Coach The Difference

As the debate about the return to the office vs. a hybrid working approach vs. remote working continues what can you do to prepare yourself as a leader?

Having exploratory conversations with your team will help you to understand their productivity drivers. Discuss which elements of their work require a more collaborative approach. Then you can intentionally design working practices with thought given to outcomes, place, time, energy, wellbeing and opportunities to learn and develop.

The demand for a hybrid working approach

The CIPD’s Embedding new ways of working post-pandemic report shows that some 40% of employers said that they expect more than half their workforce to work regularly from home after the pandemic has ended. Data from the Office of National Statistics, prior to Covid showed only 5% of the workforce worked mainly from home.

A recent Boston Consulting Group (BCG) study of 2,000 UK employees demonstrated employee demand for a hybrid working model. 67% of those working remotely since COVID-19 want to be able to split their time between the physical workplace and home working in the future.

How can leaders balance employee needs and aspirations around how they want to work with business objectives?

The focus needs to be on how to support employee aspirations and needs, whilst delivering the required outcomes. To do this effectively leaders need to understand their staff, what motivates them and how they deliver the outcomes expected of them. This will help to intentionally design successful hybrid working models.

For the majority of leaders, this will be a new way of managing staff. Whilst you could argue that leaders have been managing staff remotely for the past year, the hybrid approach raises different challenges.

There are many instances where remote working hasn’t been successful. Leaders have struggled to engage their teams, or manage performance effectively. Staff have given leaders some lee-way, on the basis that it was new for everyone and people were just surviving. However, the new normal needs a planned approach if it’s going to be successful.

Questions to reflect on as a leader

Outcomes

By focusing on the outcomes that your team need to deliver it switches your attention from traditional ways of working to a focus on productivity. Engage with staff to understand how tasks are best completed. This can inform decisions around place and time, to support your hybrid working model.

• What outcomes does your team need to deliver?
• How are those outcomes achieved?

Time, place and energy

Remote working has enabled staff to gain flexibility around their working patterns. In many cases employees have benefitted from the reduction in commuting and time with their family. Staff have been able to work at times that match their individual energy levels.

• In your hybrid model are staff going to work chronologically, based on a specific schedule?
• How can you be flexible to individual’s energy levels?
• What extent will colleagues’ schedules coincide to encourage collaboration?
• How much autonomy will be given about working hours?

Wellbeing

Your goal is productivity. People are more productive when they have energy and good levels of wellbeing. Working habits can become unhealthy when employees are exhausted or stressed. The pandemic drew attention to the need for wellbeing and it’s important that it’s not lost. There is a risk that boundaries get blurred when employees are working from home. For instance, they may start earlier, work through lunch breaks and struggle to step away from their work in the evening.

Create a transition period before and after work. For example, replace your daily commute with a walk around the block. This will provide your mind with a mental transition, which makes it easier to switch between roles. (Research by Kristen Shockley and Malissa Clark, University of Georgia)

• How can you encourage and support good staff wellbeing?
• What role do you play?
• What might hinder your team?

Performance management

The challenges of home schooling demonstrated just how important it is to work in an environment without distractions, where you’re not interrupted or multi-tasking.

However, when you can’t see your staff it can lead to a feeling of a lack of control over their workload and performance. This can result in micromanagement and resentment.

• How can you support staff to create an environment where they can focus?
• What can you do to manage your own assumptions about productivity?
• How can you create a focus on outcomes in performance management?

Collaboration, connection and teamwork

There are certain tasks which require teamwork, either in coordinating tasks or in sharing ideas to innovate. Inefficiencies and divides are created when teams aren’t aligned. To work effectively as part of a team colleagues need to develop trusting relationships.

People have a need for social connection so that they don’t feel isolated, so you need to think about how you can build opportunities to connect into your hybrid working model. In a CIPD survey in Summer 2020 almost half of all of the people surveyed reported that social connections at work had worsened. 

In 1992 BT adopted large scale work from home trails, resulting in a positive impact on call centre energy, well-being, and productivity. Since then, BT has steadily introduced new technologies to support its remote workforce. Culture and management style is essential.

“We have used our communication platforms to build lots of virtual team check-ins so people don’t feel isolated, and we engineer virtual encounters like ‘virtual coffee’ so people have a chance to chat with people they don’t know so well.” 

BT home workers have been able to succeed in this model. “We’ve really learned that focusing on outcomes rather than being present in the office is crucial,” said Millard. That has meant developing processes for virtual performance management that include regular team check-ins, one-on-one conversations, and monthly reports to management. (Dr Nicola J. Millard, Principal Innovation Partner at BT)

• How can you enable staff to work collaboratively?
• How can you support staff in building trust and rapport?

Inclusivity, learning and visibility

There’s a risk that hybrid working creates a ‘them and us’ feeling, between employees in the office and those at home. The office environment creates opportunities for emerging talent to be noticed. Serendipitous moments to get involved in projects, join meetings or job shadow may be missed.

• How will you ensure that your approach is inclusive?
• Can you create opportunities for staff to learn from each other?
• How will you encourage staff to gain credibility, visibility and influence?

In summary, there’s going lots of learning along the way. Be willing to experiment as a leader, listen to your staff. Use this as an opportunity to develop a new, more flexible way of working.

Do you want some help in exploring the questions above, or the leadership behaviours required? Please get in touch. I’d love to help.

Influencing skills are a key leadership behaviour to develop. There are many instances where you need to demonstrate influencing and negotiation skills within the workplace. They’re not just skills for people who lead a team. Developing your influencing skills is a great way to increase your credibility in your workplace.

Influencing skills examples

Here are a few influencing skills examples, but there are many more!

• Motivating a team
• Running a project
• Persuading others to help you
• Gaining resources
• Negotiating a pay increase or promotion
• Getting people to accept change
• Changing someone’s behaviour
• Resolving disputes
• Gaining commitment for an idea

People often associate influence with power. The Collins English Dictionary definition even mentions power. However you don’t need to have authority over others to be able to influence them. In fact telling people what to do from a position of power can often lead to resentment, with people feeling coerced.

If you influence someone, you use your power to make them agree with you or do what you want.

Collins english dictionary

You may have experienced times where you’ve been manipulated into doing something. You’re unlikely to trust the person who takes this approach, or be so willing to support their requests in the future.

Building rapport and trust is key to influencing others. How often have you had what you think is a great idea, then excitedly shared it with someone else, only to be disappointed by their lack of enthusiasm?

When they’ve raised concerns or objections how have you responded? Often we react defensively, yet we’ve shared the idea based on the benefits it will bring us, not taking their perspective into account. Does the conversation switch from one where you wanted to gain their buy-in to you trying to assert why your idea is right?

Power is  capacity to get others to act based on  positional authority that is exercised over others; often leading to resentment 

Influence is the ability to modify how a person develops, behaves, or thinks based on relationships and persuasion; often leading to respect

McIntosh & Luecke (2011)

How do you improve your influencing skills?

The good news is that you can develop your influencing skills.

Identify who you need to influence

Draw a mindmap of the people that you need to influence. Who are your key stakeholders, internally and externally?

How well are you influencing them?

Give yourself a score out of 10 for how well you’re influencing each person on your mindmap.

For those that you’re influencing well, what did you do to achieve that? How have you engaged them? How do they respond to you? Are there opportunities to use the rapport you’ve built with them to help you build other connections?

Where do you need to focus your energy?

Where you’re not influencing well how can you focus your energy on building your influence? It’s natural to play it safe and focus our time on influencing those we already have good rapport with. Have you asked them what their goals, motivations and challenges are? Do you have any shared objectives? How can you help them? Have you asked for their help and advice?

Demonstrate active listening

By questioning and listening to understand, we can learn more about the perspective of others -this will help us when we try to influence them. When we know what their goals, motivation and challenges are we can plan how to pitch an idea.

Ask for advice and ideas

Sometimes when you’re in a leadership position you can feel that asking others for advice may make them question your ability. If you don’t engage others in sharing their strengths and skills how does that hinder you and others? Think about when people turn to you for advice or ideas how does it make you feel?

Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.

BrenE Brown

Build your self awareness

One way of building your self awareness is to reflect on the influencing style you tend to use. There is an influencing model called the ‘Push and pull model.’ The model is helpful for understanding how much we ‘push’ – by telling people what’s happening for us, versus how much we ‘pull’ – asking people what is happening for them.

Both styles are useful in different scenarios.

• Push – “Here are my thoughts on how we can do X…”
• Pull – “What do you think is the best approach?”

As a general rule it’s best to ‘pull’ more than ‘push.’ Ask questions to build engagement.

Reflect on the approach that you tend to take. If you think of push at one end of a scale and pull at the other where on the scale do you rate yourself?

Think about how each style may make the people on the receiving end feel. As I said they’re both useful, so think about instances where one style is more suitable than the other. If you tend to use a push approach, how can you take a pull approach?

Notice the impact of your approach on others

Look for signs of whether your approach is being positively received. Watch the body language of those you’re trying to influence. Are they becoming defensive? Does their body language tell a different story to their words? What’s your body language towards them?

Need some help?

There are many elements to influencing, but influencing skills can be developed. If you would like some help in building your influencing skills, including strengthening your self awareness and confidence please get in touch.