Teleworking managers: can you go the distance?
Teleworking is an opportunity to rethink our organisational model, making the most of the lessons learned from a year marked by hardship, 2020. In fact, we are seeing a trend towards the perpetuation of a hybrid model, split between on-site and remote working.
We might have thought that this forced experiment would have done away with the many fears associated with distance: reduced productivity, isolated employees, loss of visibility for managers... But no, they still exist.
As a multi-team manager, I've realised just how much my tasks have changed, and just how much teleworking has affected my day-to-day management. Here's how.
No longer suffering, but choosing to telework
I was very enthusiastic about total teleworking, seeing it as a way of optimising my time in many ways: reduced commuting time, more qualitative working time (concentration, efficiency) and a bit more time for my family. At company level, I also saw it as a way of saving money on rent, as happened at the Institut Sapiens.
However, as Montesquieu pointed out in his Persian Letters, man is a sociable animal. So, a year after the first confinement, I'm starting to review my copy and see the limits of complete teleworking. Especially as curfews and, more recently, weekend (re)lockdowns are increasing the psychological risks of teleworking:
- isolation of employees
- difficulty in separating personal and professional life,
- demotivation of teams,
- problematic management of onboarding and offboarding, etc.
Having experienced forced teleworking, my preference is for a hybrid form of organisation that allows you to :
- Choose its form: unlike the March 2020 system, we decided on the rules, taking into account the constraints of our employees and giving them as much choice as possible: who gets priority for on-site work, team rotation.
- Choosing how to organise things : we concentrated team meetings on days when the team was on site.
- Choose the pace at which you socialise: the flex office offers the advantage of being able to alternate between informal moments with colleagues and "focus" moments to better concentrate on the core tasks.
It's still necessary to support managers in operational matters
My teams often compare me to an Excel spreadsheet. That's not entirely untrue; it comes from my training and previous experience.
This kind of organisation is not only essential in a fragmented environment, but probably even more so at Lucca, where the workforce is growing steadily. This growth has also 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.
The multi-team managers work with the HR department to set up training programmes and share good managerial practice.
- Training/co-development: train them on specific topics so that they are not at a loss when it comes to decision-making, conflict resolution, etc. Collaborative coaching programmes such as those offered by UpTogether have been a great success at Lucca.
- The weekly " one-to-ones " enable us both to monitor operations and to take the manager's pulse, helping him or her to prioritise issues...
- Aligning teams with short-term objectives, removing bottlenecks, resolving coordination issues, facilitating access to information and making decisions.
- In-depth preparation for annual performance reviews, the aim of which is to highlight the fundamental issues behind each person's areas for improvement. This helps to find the "triggers" or to provide the missing methodological building blocks.
Remote management also means managing the informal
On a collective scale
When employees no longer have the opportunity to get to know each other, social ties are weakened. While in the office, it is generally the employees who create the social link, at a distance, the responsibility falls to the manager. They become the guarantors of their employees' well-being.
The manager therefore schedules informal events such as video-cafés, lunches, aperitifs, online team-building sessions, etc., which he or she facilitates; he or she breathes the essential energy into these events.
At Lucca, we use Slack and Zoom to organise new rituals. During the first period of confinement, informal channels appeared: " Luccaérobic" to exercise together, Luccappétit to share cooking recipes.
On an individual level
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 and 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 that you usually put into non-verbal communication: don't be stingy with your acknowledgements.
Software publisher Critizr has come up with the #kuddos initiative, which involves sending postcards on which employees can write their appreciation of a colleague. This can be applied from manager to employee.
What helps me to telemanage better
1- Streamlining meetings : as well as reducing their duration, I prepare them and involve the participants in the preparation (sharing the agenda, defining a timekeeper, the person responsible for taking minutes, etc.). Nobody likes acute meeting fatigue, especially not from a distance.
2- Get more involved in monitoring objectives : these are co-constructed with the members of my team. I organise weekly reviews and use interview and performance management tools to take stock (shift, modify, reframe objectives according to their feasibility).
3- Make no distinction between my teams in the office and those working remotely: 73% of French people "say that the best model integrates both on-site work and teleworking", there will be no return to "normal". 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 I recruit a new manager.
5- Trust: this means letting mistakes happen, helping managers to understand them and not blaming them for trying. This is the difference between coaching and micro-management.
6- Sharing good practice: I take every opportunity to share advice 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 and share their problems or good advice. Apart from the ideas that may come out of it, it's a good way of feeling less isolated in your job.
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Article translated from French