Do you have the 3 key leadership skills that will guarantee your success?
The Covid-19 crisis has already caused most businesses and organisations to significantly restructure around new working models to ensure some semblance of business continuity.
These changes have led to a rise in hybrid teams which are made up of some employees working exclusively in the office or at home or a mixture of both office and home working, and this combination can change almost daily!
In light of the latest government guidance telling us that we should ‘work from home if we can’, it looks like this constant flip-flopping, in response to the R number, will be a key feature of our working lives for some time to come, with employees having to constantly change their working patterns to respond to their ever-changing circumstances.
Irrespective of these relentlessly chaotic conditions, as a leader you must take steps to prepare yourself to successfully lead your team through the pandemic because leading your hybrid teams will present new and more complex management challenges for which you require brand new skills.
So what are these challenges and what skills do you need to successfully lead your new hybrid team through COVID and beyond?
Motivating and engaging team members who have very different needs
Now that you’re leading hybrid teams you may need to work a little harder to motivate and engage your people.
Homeworking, for example, isn’t for everyone; some of your team members will adapt easily and enjoy being more productive without the daily commute and office distractions, while others might find it difficult to stay focused without the structure and companionship of office life.
On the other hand, while some of your office workers may love being back in the office, others may feel anxious about their safety and envious of their colleagues working from home, away from the spotlight.
When you accept that your team members are having very different work experiences, you’ll soon realise that a one-size fits all approach to management just isn’t going to work.
It’s time to get bespoke.
SKILL NO. 1:
ACTIVELISTENING
The only way you can really know how to motivate and engage your team members is to take the time to actively listen to each of them so that you can develop a better understanding of their key drivers. Armed with this knowledge you can tailor your approach accordingly.
Empowering and enabling team members to make decisions wherever they are
You may need to make some adjustments to your leadership style in order to get the best out of your hybrid team.
This might mean learning how to empower your team members so that whenever and wherever they are at work, they are free to do their jobs unencumbered.
To empower your team, you need to give your team members the power and authority to make decisions.
As a leader however you still have a very important role to play. Rather than spending all of your time directly managing, you can facilitate your teams’ success by providing them with the resources and support they need to accomplish their goals whether they are in the office or at home and get valuable time back to focus on the more strategic aspects of your own role.
SKILL NO. 2:
ASKINGPOWERFUL
QUESTIONS
Adopting more of a coaching style of leadership which includes asking powerful questions, rather than telling your team members what to do, will help you to achieve much higher levels of empowerment in your team which will, in turn, lead to increased levels of accountability.
Effectively communicating and managing the performance of widely dispersed team members
Successfully leading hybrid teams relies on high levels of open communication.
Thankfully, we already have the technology we need to instantly connect people wherever they are, however simply having access to the technology isn’t sufficient to ensure effective communication.
When team members are out of sight, they can sometimes be forgotten which can increase feelings of isolation. They may also lose confidence and find it difficult to contribute, especially if they haven’t been kept up to speed with fast-paced changes.
So it’s important to communicate with remote team members just as frequently as you do with the people you physically work alongside to ensure that they feel part of the team and can continue to perform at a high level.
SKILL NO. 3:
GIVINGEFFECTIVE
FEEDBACK
Effective communication and continuous performance development of a widely dispersed team relies on openness and candour.
Having regular touchpoints and more meaningful one-to-ones where you give effective developmental and appreciative feedback, either virtually or in-person, will help you to keep your remote team members firmly in the loop and contributing at their highest level.
So, how highly do you rate yourself in these three areas?
If you scored above 8 on all three of these areas then we applaud you and are delighted that your teams are in great hands.
If you scored 1-7 then there is room for improvement. If you’d like to learn how to quickly and easily improve your score then read on…
Our 100% virtual award-winning STAR® Manager programme can help you develop the 3 critical leadership skills you need to lead your hybrid team through these difficult times.
The STAR® Manager programme focuses on helping you to acquire Operational Coaching® skills which enhance your ability to actively listen, ask powerful questions and give effective feedback in a way that elicits high levels of motivation, engagement, empowerment, accountability, communication and performance.
Operational Coaching® is not just a nice-to-have soft skill; by adopting an Operational Coaching® approach you can transform the way you work with your team and the results that they can achieve.
Many of our clients have utilised STAR® to help them succeed through these challenging times and despite the significant upheaval, they’ve reported impressive results including 63% increases in problem-solving, 47% increases in team engagement and 60% improvements in personal productivity – all within a few short months of undertaking the programme.
Critically, clients who have been doing the STAR® Manager programme since the restrictions were put in place back in March have been able to translate improvements just like these into real commercial results and have collectively generated a 33 X ROI while their teams were most severely impacted by the effects of the pandemic.
In fact, the STAR® Manager programme isn’t disrupted by the pandemic at all as it’s been designed to run on rails whatever the circumstances, meaning you can start developing these skills with complete confidence.
You don’t have to take any time out of the business, you can start applying what you learn from day one, and you can even gain a prestigious Level 3, 4 or 5 management qualification without any extra work which will give you a much-needed boost during these challenging times.
Could developing these skills help you and your team adjust more quickly to the ever-changing circumstances COVID has thrown at you?
Take a tour of the STAR® Manager programme to discover how you can start building these skills so that you can successfully lead your new hybrid team through COVID and beyond.
TAKE A TOUR OF STAR® MANAGER NOW >>> ARRANGE ANINFORMAL CHAT >>>
