As September comes around, the sense of ‘back to school’ and ‘back to the routine’ looms large and as a new school year begins, I’ve been thinking about how clients might mark their own homework in relation to hybrid working and hybrid leadership in their business. What ‘grade’ would we give ourselves?
Okay, enough of the academic references. My conversations this month have prompted me to think about these questions and as a result, what are 3 things all great hybrid leaders need to focus on now? Here’s my view:
- Involvement: Involve your teams to be part of the solution, rather than set them as being on the other side of the ‘problem’. Leaders want their teams back in the office to some extent. Great! So, what makes it appealing and enjoyable for teams to navigate the commute and be there? Other than being on Teams and Zoom all day? Leadership is an inspiration business… now is the chance to inspire others to want to come back, rather than simply dictate that they are. The latter requires little communication skill; the former requires a lot more. No involvement means no commitment, as the very famous saying goes…
- Development: Turbocharge professional growth… in a post-Covid world with an ‘intensity bias’ in every business I’ve come across in the past 3 years, each team member needs a relevant, engaging development plan. Engaging your people means helping them be even better in their role so that they can enjoy more success, satisfaction, balance, joy, ease… whatever they want from their role… and this is especially key for your top performers.
- Connection: Strengthen it. As human beings, we crave it and feel the loss of it at a level which is increasingly profound in a post-Covid world. We want to belong to something that matters to us more than ever, something for which we are deeply appreciated, and we want to be part of something in which we flourish doing things that bring us meaning and purpose.
