In a crisis, it can be hard for leaders such as yourself to take a moment to step back and recognize when you’ve taken your eyes off the ball and unintentionally hurt yourself and your team. 

The past two years have seen leaders and managers worldwide adopt a new way of leading…remotely.

With the many benefits that come with remote leadership, there are also a number of negative habits that leaders often fall prey to.

In our webinar “Leading and managing remotely” we addressed 5 main questions with a panel of seasoned coaches and global leaders. Our aim was to identify negative behaviors that we noticed and gain actionable tips on how to break those habits. 

1. How did the past 2 years and remote work transform the way you manage your teams / conduct your coaching sessions with leaders?

– There were two things happening early in the pandemic. Most leaders and managers felt like they’d lost control and lost connection.

– Leadership is tough, but it becomes even tougher when you cannot interact and communicate in person. Now, you have to schedule leadership. This is a significant change that takes a lot of time and effort to get used to. 

– Remote leadership in the last two years forced us to innovate and re-iterate multiple times throughout the last few years to figure out the best way to operate.

– In terms of productivity, we suddenly realized that we can be far more productive in scheduling 10 to 15 Zoom calls in a day, as opposed to having two or three in-person meetings over coffee. 

– There is also a shift in priorities due to remote leadership. Typically leaders are focused on figuring out where the company is heading. What becomes more challenging and hence, the top priority of most leaders is how to improve engagement and build relationships virtually.

– We realize that leaders who were able to quickly transition are the ones who are able to focus on purpose. Addressing questions such as “Why do we do what we do as an organization?” Most importantly, they are able to connect the dots with their employees, encouraging them to find their purpose as well. 

– According to a Harvard Business Review (HBR) article, 9 out of 10 people said they will take a 25% pay cut if they found a job that offers them purpose. Employees are now prioritizing purpose over benefits.

– Leaders need to have the ability to take stock and move into action and figure out what are they going to do differently.

2. Based on research, here are our top 5 of the most common mistakes made by remote leaders. 

– Keeping your team in the dark during uncertain times and lacking empathy

– Trying to identically take in-person work style into remote work

– Thinking that remote work reduces performance and applying pressure

– Not respecting your team’s boundaries

– Forgetting to manage yourself

Have you witnessed any of these habits since moving to remote work and meetings? What kind of impact does it have on your team?

– Some leaders get presumptuous and assume that everyone is doing okay. In reality, that might not be the case. Leaders and managers need to allocate the time to do one-on-one conversations and actually check in with their team members to ensure their well-being. 

– Due to trust issues and loss of control, some leaders micromanage because they are used to trusting people they interact with physically, not virtually and it is difficult to break that habit. 

– Leaders tend to go into protection mode and keep information to themselves because they don’t want to distract the employees from their tasks. Doing this creates an imbalance and a trust gap. 

– Employees are faced with high pressure and high demands as their leaders have a lot on their plates. This makes employees get overwhelmed and burnt out easily. 

3. Why does trying to eliminate your inappropriate behaviors matter? 

– We can’t control our feelings. What we must control is our behavior. So much of what we do on the micro-level as a coach is getting people to become very cognizant of their own behavior and its impact on others.

– Humans are creatures of habit. In a virtual world, all of these negative behaviors can be multiplied and exacerbated. However, it is vital to not let remote leadership or management be an excuse for not having appropriate behavior.

4. What are some of the best feedforward advice as a coach that you have heard or you have seen one of your clients receive?    

– Sunil Deshmukh: “An employee once came up to me to discuss about his leader. His leader simultaneously attends two or three meetings at once. One on his laptop, one on his desktop, one on his iPad. We were all confused to whom he is directing and to whom he is talking to. He himself gets confused at the end of the meeting and he asked me as a coach, can you please tell my boss to stop doing this thing? And I was like, wow, this is the best feedforward example I have seen in my life.”

– Brenda Bence: “Each and every one of us is different. As servant leaders, we need to treat other people the way they like to be treated. If you don’t know what they need, just simply ask. So take the time to understand the people you work with, whether it’s your employees, your partners, your customers, understand them, and then treat them the way they like to be treated.”

– Emily Chipman: “If you think about what the real changes are, you have to go to the core. Don’t pick the symptoms.”

– Yamini Adya Goyal: “In the last two years we’ve had that time to step back and see the reality of things and not just get bogged down with everything that is urgent, but focus on the things that are important.”

5. What tips can you give to reinforce positive remote behaviors and reduce or eliminate the negative ones?

– One of the best ways to break these negative behaviors is by creating an action plan, involving your stakeholders, and following the process of Stakeholder Centered Coaching®.

– Who do you interact with and who are you dependent on? How do they see you now? How do you want them to see you? Build a plan, share it with them, and then measure how people see you six months later. Have you done what you said you were going to do? Over time, this will not only help improve your behavior but also will help build trust. 

– When you talk to employees, focus more on checking-in versus micromanaging. When you assign the task, don’t focus on the agreed-upon process. Give them all the autonomy. They can do whatever, whenever, however they want to do, as long as the results are delivered.

– People are talking about the great resignation wave. In reality, it’s driven by the great disconnection. We’re humans. We need that sentient connection to other people. And the micro meetings we used to have in the hallways and the connections, we’re not getting that anymore. So if you really want to drive performance, get the best out of your people, whether they’re remote or locally, give them specific, good, positive feedback on what they’re doing well, find out if they’re doing well and talk about it regularly. Your efficiency, your effectiveness, and your productivity are going to skyrocket. 

– “Whatever you do not celebrate gets unrewarded. And whatever is unrewarded exits your life”. Providing recognition and reward are important, but we need to do it in a way that people want to be appreciated and valued.

– Make your team a part of the solution. Let them come up with the solution rather than trying to put all the pressure on the leader, on yourself.