As We Return to Work, Have You Considered This?

During the last few months, the internet has been overwhelmingly filled with content helping people to adapt to working in lockdown/shelter in place.

So many webinars, so many lead magnets (give us your email and we’ll send you something to help you) and lots of people waxing lyrical as experts in this space. I ran a series of webinars about running better virtual meetings and provided a number of business leaders some mentoring and training on the same topic. I was simply sharing what I have been doing and experiencing for the last few years working remotely as opposed to cooking up something to offer.

And then it struck me. This period of people “getting used” to lockdown and working from home is almost over. People either learned to adapt or not. Whichever way, the river keeps flowing.

Now we are moving to the “new-normal” reality the internet has been talking about. This is an ethereal concept in many people’s minds and so I wanted to highlight some key considerations I’ve been thinking about and which I will address in future content. This transition is a critical moment for leadership development.

I wrote in an earlier blog about teams in business being like a white water rafting team navigating a river, and COVID being like the scariest rapids ever. After the rapids, you don’t end up where you were. You are further downstream. So what does that new landscape look like? It isn’t a matter of coming back to work, turning on the lights after 6-10 weeks and carrying on as before. I drop some of my thoughts below.

Whilst some people are coming back to their offices, others aren’t. This is creating a new dynamic of mixed state / blended teams, which carries a new host of challenges. How do you conduct a meeting when half the people are in the room and half aren’t? Inevitably those in the room are able to read the room and interact more readily than those not. This might mean that those not physically present struggle to get their viewpoints across or offer interjection at opportune moments. This requires strong communication and an inclusive organizational culture.

Those not in the room might also be starting to feel a bit of FOMO. They are missing out on the watercooler conversations. The stories being shared. The new “in-jokes”. Perhaps new cliques of inners and outers will form as people differentiate themselves. Leaders must practice emotional intelligence to navigate these feelings.

Some teams will have had casualties during the lockdown. Especially in businesses where redundancies have taken place or worse still in some countries, people aren’t able to come back. All of a sudden there are empty desks around and a grieving process will recur as the survivors react in their own ways.

Others might have really enjoyed their newfound autonomy and not being managed so closely. They feel like they have been allowed to fly freely and demonstrate that they can deliver wherever they work. This could cause issues on their return if old management styles are applied and they feel stifled. It may have also opened their eyes to a new way of working which they hadn’t previously considered (and one which I’ve enjoyed immensely for the last couple of years). This is where agile leadership and servant leadership shine.

Why should they work from an apartment in Auckland, or an office in Manukau when they could be in an Airbnb in Medellin? Perhaps more realistically, people might seriously be considering Auckland property prices and determining that they could do the work and still be in NZ but relocate outside of the expensive city, and to the Kaipara, or some other less expensive region. Same timezone, same work, new considerations for talent management.

Large companies like Facebook and Twitter have already agreed that there are considerations by going fully virtual and embraced their employee’s wishes. They have also enabled the creation of a global talent pool with variable pay rates depending on the cost of living in said cities – which hasn’t been as widely celebrated.

For those who headed back to the office, there will most likely be some readjustment required. A day to set up computers? Sure, but also just like there was an adjustment to working from home, there will be a need for leaders to wrap around their people and agree on new ways of working whether their teams are back, 1 or 5 days, or anything in between. Establishing clear leadership boundaries and setting boundaries is crucial for effective time management.

Some team members might not be able to come back to work. They could have childcare responsibilities or perhaps an immunocompromised family member meaning they need to avoid unnecessary exposure or risks. These people might end up feeling left out or worse, discriminated against as everyone else settles back in.

These situations may be exacerbated because leaders choose to tackle issues with the people in closest proximity. By creating small, fast teams with a view to solving problems. Sadly there will be occasions where the people in the room might not be the right people. Worse still, those not in the room may feel like they have been deliberately isolated from proceedings (intentionally or not). This highlights the need for robust team building and effective change management.

Navigating the return to work requires diverse leadership styles and a commitment to continuous leadership development. Whether you are utilizing coaching services, mentoring platforms, or structured leadership training programs, the goal is to foster resilience. Comprehensive leadership training courses can equip you with the tools needed to build a cohesive, adaptable team. Ultimately, true executive education is about understanding that the landscape has permanently shifted, and your approach to management and coaching must evolve accordingly.