How to lead in the hybrid office environment - from kitchen table of Michael Legut, PhD

Leaders are starting to understand that work and work relationships in the post-pandemic world will be different. The "at-home" or remote work environment is now a viable option and new work habits and behaviors related to the hybrid office are changing many aspects of leader-employee relationship. 

A hybrid office brings leaders much closer to the employee’s life relationships. In my previous blog, I outlined a few scenarios that leaders need to understand to help develop their work teams as they return to the post-pandemic work place. Today I’ll explore things to consider when developing leaders for this “new normal” hybrid office environment.

So how do you develop leaders to effectively manage both in-office and remote workers? In the past, many leaders and leadership training programs focused on developing assertive communication, problem solving, business acumen and organizational savvy skills. While these are important leadership skills, leading in a hybrid office environment requires some more advanced leadership skills. As organizations are retooling for the post-pandemic office space, they must also retrain current leaders how to coach and develop future leaders in anticipation of the challenges in the hybrid office environment.

One of the current challenges facing many organizations is something known as “quit rates”. Recent business articles have reported on a surge in employees quitting their current jobs for greener pastures. While some of this is likely due to employees seeking higher wages and better remote opportunities, evidence suggests that most employees leave their jobs because of poor relationships with their managers.

So why do good employees quit?

From my experience, there are three things that have the most impact on the leader / employee relationship and why employees quit. I would categorize these as the following.

1) Inadequate contact and communication between the manager and employee – Communication problems often create more personal distance between the manager and employee. In a hybrid office, this distance can become more pronounced because the direct face time with remote employee is obviously less. When the employee’s personal connection and commitment to the manager is weaker, leaving for a slightly better salary and/or remote work option becomes more attractive.

2) Lack of the manager’s interest in the employee’s development and advancement – This situation is somewhat related to the first issue. If a manager doesn’t take time to help employees learn about opportunities within the company, and help them develop so they can achieve those opportunities, the employee may feel the leader doesn’t care about their future. In this situation, the employee will quit if they see jobs that offer growth and advancement, especially if the advancement includes remote work and educational opportunities.

3) The manager does little to encourage team work between employees – Employees want to feel that they belong. Being a part of a work team that works on projects together or where employees are encourage to learn from each other, goes a long way toward helping employees feel they belong. An employee working remotely may feel more disconnected from their team. The lack of co-worker collaboration or social connections with the team creates more personal distance and this contributes to a decrease commitment to the team. A remote employee is more likely to experience this distance from the team. If the manager doesn’t encourage team work and collaboration, the employee may feel that they don't belong and they will find it easier to leave the team and the company.

What are the advanced skills that future leaders will need?

As you can guess, strong leader and employee relationships play a big role in retaining employees. Leaders who lack relationship building skills are potentially increasing the “quit rate” in the company. For example, it can be very difficult for a leader, who may be leading from a command and control approach, to express some genuine caring, and empathic communication because it not their management style. While many consider these to be “soft” skills, those “soft” skills can be the hardest to learn and apply. Similarly, it can be hard to learn strategic team building skills when you are not connected to the team and don’t have a good understand of each team members skills and development needs. Building team relationships requires dedicated attention to what each team member needs and wants to learn so that they can elevate their contribution to the team. The leader must understand the team’s current capability and connect team members with activities that encourage learning, co-worker collaboration and leadership.

These are just a few skill areas that every leader and training manage will need to pursue to be successful with retaining talented employees and developing future leaders. 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.