Teleworking managers: can you go the distance?
Telecommuting is an opportunity to rethink our organizational model, taking advantage of the lessons we've learned from a 2020 marked by hardship. In fact, we're seeing a trend towards the perpetuation of a hybrid model, shared between on-site and remote working.
Indeed, we might have thought that this forced experiment would have done away with the many fears associated with distance: lower productivity, isolated employees, loss of visibility for managers... But no, they still remain.
As a multi-team manager, I realized just how much my missions had changed, and just how much telecommuting affected my day-to-day management. Here's how.
No longer suffering, but choosing to telework
I was very enthusiastic about total telecommuting, seeing it as a way of optimizing my time in many respects: reduced commuting time, more qualitative work time (concentration, efficiency) and a little more time for my family. On a corporate level, I also saw it as a way of saving money on rent, as happened at the Sapiens Institute.
However, as Montesquieu pointed out in his Persian Letters, man is a sociable animal. So, a year after the first confinement, I'm beginning to review my copy and see the limits of complete telecommuting. All the more so as curfew measures and, more recently, weekend (re)lockdowns are increasing the psychological risks of telecommuting:
- employee isolation,
- difficulty separating personal and professional life,
- team demotivation,
- problematic management of onboarding and offboarding, etc.
Having experienced forced telecommuting, my preference is for a hybrid mode of organization that allows you to :
- Choose its form: unlike the March 2020 model, we decided on the rules, taking into account the constraints of our employees and giving them the choice as often as possible: who gets priority for on-site work, team rotation.
- Choose your organization : we concentrated team meetings on days when the team is on site.
- Choose your socialization rhythm: the flex office offers the advantage of being able to alternate between informal moments with colleagues and "focus" moments to better concentrate on core tasks.
Operational support for managers remains essential
My teams often compare me to an Excel spreadsheet. This is not entirely untrue, as it comes from my training and previous experience.
This kind of organization is not only essential in a fragmented context, but probably even more so at Lucca, where the workforce is growing steadily. In fact, this growth has enabled many employees to become managers, a development that needs to be supervised (even more so in this context). That's why I also try to support young managers as they take up their posts. My role is to "mentor" them so that they feel supported, by giving them a few pointers.
Multi-team managers work with the HR department to set up training programs and share best managerial practices.
- Training/co-development: train them on specific topics so that they are not helpless when it comes to decision-making, conflict resolution... Collaborative coaching programs such as those offered by UpTogether are a great success at Lucca.
- The weekly " one-to-ones " enable us to monitor operations and take the manager's pulse, helping him or her to prioritize issues...
- Aligning teams with short-term objectives, removing bottlenecks, resolving coordination issues, facilitating access to information and decision-making.
- In-depth preparation of annual performance reviews, the aim of which is to highlight the fundamental issues behind each person's areas for improvement. This enables us to find the "triggers" or provide the missing methodological building blocks.
Remote management also means managing informality
On a collective scale
When employees no longer have the opportunity to rub shoulders with one another, the social bond weakens. While in the office, it's usually the employees who create the social bond, at a distance, the responsibility falls to the manager. He or she becomes the guarantor of employee well-being.
The manager therefore schedules informal events such as video-cafés, lunches, aperitifs, online team-buildings, etc., for which he or she is the facilitator; he or she breathes the essential energy into these moments.
At Lucca, we use Slack and Zoom to organize new rituals. During the first confinement, informal channels emerged: " Luccaérobic" to exercise together, Luccappétit to share cooking recipes.
On an individual scale
The screen encourages misunderstandings and interpretations - in short, it complicates relationships. This is the case when a difficult message needs to be said. Form is just as important as content, and this is all the more true at a distance. The DESC method can help you resolve conflicts.
How do you convey the friendly, encouraging nature of a pat on the back over video? It's difficult, but not impossible. Do it in writing, and don't hesitate to show all the humanism you usually put into non-verbal communication: don't be stingy with your acknowledgements.
In concrete terms, software publisher Critizr has launched the #kuddos initiative, which consists in sending postcards on which employees can write their gratitude for a colleague. This can be applied from manager to employee.
What helps me to better telemanage
1- Streamlining meetings : in addition to reducing their duration, I prepare them and involve participants in their preparation (sharing the agenda, defining a timekeeper, the person responsible for taking minutes, etc.). Nobody likes an acute meeting, especially not at a distance.
2- Get more involved in monitoring objectives : these are co-constructed with my team members. I organize weekly reviews and use interview and performance management tools to take stock (shift, modify, reframe objectives according to their feasibility).
3- I make no distinction between my in-office and remote teams: With 73% of French people "declaring that the best model integrates both on-site work and telecommuting", there will be no return to "business as usual". A committed employee is not necessarily on-site.
4- Focus on soft skills: emotional intelligence is the best ally for preventing distressing situations experienced by remote employees. I keep this in mind when recruiting a new manager.
5- Trust: this means letting managers make mistakes, helping them to understand them and not blaming them for trying. This is the difference between coaching and micro-management.
6- Sharing best practices: I take every opportunity to share tips and anecdotes that may be useful to others. In the same way, I try to over-communicate the actions of others so that they are aware of them. At the same time, I encourage the members of my teams to talk to each other, to share their blockages or good advice. Over and above the ideas that can come out of it, it's a good way to feel less isolated in your job.
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Article translated from French