“The companies that are seeing the most success with returning to the office appear to be the ones that are making decisions with their employees, rather than for them. ”
Employees do not like being told what to do without any input. That’s no way to create an environment for them to do their best work or inspire trust in them.
They focus on hybrid work, I think these commandments should be applied in every situation. I don’t care if you all work in the office full-time, remotely across the country full-time, or any combination in between.
Intention, communication, setting expectations, and living the example will go a long way with your team. There’s no reason to not follow these commandments for working as a team, regardless of location. This is a great outline for how to set the rules of engagement, provide the proper tools and solid communication, and continually measure the effectiveness of what you’re doing.
How does your team measure up to the experts?
If you’re a leader of a remote team, you have connections that your people may not be able to access without your help.
Help them. They might just make you look good in the process.
As I read over the list of six conditions that Drucker believed enabled productivity, I came to the conclusion that I have never worked in a place that provided all six. Usually that last one, being seen as an asset as opposed to a cost, is the easy one to see. Management loves to remind you that you are a cost, especially if you work in a tech or training position. Heck, anything other than a sales position in some organizations is a “cost”, and we all know anyone who isn’t directly billing more hours to a client than they get paid in legal is a cost. As we have seen over the last year, you can do great work, but when shareholders and Boards decide it’s time to cut costs, that great work won’t grant you immunity from mass layoffs.
What I am starting to learn, and Gary writes as well, is that asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness but it might very well be an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to connect with other human beings at a personal level, it’s an opportunity to learn from the expertise of others, and an opportunity for them to put that knowledge to good use. It’s an opportunity to use that combined skill to create a better solution than I would have created by myself.
Most of all hard problems are an opportunity to work as a team or a community, something that we all need as human beings. Whether you are anxious and need a friend to support you, or you can’t find the answer to a vexing technical issue, or you simply need some help learning a new skill, it helps to have people around.
Continue to be great at what you do and hope for an opening in management is not a career plan. That is what appears to be on offer at many companies though. They aren’t preparing anyone to be a manager in the future, and they aren’t increasing headcount that might require more team leads and managers, so how long do we expect people to wait? Add in the number of “senior” folks with higher salaries who find themselves part of a reduction in force, or the number of people who’ve watched their current job change over and over until they find themselves doing work they never signed up for in the first place, and it’s no wonder that workers are taking responsibility for their own growth, by choosing workplaces that give them better opportunities.
No one has to stay and work for you for the next 20-25 years. They can, and will, go elsewhere if there’s no clear path forward. I don’t blame them.
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