Two Key Leadership Practices Required to Support a Hybrid Workplace
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Employee preference for hybrid work is here to stay. Eighty-seven percent of employees say they are more productive in remote and hybrid work models. Most managers, however, don’t know how to make these new workplace models work—much less how to obtain the soaring increases in engagement and productivity they can yield.
In fact, research indicates that 85% of employers say it is difficult to have confidence in the productivity of workers not in the office.1
These leaders maintain that hybrid situations don’t provide the necessary control over how work is getting done. It’s understandable that control could become an issue since managers are ultimately accountable for the results their employees produce. They may also still see control as a performance improvement strategy.
We advocate instead that managers adopt a more autonomous leadership style, one that builds trust and increases their confidence that the outcomes of their people’s work will be achieved on a consistent basis and above expectation levels.
Every manager who is ready to take two straightforward actions can begin building and supporting a trust-based workplace with a leadership style built upon these autonomous practices.
Identify the skills and knowledge that demonstrate employees are trustworthy and ready for more autonomy. Let everyone know what these qualities are.
We collected performance and engagement data from over 2600 managers in 600 organizations and conducted a meta research study to identify the key employee qualities that signal to a manager that an employee is ready for more autonomy.² Some of these qualities include:
– Keeps commitments
– Acts in the face of uncertainty
– Demonstrates tenacity
– Works efficiently
To get a complete list of the employee qualities that indicate readiness for autonomy, including the qualities that are especially critical to the success of autonomy in a hybrid workplace, please request a copy directly from us here.
Make the process of setting expectations a dialogue.
Historically, managers have been directed to set clear expectations. That, of course, is still important. What is also needed, however, is more input into those expectations from the employees themselves.
When there is more dialogue in expectation setting, managers are able to ensure that each employee in a hybrid workplace is set up for success. This means the employee is more likely to use autonomy successfully and thereby add to the reliability and trust on which autonomy depends.
For example:
– Expectation-setting discussions can explore topics and questions like the following:
What skills and knowledge is the employee passionate about building and using in order to be trusted with more autonomy?
What do you, as manager, need to see in order to feel that the employee is ready for more autonomy?
What outcomes are most important to both you and your employee?
What decisions can the employee make independently, on their own?
How much autonomy is the employee comfortable exercising?
Does the employee see having more autonomy as an opportunity or a
burden?
Clearly the hybrid work model is here for the foreseeable future. It’s also clear that this model comes with issues. But with the right tools and understanding, autonomy can be introduced or expanded successfully, to the benefit of both leaders and employees.
Leading with Autonomy® (LWA) from BE GREAT LLC offers these solutions. It gives leaders the tools to determine how much autonomy to grant, where to grant it, and how to set parameters and milestones that support employee autonomy, ownership and success while building trust across the organization.
1 Jane Thier, “Microsoft’s remote-work-friendly CEO puts his finger on the big problem with working from home,” in Fortune, October 17, 2022, 3:13 PM MDT, © 2022 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved.
2 BE GREAT LC micromanagement research summary, Understanding Micromanagement, BE GREAT LLC research.
