As COVID19 runs rampant through the world, it has turned our lives upside down, for better or for worse. Our workplace, relationships, and the world around us will never be the same. So far, most of us have realized that the old ways of thinking will not work anymore. While we are digging through the darkness to find a magic formula and thrive again, one thing becomes clear—leadership thinking needs transformation.
In this turbulent environment, our best bet to engage Remote Teams should be an Evolutionary Leadership Mindset.
While many of us still hope our lives would go back to normal, we can see the effects of this shift everywhere—from struggling economies to how we work and lead our teams. We need to find a mode to manage our teams that best suit the current business environment.
And how does the evolutionary leadership mindset fit into the big picture?
Although this approach does not provide a quick fix to our current problems, it is a process that focuses on building the right mindset and resilience in our employees and us. This leadership mindset goes beyond usual concerns and short-term goals. Our goal would be to engage our remote teams and adapt our business processes to this challenging shift to help our company thrive in the future.
What seems the most challenging task during the pandemic is managing remote teams. Even though we might feel that remote employees are less engaged, statistics show the opposite. On the other hand, the level of engagement in full-time remote workers shows a significant drop—it reaches barely 30 percent.
While no one knows precisely why it is happening, this contrary evidence might reflect the workplace's current dynamics. Usually, in the initial stages of this new working arrangement, remote teams work more effectively than onsite ones. The reason is simple—they experience fewer distractions due to less opportunity to hang out with colleagues. There are no desk visits, no water cooler talks, and no group socialization.
Whereas the initial productivity leap may look too optimistic, it does not last. Since remote employees do not spend time commuting, they walk and socialize less. After some time, physical inactivity takes its toll on their health, and remote workers begin to lose motivation. On top of that, many of them might miss their colleagues, and others might feel lonely and isolated. All these factors make them less productive in the long run.
This productivity decline in remote teams is already known as “productivity tax”. It is precisely at this moment where leaders need to dive in with a new and fresh perspective around leading.
We can create a tight-knit community even within remote teams. As leaders, we need to devote our energy to this goal and cultivate the following traits. The list is not exhaustive; it just may help us get an idea and adjust it to serve our people.
A new challenge during COVID 19 crisis is the rapid adoption of digital technology. It poses new demands on our employees, who need to reskill and upskill to stay competent and work up to new standards. Their ‘growth mindset’ is what will enable them to adapt faster. We need to help them understand that acquiring a learning mindset is crucial for their role and benefits all. This demands a healthy level of personal resilience.
Compassion is the next quality we speak about. For many people, only knowing that the change is irreversible can make them feel anxious and depressed. Every change brings some grief since we inevitably lose something during the process. And the pandemic has brought a new threat within—the chance to lose someone we love.
recent study reveals that only about 50% of employees feel that their managers genuinely care about their well-being. That fact is something we want to reflect on. Feelings of loss, uncertainty, and constant worrying, along with regular work, may cause our employees to burn out. It is indeed a real threat, especially for remote workers.
According to Dr. Kristin Neff, compassion helps people feel better, think better, and work better, and it is contagious. That means our employees can feel when we radiate compassion. We should create a compassionate culture and build resilience in our team members.
Transparency is an essential step in cultivating trust. We may have missed critical information on specific tasks due to the crisis, our communication channels might not work well under current stressors, and a surge of misinformation could affect our remote teams. However, we still need to address the issue to help our people trust us.
Sometimes, we need to admit that we do not know what is going on, how to respond to new challenges, or how to proceed further. As a leader, we should choose to make the right decisions and act despite this lack. This approach will help us shape a transparent culture, and our employees would follow our example.
We should be the ones who show up first by leaning into the vulnerability of not knowing. After expressing our angst about the situation, move on quickly, and help our employees understand the vision we have for our team.
Amid uncertainty and the new working routine, our employees might feel insecure and anxious. This lack of psychological safety means that it is not a good time for micromanagement. There are many other options to lead, motivate, and engage remote teams.
During a crisis, leaders tend to make knee jerk decisions, the Evolutionary leadership approach calls for calm, avoiding knee jerk reactions and taking decisions with an eye on long term.
An evolutionary leadership mindset can provide us with the tools and techniques to build a culture of trust, transparency, and openness. When people feel they are supported and not controlled, they usually conclude that they can trust us. Hence, trust is genuinely a collective expression of what evolutionary leadership should have at its core.
In an atmosphere of trust, employees feel more confident, willing to take on responsibility and accountability. This way, we turn our employees into leaders who actively participate in the organization’s progress.
This approach is all about values and behaviors. To bounce back after a crisis and keep our vision alive despite difficulties, we need a robust and vital purpose. When we find authentic purpose—our values and behaviors will follow. Moreover, research has shown that employees trust leaders who walk their talk, are authentic, and have a , strong purpose. Those team members are more connected and more engaged.
To keep our purpose clear—we need to remind ourselves that every challenge hides a gift, and our goal is to unwrap it. It invites us to go deeper and activate our hidden strengths and examine the situation with a positive mindset.
Once we have practiced the evolutionary leadership mindset and experienced its benefits, it will motivate us to stick to our true north and commit to a life-long process of evolving in our leadership journey. Even though it usually imposes enormous challenges, brings excellent rewards too. It fuels our actions by a desire to improve, connect, and make a difference.
Every change is a crossroad. The choice is usually between the old and new ways. Next time, when uncertainty creeps in, let’s pay attention to our choice—what do we opt for? The old way or a new way of leadership thinking that is continually evolving?
The article is written by Devesh Sachdev, Founder & CEO, Fusion Microfinance; Gavin D'Souza, Founder, Xcellence Plus and Vikram Singh, Co-founder & Senior Director, Renaissance India Investment
