Tuesday Consulting recently hosted a client dinner facilitated by Hans Kuipers of BCG Consulting. The theme of the evening was “How we lead” – a question on the minds of many leaders at organisations both locally and globally.
Hans raised some thought-provoking questions, pointing out that many of the work practices we cling so tightly to, are more than 200 years old, and designed for a working world that was very different from the world we find ourselves in today.
Certainly, the message from the candidates we see has been very clear: people do not want to return to the ways of working that preceded the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, the more rigid organisations are in terms of requiring people to be physically in the office, the less attractive they are as prospective employers.
People are leaving organisations that refuse to provide flexibility and opting for those that allow employees to manage their own work/life schedule.
The evening’s conversation focused on three key considerations in designing flexible, future-fit workplaces. First, we need to trust our people and have a firm belief in their reliability, honesty and competence. That’s authentic trust. It’s about output, and a lot fewer rules about when and how people work. People want to be autonomous, accountable and have agency.
Second, we need to find ways to foster connection with our workforce – and that won’t be achieved through an annual engagement survey, but through high-touch engagement and research that allows people to co-develop solutions that work for them and for the company, and which can be tested, evaluated and fine-tuned.
Ironically, many employees are reporting that they felt more connected during the most difficult parts of the Covid-19 crisis and lockdown than they do now – this is a vital issue to address to ensure organisations are fostering a sense of belonging.
Finally, Hans said, we need to redesign ways of working and reshape them to better fit people’s lives and focus on productivity, which is not to be found in long commutes, scheduling unnecessary meetings, and tick-box administration.
In reflecting on the evening, and Hans’s observations, it is clear that designing a new workplace is as much about a new way of leadership as it is about figuring out the nuts and bolts of who works from where and when, and how to make all of that work for the good of the business and its people.
The world has changed dramatically – and when it all shut down overnight, many organisations and their employees discovered that they could work differently, and did so very quickly and successfully. So why are so many organisations insisting now that employees return to the office fulltime? After two years of self-managing their workloads, why do employees suddenly require a manager peering over their cubicle to check that they are working?
We need to reimagine how we lead successfully to be relevant and forward looking – how we attract, retain and lead great teams in a virtual world.
This will require that leaders do the work to reflect and introspect what their roles will be when team members are potentially working remotely on at least some – if not all – days of the week, or where some might choose to work asynchronously. How will they foster trust, connection and productivity from afar?
Leaders will need to look at themselves and be honest about whether they are able to generate this kind of authentic trust in those they are leading. How can they develop that trust in themselves? Who are they and what is their purpose as a leader beyond checking up on their teams? As one guest highlighted, “It’s really about moving from a ‘check-up’ approach, to a ‘check-in’ approach.”
Fundamental to both trust and connection will be great communication skills. Leaders will need to understand their team members’ needs and circumstances, communicate clearly what outcomes are expected from them – and figure out what methods of communication work best for different people.
Leaders will also need to move into a more supportive, collaborative role and ensure each team member has a voice, and intentionally encourage them to voice their needs and co-create solutions to problems.
It will require that leaders take the time, now, as we shift our ways of working again, to pause, reconsider their boundaries and core beliefs, and reimagine a workplace of the future that works for their teams, themselves, and for the organisation as a whole.
