The increasing adoption of home office and hybrid work has generated specificities for this new work environment: remote leadership. The relationship between home and the workplace has changed, with a complete redefinition that has also transformed relationships between leaders and employees.
Although leadership principles remain the same, it is necessary to know how to overcome the challenges of physical distance to continue generating engagement and satisfaction among the team. Read this article to discover how to exercise remote leadership and maintain a thriving digital organizational culture.
Home office and remote leadership: models that are here to stay
After most companies adopted remote work and virtual assistant servicesin the Philippines during the pandemic, companies from the most diverse segments noticed that continuing the modality was an excellent way to improve employees’ quality of life and even increase productivity.
Home office and remote leadership are models that are here to stay. Research shows that employee satisfaction and productivity have increased. This modality has also become a way to retain talent, with a significant reduction in resignations. Of course, other issues arose, such as the war over increasingly attractive salaries and benefits, reduced work weeks, and remote performance management.
To give you an idea, a study by the World Economic Forum shows that 98% of workers prefer to continue working remotely. And most leaders do, too: 80% of managers like the new way of working, of which 60% consider remote leadership more efficient and productive.
However, this does not mean that challenges do not exist. Quite the contrary, just like in the face-to-face model, specific difficulties need to be understood in order to be properly worked on and resolved.
1. Challenges of remote leadership
Leadership is leadership, whether virtual or in person. Leaders need to have the same skills and abilities, but the way they exercise them is different. It is very important, for example, not to let the company’s values, mission, beliefs, and conduct be lost due to distance, as well as team harmony and individual and team motivation.
Therefore, remote leadership strategies must be well thought out to maintain efficient remote communication, for example. After all, the employee is not at the next desk or the room down the hall. Likewise, monitoring tasks and measuring productivity are also more complicated. A lack of consistency can cause unnecessary problems in the progress of work.
There are still at least two major challenges: dealing with employees’ emotional issues and creating opportunities for people’s engagement—two difficulties that are already challenging in the face-to-face model.
2. Top Skills Remote Leaders Should Have
The remote leader must have some enhanced skills in relation to in-person leadership. Very clear and objective communication is necessary, especially since the leader will not have access to the remote employee’s body language. This requires a greater degree of detail and clarity.
On the other hand, always keep several communication channels open, as some are faster than others. Remember that technology is in your favor and not against you. Maintain a habit of quick and objective online meetings, providing guidance and answering questions while also maintaining empathy with each person.
Develop your emotional intelligence to strengthen your team’s bonds. Good connections are essential for inspiring, engaging, and motivating teams working from home.
3. Attention to organizational culture in virtual environments
Another critical point is not to let the company’s organizational culture get lost because employees are distant. To do this, you need to have the ability to be consistent, aligned with the organization’s values, postures and premises, and with clear and understandable attitudes. Remember that your remote team is diverse , with different cultures, experiences and habits, so you must have empathy to understand them at their core.
4. Remote leadership strategies
Leadership ensures team focus and alignment, even in a remote work environment. To do this, collaborative goals and objectives must be set, seeking to ensure an active workflow without excesses that become counterproductive.
With everyone collaborating and with well-defined objectives, everyone feels valued and engaged, and a good way to achieve this is through the SMART methodology, setting smart goals: specific (Specific), measurable (Measurable), achievable (Achievable), relevant (Relevant) and with a well-defined deadline (Time-based).
5. Be flexible
Many people work better by setting their own schedules and focusing on productivity and results rather than rigid schedules. Set clear deadlines and objectives, but be sure to focus on each person’s responsibility and autonomy. Let your employees manage their own time.
6. Have active listening
Much empathy comes from listening to others. So, be an active listener to truly understand what your employees want to say, their concerns, expectations, ideas, and projects. This way, you will be able to be sensitive to specific demands within the particularities of working from home. Establish a dialogue, try to identify difficulties, and seek real and viable solutions, whether individually or for the entire team.
7. Provide constructive feedback
When constructive feedback becomes a routine, employees feel encouraged to improve their work. This is also important when tasks are performed remotely. This exchange also generates more empathy and strengthens the connection with team members.
8. Be a friend of technology
Digital transformation is a reality and technology should be used to bring people together. So, use it as a friend and look for the most efficient ways to stay in touch with team members. Research the best channels for meetings, efficient platforms for distributing tasks, and agile forms of communication.
In this way, remote leadership increases the sense of online community and encourages active participation, idea sharing, and achievement celebration even from a distance.
