaders.
With fewer traditional in-person interactions and less peer-to-peer engagement, hybrid working has made the art of absorbing knowledge and expertise from others more difficult. This can impact employees’ ability to grasp the often-subtle nuances of working life that tend to play out more overtly in office-based environments – understanding organisational politics and developing crucial negotiation and conflict resolution skills, for example.
Indeed, research has found that 2/3rds of professionals aged 16-34 believe remote working during the COVID pandemic impacted their professional learning. In addition, almost half of surveyed business leaders felt that young employees with little exposure to office life have struggled to build meaningful relationships with colleagues.
Equipping leaders for success
Fortunately, there are a range of strategies businesses can put in place to overcome these challenges and equip leaders for success in a hybrid world. These include:
- Adopting flexible and adaptive leadership styles: Flexible and adaptable leadership is essential to the effective management of hybrid teams. This can frequently require organisations to support leaders in shifting from process-driven management styles to more results-oriented approaches, focusing on outcomes rather than micromanaging processes. Leaders often achieve the best results when they empower hybrid team members to find their own paths to success and adapt processes to fit different team dynamics – whether collaborative or directive. They must also be able to embrace and champion new technologies that can facilitate more fluid remote team working. Remaining agile and open to making continuous refinements in response to feedback and changing circumstances is also a must.
- Regular, formalised one-on-one interactions: Increasing the frequency and structure of individual check-ins between managers and employees is crucial to ensure ongoing support and clarity for team members. This also helps to identify issues early and provides a consistent touchpoint for feedback and development.
- Tailored development plans: Creating development plans that cater specifically to the needs of remote or hybrid leaders, focusing on both technical and soft skills, can increase positive outcomes. For example, offering training on digital communication tools and virtual collaboration techniques.
- Creating in-person team touchpoints: Arranging occasional opportunities for hybrid teams to come together and get to know each other face-to-face can help build unity and harmony, as well as support junior team members in developing essential soft skills. These occasions can be business-related gatherings – strategy planning and key announcements, for example – or more informal and casual team building events.
- Comprehensive feedback and support systems: The implementation of robust feedback and support mechanisms is crucial to keeping employees engaged and aware of their progress and areas for improvement in a hybrid setting.
If you’d like to learn more about how we can support your leaders to embrace and thrive in hybrid working environments, get in touch.