Leading Others In A Post-Pandemic World

 Great leaders understand that work and relationships in the post-pandemic world will be different. The "at-home" or remote work environment is now a permanent option and there are now new work habits and behaviors that have changed the boundaries of the leader-employee relationship. What do leaders need to know about how they lead others in the post-pandemic work place?

The post-pandemic business activity will create a "new normal" for your work place. Because many work teams will be partially remote and partially in-house, leaders will need to be more focused on how their daily interactions and leadership influence will be different. Impromptu meetings, hallway conversations, and coffee break brainstorming will occur less often, and so leading employees and influencing peers will require some alternative approaches. At the core of all effective leadership relationships, leaders need to know how to influence and reward behaviors like collaboration, cooperation, creativity as well as competency. While the 4 "C's" are not really new to those who understand how to build high performing teams, the approach is new when it comes to how leaders manage their teams in the post-pandemic, "new normal" work place.

During the pandemic, the office environment has become an on-line office. "At-home" and remote work has become standard operating procedure. Employees working from home have grown accustom to new types of office protocol and daily work behavior. For example, many employees now have self-managed work schedules, zoom call meetings may be at the kitchen table, and they may be wearing business attire on top but dressed in pajamas below the waist. The new office environment and habits have introduced more flexibility, more self-management and less in-person interactions, and this has changed what was considered the normal for in-office pre-pandemic work environment. 

While some employees long to return to the "good old days" and can't wait to get back to the office, others may never want to go back to long commutes, cramped cubicles and hovering managers.

In this "new", more hybrid, office environment, how will leaders lead their teams so ensure collaboration on the right work needed to achieve the business objectives? How do you get commitment and cooperation from team members who have not been in the office for over a year? How do you keep employees engage with other team members so that the important tasks get done? How do you retain talented employees who don't want ever come to the office again?

In my next few blogs, I will propose ways in which leaders can adjust their approach to leading and influencing employees in the post-pandemic work place. My goal is to help leaders understand how to build effective hybrid teams (partially remote and partially in-office) that are productive and high performing. 

Some of the topics that we will explore in future blogs will be;

• Understanding what the new work environment means to remote and in-office employees
• Recognizing and rewarding the 4 -C's - collaboration, cooperation, creativity and competency
• Approaches for leading a hybrid work team
• How leaders can adjusts their leadership to help shape a post-pandemic company culture.

If you would like some individual consultation on these topics, or to contribute to the discussion, you can connect with me at www.Leaderimage.com or on my LinkedIn page.