Picture this: Your team has scattered across various locations, embracing the freedom of flexible, remote working. As a manager in a traditional work environment, you find yourself in unfamiliar territory, grappling with a sense of loss of control. “I’m going to need you back in the office,” becomes your knee-jerk response when expectations fall short. The lure of the ‘good old days’ with your team within arm’s reach may seem irresistibly tempting.
Yet, amid the pandemonium, you must remember – the flexible working arrangement isn’t the villain here. It’s time to put away the sledgehammer and bring out the scalpel.
Hybrid working is a dance that takes two. It calls for effective communication, clarity of expectations, and a solid structure. Not just from your employees, but from you too. You can’t demand a tightrope walk from your team without first ensuring the rope is well-set.
Regular team meetings form the backbone of a successful remote working model. However, simply hosting these isn’t enough. To derive actual value, these must be structured, concise, and efficient. Recognised meeting frameworks, can keep your discussions on track, ensuring all voices are heard, and decisions are made efficiently. This is a personal favourite of mine for deciding on an efficient meeting framework: https://blog.pigeonholelive.com/how-to-make-meetings-more-effective
Daily stand-ups can also serve as an excellent way to keep the team connected, break down work, and address any potential roadblocks. These quick catch-ups can help instil a sense of routine, even in the, for lack of a better word, chaos of working from home.
Teams and Slack can be your boon in maintaining seamless communication. Yet, beware of the pitfall of scattered information. Ensure you establish clear rules for communication and delegation. Emails for task assignments, IMs for informal chats, video calls for discussions – delineating channels of communication can streamline your team’s interaction, warding off any confusion.
Be cautious of overstepping into your team’s personal spaces though. Remember, a message ping at 10 pm might seem like “getting something off your plate” real quick, but it goes straight onto their plate at 10pm and can severely disrupt your employee’s work-life balance. Make sure you tell your staff you don’t expect them to be working and responding to things at that time of night if you’re a late emailer and brief your staff on snoozing notifications out of work hours or using an app like Opal which can block apps based on certain rules, perfect for staff guilty of over-working.
Now, let’s address the elephant in the room. The allure of ‘oversight’ and ‘monitoring’ might make you rush to get your team back into the office. However, remember, as a manager, your role isn’t to be a helicopter, hovering over your team’s desks. Your time is far too valuable for that. Believe it or not, constantly looking over your team’s shoulder isn’t ‘management’, it’s counter-productive micromanagement. It erodes trust, stifles creativity, and can be an absolute motivation killer. Instead, focus on fostering a culture of responsibility and trust.
The future of work has changed, and it’s high time we accept that. It’s not about getting your team ‘back in the office.’ It’s about adapting your policies and procedures to this new paradigm. And if it means occasionally waving a virtual hello to your team member’s cat during a team call, so be it!
So, the next time you find yourself reaching for the phone to call your team back into the office, take a moment. Reflect on your policies, review your communication strategy, and remember, a flexible working arrangement doesn’t equate to flexible commitment. It’s about finding that sweet spot where productivity meets flexibility, where management meets trust, and where the office meets the home.
