Strategies for Leading Remote and In-Office Teams

I'm shedding the corporate bitch where today's leaders turn to sharpen their insights and navigate the complexities of the corporate world. I'm your host, Bernadette Boas, executive coach and speaker with Ball of Fire Coaching. And in this episode, we're diving into a challenge that's reshaping the landscape of leadership today, managing a hybrid workplace of both remote and in-office employees. As corporate executives, your ability to adapt and lead effectively in this new normal not only impacts your team's productivity, but also defines your company's culture and success. So we're going to discuss the challenges a leader has in managing a hybrid workplace and the strategies you can implement specifically for remote, in-office, and then both types of groups of employees. And lastly, the skills you need to master the art of leading a split workforce. Whether you're tuning in from your home office or the executive suite, today's episode is tailored to help you cultivate a thriving work environment where every employee, regardless of location, feels valued and understood. Stay with us. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Shading the Corporate Bitch, the podcast that transforms female corporate executives into powerhouse leaders by showing them how to shed the challenges and overwhelm along with any fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negativity holding them back. I'm your host, Bernadette Boas of Ball of Fire Coaching, bringing you powerhouse discussions each week to share tips, advice, and sometimes tough love so you create the riches in your work and life you deserve. Let's do this. I'm going to send us back in time. It was around '95, '96 when I went from a full in-office work environment to a very much of a hybrid one with the last corporate company that I worked in. Due to the fact that we traveled so much, we had the honor and the privilege to be able to work at home as much as we needed to and yet have access to an office. And then in 2008, when I started my own business, it was 100% in, in home. And yet I do work all around the world remotely and in office. So I understand the challenges for the individual, the individual employee, to getting accustomed to remote work. At the same time, also understanding what it takes to manage both remote and in-office employees. And then add to that what's happened since the pandemic, where the needs and the wants and the desires of employees now are much more geared to their work-life balance, to their health, to their stability and sanity. They are more demanding today than I was or my fellow employees were. You know, 5, 10, 20 years ago. And so the challenge that managers/leaders have right now is really figuring out how do I keep an open mind and become adaptable and flexible and agile to the needs of my individual employees as well as my team as a whole, to still be able to achieve the business goals that you have while meeting them where they are as individuals, recognizing how best they work. And that it— whether or not that's in a home office on their own, away from a team, or they need that energy and that connection in an office. It's important for any of us as leaders to kind of remove our, our biases, remove our opinions, our stubbornness, our attachment to the traditional ways of doing business and leading a team to really ensuring that we are optimizing and maximizing the potential of our employees based on what it is that they need and how it is that they need to be able to work day in, day out productively and as effectively as we need them to be. So I want to touch on a couple of, you know, results from a survey and a study that Buddy Punch, which is a time-tracking software company, that they did when it came to remote work. And then I'll definitely get into the challenges that managers have when it comes to leading a remote team. We'll talk about the strategies that you could be implementing right now to support remote and your in-office employees, as well as them as a group. And then the skills you need, because they are new skills and elevated skills than what you've been accustomed to in the past, especially if you come from a traditional in-office work environment. All right. So first off, I mentioned Buddy Punch, a time tracking software who happened to do a study. Specifically around remote work. And they found remarkably that 98% of employees would prefer remote work, even if it was just a few days a week. Now, the key in that is the few days a week. So it's not saying that it has to be 100%. It's saying that 98% of employees would be happy to just even do it part-time. And so again, if you know, you're kind of stuck and rigid, or your culture just hasn't allowed for it, but yet you know that there's individuals, even yourself, that would work much more productively on their own in a home office, away from the noise and the distractions, then even if it's part-time, even if it's a couple of days a week, then that is something that you should definitely be considering for your employees. Now, of course, a lot of companies have adopted the hybrid, even the full remote work, because it does decrease significantly the overhead and the operational costs of running, you know, an office, of having all employees inside a building with offices and the infrastructure and the technology that's needed to support it. So there's also those operational costs that the survey found were definitely a major driver to organizations looking at remote work. However, I want to caution any, you know, leader who are making those type of decisions, and they're only making it on the money, on the bottom line, which I get, you know, that's, you know, why we're in business. However, your people are your number one asset. Your people are the ones who are going to help you drive toward your business results. And therefore, again, not 100% of employees are effective and productive in a 100% remote environment. So it's up to us as leaders to really meet our people where we are, really assess and come up with a strategic plan as far as what we need to be doing to support the way our individuals and our people work, as opposed to just having mandates of 100% remote, a couple days a week in or out, no matter who you are, 100% in office. As opposed to that, put some thought into whether or not that is what is going to get the best and the most out of your people. They also looked at some challenges that of course come up when it comes to both remote and in-office work. And that is the fact that While a good many organizations see increases in productivity by providing remote office structures to their employees, there's some, especially in the B2B sector, that have found that productivity actually decreases. And it really kind of touches on, depending upon what industry and what company culture is, But again, you want to be looking at for your company, for your culture, for your people, how best they're going to pursue and achieve your business goals to then determine that. Because you don't want to just blanket hear a challenge or hear a statistic that speaks contrary to what it is that you are thinking about doing. You want to, you want to do your own assessment. You want to really evaluate for your own team. And company as far as what structure is going to work best. And then, of course, the challenges that, that individuals face and managers face is when it comes to communication and collaboration. Now, there's a lot of misleading information when it comes to that. So again, I prefer you looking at the reality of your team, of your organization. I spent a good amount of time last year traveling to a number of my clients' locations and doing focus groups and assessments in regards to their productivity and their effectiveness as both employees and managers. And the challenge was not— was not always whether or not somebody was in front of you or you know, arm's length away remotely, where communication and collaboration broke down because of technologies. And if someone is setting themselves up properly when it comes to how to engage, how to collaborate, how to motivate, how to inspire employees, they found that there— or at least I found that there wasn't a breakdown or a degradation of productivity as a result of specifically or solely that they were remote. It really was up to the individual manager as to how they structured the way they'd go about doing business and go about team building. That really came into play. So yes, there are challenges when it comes to communication and collaboration. But I also found, which I want to mention real quick, that it also came down to trust.. And we're going to get into that even deeper in a few minutes. So think about that though. Why would trust come into play when it comes to a possible breakdown of, of communication and collaboration? The next one would be employee— next challenge would be employee engagement and culture. Of course, that would be a challenge for many is How do I keep my employees engaged? How do I build the culture that we need to be productive, effective, efficient producers of work? And so again, Buddy— so again, Buddy Punch found that there's great benefits operationally and employee satisfaction and morale and productivity, but at the same time found these challenges around communication, collaboration, around employee engagement and culture. But let's dig deep further into the challenges. So you recognize them, you acknowledge them, and then you can come up with a, with a plan as to how to go about doing it. So when it comes to communication and collaboration, the real issue is how are you conveying to those, especially those remote, let alone in person, because a lot of managers have challenges with both groups. But how do you communicate in such a way that you're very clear, you're very consistent, you're very effective in getting your team members to understand what exactly it is you need from them, by when, in what manner, so forth and so on. So communication, you know, kind of gets spiked When it then comes to, OK, what are the tools I'm using, or what is the technology, or what are the mediums I'm using when it comes to communication and collaboration? It's much easier if you're all in an office to call everybody into a room and have a conversation. It becomes challenging when you have some people at home, some people in different time zones, different cultures, and you have to pull everybody together. And again, this comes down to just how you kind of organize and structure yourself. But a challenge is definitely keeping those things in mind around the mediums that you, you have to use, the time zones that are going to be impacted, the cultures, the fact that some are in person and some are remote, so forth and so on. So again, a challenge that you definitely want to recognize. Acknowledge and then assess where you are in, in effectively supporting that for your team. The next one would be culture and inclusion. It's often thought that out of sight, out of mind. You know, if they're not right there down the hall in the building, you're going to run into them, you know, at the water cooler, then they're really not there. They're really not working. They're really not doing what you need them to do. And again, if you treat it that way, then that's the way it's going to be. But if you have strategies in place and you have a structure in place to where you are engaging, including them both in office and remote effectively, then that won't be a challenge. That won't be an issue. But it takes some forethought and planning in order for you to effectively do it. But you also want to be recognizing that, especially with the inclusion, your remote individuals, even if they were the ones to raise up their hand and say, I want to go remote, I work more productively in remote, understand too, a couple of factors come into play. One, they may begin at some point to feel isolated if they're not being included. They won't feel isolated working remote all the time while you're including them in what's happening with team strategy, team problem solving, team development. But they will start feeling isolated due to the fact that they're not included in key conversations and key planning and in key projects and opportunities. So inclusion doesn't necessarily— and isolation doesn't necessarily mean that, well, they all have to be in one place in order for them to not feel like they're isolated. You can isolate a team member or a team in the same building if you don't engage them and include them in what's going on in the job. So you want to really ensure that you're fostering a culture where regardless of where they are, regardless of where they're located, regardless of their time zone, they feel included, they feel like they're contributing, they feel like you're listening and you're asking for their input and that they're part of the team. The one thing managers often don't think about when it comes to remote versus in office that is a challenge and one needs to address it is when it comes to performance, when it comes to feedback, when it comes to even reviews. Measurement of goals or even giving goals. The remote worker is often looked at as purely they're there, you know, getting output, doing deliverables, meeting deadlines, and that the in-office employees are more strategic, more involved, more part of a strategy. And that is further from the truth, further from how you need to be supporting your team members. The ones that are working remote are not just doers. They're not just people to be heads down, you know, checking off a checklist. They still need to be involved in the development and the growth of the business, of the team, of meeting the goals and objectives. They're, you know, they need to be seen as just as strategic as those in the office. And therefore, The way you give them feedback, the way you set up their goals, define their measurements, and then provide, you know, their performance review has to consider that they are no different than your in-office employees and that they are, you know, treated fairly and given the, the challenges and the opportunities that any other employee would receive. But often managers don't think about that flexibility that needs to happen when they have remote and in-office employees. And it's a key one because feedback, as I've mentioned numerous times before in all of the work that I've done, especially in the last couple of years, feedback is the number one request from your employees, is feedback. And so your performance management systems, your, you know, your goal setting has to be very, very motivating, inspiring, and very development-focused for every employee regardless of where they're working. Now, of course, another challenge often that comes up is the technology that's required to support effective and efficient productivity from remote workers, let alone in office. In office, you know, it's a gimme. It's kind of like we have all the infrastructure, we have the support team even that are right down the hallway, and we can grab when we need to. I mean, I'll never forget when I left corporate, and I started working from my home office 100% of the time. You know, I did— I no longer had that infrastructure that I had even a couple days a week when I went into the office that made such a huge difference, even if I went in one day a week, but that one day I also took advantage of the infrastructure that's in an office. Your remote workers don't have that. They go through a number of other very frustrating, possibly, steps in in order to be as productive as possible in their job. And so you really also need to address the challenge of the technology infrastructure that's made available to them, whether that is around the video conferencing, around time management and productivity software, around creating the work products that they need to be creating, whatever it might be. You need to just really be intentional about focusing on what they need and make it aligned to what the in-office needs. It may not be as immediate. Like I said, you could walk down the hall possibly with to your IT group. Don't know if you can or not, but you know, in some cases you can, yet your remote workers will not. So you just want to always keep those things in mind. And then of course there's that work-life balance. That sounds odd because you're like, well, they're remote workers. And so in, in the strategies we're going to talk about, I'm going to mention how both the remote and the in-office have to have intentional plans and approaches to how they ensure their work-life blend, as I call it, because remote workers tend to just continue working. You know, they don't have an off button because they feel, well, I'm at home already. So I should be working. The in-office employees, they get kind of like a stop gate, you know, well, it's 5 o'clock, it's 8 o'clock, it's 9 o'clock, I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna turn everything off. And, you know, yet at the same time, they have their own challenges in finding work-life blend. So that's just a challenge you need to keep in mind. And of course, I mentioned trust, trust and autonomy, actually, because When you have remote workers, many of my clients, it comes down to whether or not they trust their employees to be doing what they need to be doing. And that is an element you do not want to have amongst your team. You don't want your team members to all of a sudden feel as if you don't trust them. So you have to figure out why you don't feel like you can trust them. Is it them? Is it that they aren't getting the work done? They're not meeting their deadlines. They're, you know, they're not asking the questions in there and they're getting the work wrong. You know, that's one thing. And that then gets addressed just like they're an in-office employee. But then at the same time, you can still have those issues in office if you're not delegating, if you're not stretching, if you're not giving your team members the autonomy to go about doing their job without you having to be looking over their shoulder. And so those are two things that are absolutely critical for any manager to get a grip on is, you know, how can I ensure, you know, and be, you know, and trust my employees to be doing the job that they're supposed to be doing even when they're not under my thumb? And how can I give them the freedom to do their job the way they find is the most productive and the most efficient and most effective, as long as they get the job done? And anybody, including yourselves as leaders, want that. You want the freedom to go about doing your work and having the trust of the people around you to do that work in the most productive way that still meets the goals and objectives. All right. And then lastly, one of the challenges you have to be thinking about is what kind of training and development structure do I need to support both the groups, the, the remote groups and the in-office groups. The in-office groups will tend to get the first opportunities when it comes to training. And yet the remote employees are the same employees. They're just in a different location, and they want training and development and the opportunities and the advancements and the exposure as well. So you, as a, as their leader, need to get creative and need to get attentive to what it— they need in order to feel as if they're growing and developing in their job. All right. So those are some of the challenges that you, as a manager may face right now if you are managing remote and in-office or what's considered a hybrid. If you're managing all remote, these are challenges that you're probably dealing with. But I challenge you, I challenge you to look over that list that we just went through to say to yourself, have I effectively addressed and put into our team charter and plans each one of these, each one of these things, issues, risks that could come up to ensuring that all of my employees have the support that they need in order to be the best contributors to the business as possible. So now I want to talk about the skills you need as a hybrid, hybrid leader in order to effectively be able to build the team, develop the team, grow the team, and achieve the business results that you want. So, and, and these skills are very typical leadership skills. However, but due to the challenges of having this hybrid workplace, you kind of have to ramp them up. You kind of have to, you know, elevate, uplevel your skill set when it comes to some of these areas. So the first one would be your communication. And what I want to stress here is the clarity that is needed and the consistency that's needed. So remember, it's not about out of sight, out of mind. That's the wrong attitude to have when it comes to, you know, individuals that aren't visible to you on a day-in, day-out basis. This is where communication has to get amped up. You have to be consistent in your communication with those individuals, just as you would with your in-office individuals. Regardless if you can't call them in from down the hall or you can't run into them at the water cooler, you need to ensure that you're touching base with them and you're communicating with them and keeping them in the loop consistently. And then the clarity is the goals and the objectives and the measurements and the deliverables and the timelines. That need to be put into place have got to be as clear as possible to your remote workers, as much as it is to your in-office workers as well. But your remote workers are working more independently, are working, you know, more on their own without immediate visibility to you. So the clearer you can be in regards to what you expect from them, what you're looking for from them, what their goals are, what their ex— what the, um, measurements of how you're going to measure their performance, deadlines, assignments, whatever the case might be. You have to ensure that they're very clear and you're consistently messaging it to them. All right. Also, it goes without saying that you as a manager need to be digitally proficient. You need to know these tools. You need to be looking for tools on a regular basis that your team members can be using to optimize their productivity. So you need to get proficient in using the various video conferencing tools, using the various action tracking or time tracking tools, knowledge management tools, portals, things like Team, where, you know, you come together to collaborate. You as a leader need to ensure that you're staying in touch with what's happening out there in technology that will elevate your team's productivity. The other one and the big one, number 3. So communication was number 1. Number 2 was digital proficiency. Number 3 is empathy and emotional intelligence. Being that you're not face-to-face with them and, and even when you are, it's across the screen like I am right now to you. You need to be able to read their cues or clues to their mood, their behavior, their state of mind. You need to be able to have a, you know, a touchpoint with them to really ensure that, you know, they're okay, that their well-being's taken care of, that they're taking care of themselves, that they are being motivated, that they're being challenged, that they're, they're being inspired, that they're not bored, that they're not struggling, that they're not knowing, that they don't know what they're— they don't know. It's really important for you to become very intuitive and very empathetic to what they could be dealing with, being that they are apart from the team, apart from you. They don't have the opportunities that the in-office people have. But don't mistake that as, well, then they should come into the office if they want the opportunities. You know, again, you're looking for how best to get the most out of your team members individually. But yet, while at the same time, you're also ensuring that you're not ignoring high potentials and those that have great opportunities in the business. And therefore, what do they need in order to be working at their, their highest potential, and that they are given the opportunities that in-office individuals would be given. So you need to start working on your empathy and your emotional intelligence, meaning understanding them, feeling for them, allowing them to have an emotionally safe environment to talk to you if they are dealing with something or struggling with something, or they have an issue or conflict with another team member, or they have a request for a raise or an advancement, you need to be providing them, especially those remotely that don't have that interaction with you on a regular basis, that safety net, that, that culture that will allow them to come to you whenever they need to. And then the next one would be number 4 would be adaptability. You need to be able to adapt to your team members, but also help your team members adapt to working even with their in-office individuals, working across their remote individuals working with you. Adaptability is absolutely critical because business challenges will come up, conflicts will come up, changes, transformations in the business will come up, and therefore while some will find it easier to adapt and to adjust to change because they're closer to it, those farther away from it need even more and more support from you. So you need to work on ensuring that you're, you're opening yourself up. You're, you are becoming more adaptable, more flexible, more agile to whatever the situation that is occurring within the business on a daily basis. And once you— once they see that you are adaptable, you're handling challenging, you know, times effectively, then they'll come along as well and trust that you have them, that you have their back, that you'll protect them, that you'll guide them through whatever it is that someone might be dealing with or the company's dealing with. So be sure that you're also working on your own ability to adapt and change and, you know, go with the flow almost. And then passing that on to your team members. The next one would be trust building. We talked about it already. You definitely need to amp up ensuring that your team members trust you and that you're showing trust in them. Showing trust in them could also be that you're giving them, you know, stretch assignments. You're giving them new responsibilities. You're giving them autonomy to do the, do their job no matter in what method, what process. What system they want to be doing it that fits the culture. But the end, you know, as long as they get the job done. So you have to work on getting your team members to trust you, but then you trusting your team members. Okay. And the best way to do that is through open, transparent, consistent, clear communications. It's giving them, you know, really clear expectations and goals. It's giving them new stretch opportunities. It's giving them accountability and feedback is how you're going to build trust. It's holding other people and yourself accountable to whatever might be happening. There's a lot of variations when it comes to trust building, but it goes both ways. Okay. The next one would be inclusivity. Finding those strategies, finding those methods, finding those approaches to ensuring that all team members feel included, but especially your remote ones. And we're going to talk about some strategies for doing that. But you definitely want to work on in— making sure that everyone feels included. Everyone feels they're part of the team. Everyone feels valued and important as a team member to your overall team. Time management would be number 7. So time management. Is more so both ways. Again, more so you need to work on your time management of being able to work your remote employees and your in-office employees into your schedule, into those opportunities for, you know, catch-ups and touch bases and performance feedbacks and one-on-ones and team building and status updates as a group as well as one-on-one. But your time management is going to be critical because as you do have a remote team, you can't as easily pull everybody in at one time and have certain discussions. You may have to do them in those separate groups. You may have to do them in one whole group, or you may have to do them, you know, more one-on-one. But, you know, time management becomes critical when it does come to a hybrid type of team. And then we talked about performance management, just making sure that you're up upleveling your skill in giving feedback and giving goals and measures that are appropriate to the specific individual, whether that's a remote individual or an in-office individual, recognizing the challenges that both sides have, but at the same time, rewarding them appropriately for the work that they're doing in the environment that they're working in. And then there's problem solving and conflict resolution. Finding ways to where, say, an individual on your team is actually hours away, not minutes away. So they can't just jump in a car and come see you. And yet there's an issue, there's a conflict that's come up. It could be between team members, it could be with a client, it could be with, you know, a challenge on a deliverable or a due date, but some sort of problem has occurred and you need to be able to work with that individual or group of individuals, uh, regardless of where they are. And so you need to really elevate your ability to identify a problem, identify the solution to the problems, and then how do you communicate that, approach that, get feedback regarding that before final next steps are given. How do you do that effectively when, you know, individuals are not just down the hallway, but they're across the country? So you definitely need to elevate your ability to do the same sort of conflict resolution or problem-solving process while it might be over email or a phone call or a video conference, as opposed to in a conference room one-on-one. So that's a skill that definitely needs to be focused on. And lastly, it would be all about strategy, planning, and vision. You would want to ensure every team member wants to be part of the direction of a company. Every team member wants to give their ideas. Every team member wants to contribute their concerns or their opportunities that they see. And then for you to consider them. And you know, you're going to keep some, throw some away, but they all want to be included in that vision-building process. And so you really need to ensure that as opposed to getting everybody on a plane or in a conference room together, you need to get very masterful at how do you get that done across technology, because that's what it's going to come down to. Whether that's video conferencing, whiteboarding online, you know, doing PowerPoint presentations, interactive training, you know, whatever the case might be. You want to really focus on increasing your ability and your capacity for engaging everyone remotely and in office in order to really allow them to feel that they're sharing in the purpose and the objective of the team and the company. So those are some skills you're definitely going to want to be focusing on as not only today that you're, you know, in whatever environment, not just today in the environment that you're managing, but you want to keep them in mind as you move forward because the world is moving to a more remote hybrid environment as opposed to 100% in-office environment. So the more you can level up your skills in being able to manage and lead a hybrid organization, the more successful you're going to be. All right, so let's talk about some strategies you could be acting on right now in order to help the remote worker, the in-office, and then both of them as a group. And so let's focus on the remote worker first. Well, ensure that you are scheduling regular check-ins. You might have one-on-ones once a week, once every couple of weeks, just to really touch base on not only the status of an action item or a list of action items, but also their well-being, how they're doing. These don't have to be long drawn-out, you know, sessions. They could be 10, 20 minutes, 30 minutes to where you're getting what you need from the business perspective, but you're also touching base and connecting and really collaborating with your team members. Next one would also be— we talked about it— clear communications for the remote workers, making sure they are very clear on what it is you expect of them. And that will help that trust level as well. But those clear communications, those clear goals, the deadlines, the assignments, the specific action items, you know, so forth and so on. You just need to ensure that you're setting clear expectations with them. Then, of course, they want to be included in projects, in meetings, in brainstorming, whatever it is. So you need to ensure that you're creating approaches and methods and, and setups to where they you're having inclusive meetings with everyone so they feel part of the team. Then of course, there's virtual social interactions, let's call it. And basically what that means is you can always get very creative when it comes to how you want to engage and connect all your team members together, even with you. You know, it could be lunch and learns, it could be brainstorming sessions, It could be, you know, just simply, you know, having a cocktail hour online. I used to do these actually a lot when I started my own business, you know, to where you set up, you know, half hour, 45-minute virtual, you know, Zoom environment, and everyone has a drink in their hand, and it's all about them and, you know, them as individuals, not further team status meeting. It's more social interaction that you're creating for team members. And then of course, a strategy that you could be putting into place when it comes to remote workers specifically is what is that professional development plan they need? What do they need from a training perspective? What do they need from coaching, mentoring, advancement opportunities, understanding their career path? What do they need? Again, just because they're remote doesn't mean they don't want advancement. It. All right. So you want to be sure that you're also considering their professional development in your overall leadership strategy. And then the next thing for remote workers would be all around feedback and recognition. Again, just because they can't be stopping by your office or you stopping by their office and giving them a pat on the back and an attaboy doesn't mean that they don't want it and that they don't need it. They need it. They want that interaction. They want that feedback. They want that recognition. And you just come up with creative ways. I used to send certificates on an email to my remote workers that just basically highlighted, you know, their achievement or, you know, a certification that they received, whatever the case might be. You know, you could be sending them an emoji. You can send a quote card. You can get very creative digitally when it comes to providing providing recognition. And then feedback, of course, not only, you know, it doesn't have to be the one-on-one type of performance feedback. But even if it's a, you know, they send you something about a status on, on an initiative, you send it back going, great job, you know, thank you for your support, or critical feedback, like, you know, the next time I would suggest X, Y, and Z. Whatever the case might be, as long as it's not critical feedback. That should be one-on-one, especially on a phone call, video conference, or some other interactive platform when it comes to critical feedback. And lastly, just really be, you know, working through a plan around the technologies and the tools that your remote workers need to be the most effective and efficient. All right. So then for in-office workers, For in-office workers, just because they're in the office doesn't mean they don't want flexibility in how they go about doing their job either. So that could be that, you know, they are given the opportunity to work one day from home. They have a casual day if you are, you know, business casual or even business dress attire. That they, you know, can come in late on a day, a week. Or day a month, whatever the case might be. They can, you know, work from 9 to 3 versus 9 to 5, you know, due to the fact that they have to travel in traffic and, you know, their, their time it takes to get to and from work. But get creative when it comes to what flexibility can you give your in-office employees. As much as it seems, the perception is that the remote workers have tons of flexibility. And I won't say that they don't, but at the same time, keep in mind what we already talked about. Remote workers also feel that they have to be on 24/7. And so we need to talk about that in a moment as well. So the next thing for your in-office is make sure that their environment that they're working on is kind of pleasing, is somewhere where they do want to show up each and every day, that it's not stale or sterile or, or just unappealing to, you know, to them having to come in and be productive for 8 hours a day. Find ways, whether that's, you know, plants or that's paint color or that's letting them have some personal items in their office or their cubicle, whatever the case might be. Just really consider the workspace that they are in and making it as conducive as possible to being productive, being happy, being satisfied that they are at work. Okay. And then of course, create those— I mean, leverage it since you're there. I can't tell you how many times I get feedback from clients, from employees mainly, about their managers that I am right down the hall from them and I don't see them all week. I mean, come on, you're there, they're there. You have to recognize that they need that touch base, they need that interaction, they need that feedback, they need that simple hello and recognition and acknowledgment that they exist. All right, don't be that, that person that, yes, you're there amongst them, and yet you're in your office doing important stuff and they just need to get their job done. Don't be that person. All right. And then of course, being in an office creates, and being around a lot of people creates issues that you need to address around health and safety. Health. We all know that situation from, from several years back, and it continues because now people even have different phobias and, and different concerns about being around a lot of people. And so you need to make sure that your team understands that you are very focused on their health and their safety. And then of course, there's that professional growth and development that even the remote worker needs. You know, they want the same. They want to know that there's a career path, that there's training, there's development, mentoring, coaching, whatever the case might be for them as an in-office worker. And then lastly, they too need feedback and recognition as much as remote workers do. A lot of assumptions will be made by managers when they have in-office employees versus remote. They tend to put a lot of their attention and focus on the remote workers and, and deprive the in-office workers of things that are relatively easy to do and don't take as much time and effort because they're right down the hall, on the next floor, whatever the case might be. So pay attention to that for them as well. And then let's look at what do both groups need? What do both groups need? They need to have like the same infrastructure, the same technologies, the same tools. They all should be working off the same thing. There's no— should be no, you know, line that divides what remote workers have to what in-office workers have. You need to ensure that whatever communication tools, whatever collaboration tools, whatever productivity tools are being used, video conferencing tools, that the availability is to all of your employees. Because most likely, even though the in-office employees might be there 5 days a week all the time, they might be at home one day. They might be sick for several days, but they continue to work, whatever the case might be. Make sure that they're all working off the same platform. So then that creates inclusiveness, that creates alignment and engagement with the entire team, not isolating one team to another, making them look different from each other. And of course, it's your job, especially as the leader, not only around those expectations, but what are those shared goals? What are those shared values? What do we stand for? As a team, regardless of location, what is it? And I, another thing I just, you know, often stumble upon from my clients is they don't have a vision. They don't have a charter. They don't have kind of mission and the shared goals that they then consistently communicate to their team members. And if you're one of them, it's OK if you're one of them. But know that your team knows— needs to know what you stand for and what the team stands for and what everybody's working toward and why they're working so hard. And so it's your job to make sure you define that, you get their input on it, and then you share it with them. And it's the best way to get them totally on board with where it is that you're going with the business, and you'll get the the support, the buy-in, the consensus— not necessarily consensus, I'll take that back— but you'll get the buy-in and the adoption of your plans if you include them, and then if you communicate with them regularly. And then, of course, you want to ensure that not only the meetings, not only status updates, but you want to ensure that if a project comes up or, you know, a new initiative comes up, You're involving everybody. You're not just saying, okay, I'm going to pluck— this one's really strategic, so I'm going to pluck just the in-office people because then I can be right there with them working on something. No, that is not the way to go about it. The way to go about it is find the best people for that initiative or project, but at the same time include both sets. Because even if some of the remote workers don't have what it is you're looking for, for a particular project or initiative, there's that opportunity to provide them stretch goals, stretch initiatives, challenge them, you know, show them that you, you know, see them as potential, so forth and so on. It just provides a great amount of respect and trust toward you. And at the same time, really makes that individual and the team as a whole feel very included, very valued, and very important to the success of the team. And every one of your employees is critical and important to the success of the team, or you shouldn't have them on your team. OK, so regardless of your team working from, from home or far distance away from you, or they're in office where you can see and touch them, ensure that you as the leader are intentionally focused on putting together strategies and plans that include everybody, that include making each individual employee as successful as the next one. And that, you know, they see that and they feel that from you, and they trust that you will provide them those opportunities to do the best that they can. Because no one gets up in the morning going, 'OK, I'm going to go to work and do my worst job ever.' I guess there's a handful of people that would do that. But your employees want to feel valued, want to contribute, want to make a difference. And it's your job as the leader, and you have the great honor and the opportunity to provide that to them. OK. So we talked about and highlighted some data points from Buddy Punch around the effectiveness and challenges of remote workforces. And then we got into what are those distinct challenges in being a leader, in managing, in guiding, in developing remote workers along with in-office workers. And then what skills do you need to elevate in order to effectively manage a hybrid workforce? Those, you know, with remote workers, those with in office, but at the same time it could be 100% of remote and 100% of in-office, and you can still leverage all of those skills by elevating them and ensuring that you're the most effective, most powerhouse leader that you can be. And then we talked some strategies specific to remote, specific to in-office, and then both of them as a group. And what I would suggest that you do is simply pick 1, 2, 3 of them, those strategies, and kind of begin to work on them, begin to initiate them, begin to put them into place. And then watching and tracking and assessing the effectiveness of that work with your team members. How does it change the dynamic of your teams, the collaboration, the communication, the engagement, the connection, the relationship building, the ultimate business results. And as you're kind of testing and failing and testing, you're looking at, okay, what are the skills that I need to be elevating for myself? What are some additional strategies I could be implementing based on the ones I've already implemented and the results that we got? So there's so much you could be doing with a lot of information I provided you, but cull it down to 1 to 3. And just really start acting, and you will start seeing differences and results from your teams, both remote, in office, and then lastly, the hybrid as a whole. All right. Now, I gave you a lot of information. And so should you need any assistance with any of it, then feel free to set up a complimentary call with me to discuss the challenges that you're having. And let me give you 1, 2, or 3 strategies that you could be acting on right now to make a major difference in yourself and then for your team. So you can go to coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall and schedule that session with me. I'd be honored to help you really become the powerhouse leader you're meant to be. Until next time, thank you very much for joining us, and I'll look forward to having you for another episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. Bye. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. We hope you enjoyed the conversation and gained some valuable insights. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and even LinkedIn to stay updated with the latest episodes. 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