6 quick tips for effectively managing a hybrid model of working

If you’re like most organisations, you’re probably running some kind of ‘hybrid model’ of working where your people are alternating working from home with spending time in the office. This presents your team with challenges, but also massive opportunities. There has never been a better time to reset and refresh how your team works and implement the changes that will drive long-term success.

Here we offer 6 tips on making the most of this opportunity:

1. Think about how you’re going to show up as a leader.

You had your approach to leadership pre-Covid; then you adjusted it to suit remote working. How are you going to re-adapt now so that you get the most out of your team in a hybrid model?

This is an opportunity to reset your leadership approach and rethink your style. Ask yourself: How am I going to engage my people and provide direction? How am I going to drive performance and motivate? How do I influence, empower and inspire my team?

2. Consider where your teams can get together.

It would be very easy to go back to the office and slip into old ways of working. Don’t miss the opportunity for positive and meaningful change. Take your team somewhere else on a fairly regular basis; this might be a unique building, a place of special meaning to your organisation or a beautiful outdoor environment. (We’ve run team sessions in the Royal Albert Hall, in remote mountain huts in Switzerland and on the windswept beaches of the Netherlands.) Use this new space to reset the team’s approach andanchor in fresh mindsets and behaviours.

3. Give your team time & space to reconnect.

We’ve spoken to countless clients who’ve felt that the endless Zoom meetings of the past 18 months have been transactional rather than transformational. Casual chit-chat, in the corridor or before a meeting, might have seemed trivial pre-Covid. Now we realise the fundamental role it plays in connecting us to one another.

Allow your team to reconnect emotionally to unlock the cohesion, collaboration and co-creativity that’s going to set it apart from the rest.

4. Create a psychological safe space.

If your team is fortunate enough, it can now meet face-to-face. So, get all the voices in the room. Build trust. Give each other a high quality of attention. Create an environment where people feel comfortable and confident to engage, be vulnerable and take risks. A psychological safe space will enhance your team’s ability to learn from one another, to innovate and, most importantly, to hold the difficult conversations that are critical to its success.

5. Find & embed new ways of working.

Your team is your biggest source of untapped competitive advantage. With this new mode of working, it has a unique opportunity to start afresh rather than returning to unhelpful behaviours and out-of-date approaches. Get ahead of your competitors: initiate and embed new and exciting approaches to working that enable your team to adapt to the future environment.

6. Get clear about priorities.

Your team has a new way of working; it now needs everybody rowing in the right direction as quickly as possible. To make this happen, get everybody aligned: where are we going, and what do we need to do to get us there?

Setting clear priorities reduces time wasted, coordinates the team and gives you the best chance of achieving your goals.