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Seven Practices To Overcome The Challenges Of Remote Leadership

forbes Sep 24, 2024
Remote leaders face a paradoxical challenge: elevating trust in an environment where trust is trickier to establish.

Compassionate Leadership means using your head and heart to inspire and influence others so that they can inspire and influence others. This approach to leadership has been proven to increase productivity and engagement, but it requires focus. Being a compassionate leader working with a remote team can be even more challenging, but the rewards are worth it. 

My colleague and leadership researcher, Sarah Feely, recently surveyed academic research related to remote teams, which led her to this analysis: 

Remote Compassionate Leadership requires intentionality:

  • Remote leaders face a paradoxical challenge: elevating trust in an environment where trust is trickier to establish. On the one hand, they must demonstrate trust and promote team members' self-management; on the other, they must create deliberate practices and structures around accountability, communication, and collaboration. Both aspects are required to develop effective remote teams. 
  • Trust and communication are the greatest predictors of virtual team effectiveness, requiring deliberate practices and norms.
  • Our mastery of using digital tools to enable communication has outpaced our understanding of communicating effectively in a virtual environment. Technology can not replace compassion, but compassion can be expressed through technology if done authentically.  
  • Purpose has proven to be increasingly important in remote work, providing employees with a sense of direction and value to their jobs when they can’t be in person. Yet, a sense of purpose is eroding in virtual work. As such, leaders play a critical role in connecting employees to organizational and individual purpose and mission. 

Here are two highlights from the research survey: 

Mission/Purpose Disconnect. Remote employees are less connected to organizational purpose than ever before. Further, exclusively remote workers’ connection to the mission or purpose of their organization (28% of respondents) is much lower than that of entirely on-site (33%) and hybrid workers (35%). Gallup, 2023, Are Remote Workers and Their Organizations Drifting Apart?

Work/Life Guardrails. While employees have embraced virtual work post-COVID, global burnout rates have increased. Organizations and leaders that create intentional, unambiguous guardrails to protect work-life balance for employees experience create greater engagement in their remote workforces2.1. Gallup, 2023, Globally, Employees are More Engaged–And More Stressed. 2. University of Pennsylvania, 2022, The Relationship between Leader Behaviors and Employee Engagement in a Virtual Work Environment

I have been leading remote teams for over thirty years. First, I was a VP of Human Resources for a hotel company with my counterparts at all our locations. Now, as the leader of Compassionate Leaders Circle, my clients, strategic partners, and colleagues are located worldwide. As a Forbes contributor, I interviewed several thought leaders on the topic, including Elizabeth Moran, a former leader at ADP, and, more recently, two authors who are remote work experts.  

From this experience, the recent research found by Sarah, and working with leaders at compassionate organizations, we have developed seven practices you can start implementing today to improve your remote leadership:

  1. Practice clear and compassionate communication. Compassionate communication is a balance of kindness and checking for understanding. Online leaders need to practice being present to form a deeper connection with their colleagues. 
  2. Build trust through listening, authenticity, and allowing autonomy. You may have to try harder to listen online and ensure everyone has airtime. In addition, think about your unique strengths or “superpowers” as a leader and use them to your advantage. For example, if you have a great sense of humor, remember to tap into that. 
  3. Participate in and provide continuous learning and development related to:
  • Job function and accountability (the basics) 
  • Company culture and norms 
  • Technology, including creating the right virtual office environment (prep, lights, sound, camera angle, background, clothing, etc.) 
  • Teamwork
  • Innovation, including best remote/hybrid practices. Here is a current list of tools to use for remote teams.  

4.Facilitate inclusive decision-making. Leaders who develop commitments while involving team members are more likely to achieve them. According to a 2024 research-based blog at McKinsey, “Rather than exclusively cascading goals down the ladder, include employees in the process through frequent discussions about business objectives and purpose, then partner to develop measurable, motivating targets in which they have a direct say.” 

5.Model and encourage work/life balance while infusing fun into your online meetings. My team likes to check on people to support family and personal pursuits while accomplishing great work.

6.Be flexible while emphasizing excellence. Your team will appreciate your flexibility, which is why people enjoy a remote job. Everyone also wants to be part of an effective team, so use your experience and tools to keep the team on track. 

7.Meet your colleagues in person as much as possible. Depending on your location and budget, this may be once a month, and for others, it may be once a year. One way to facilitate this is to share a travel calendar so you will know when you can make this happen. 

Learn more about Compassionate Leadership here.

Originally published on Forbes.com by Laurel Donnellan

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