I have been working with Lisa, a senior executive in the service industry. Lisa has been leading her team remotely for the last 18 months.
Like many leaders, Lisa struggled with the transition from being in the office to working remotely. She felt more anxious and found it difficult to focus her attention on what she needed to get done. We worked together to understand what was causing this and what needed to change.
When Lisa and her team worked together in the office, she could be across every detail, and her team could get direction at a moment’s notice.
In the early days of remote working, Lisa quickly realised she had unintentionally developed a team that was overly reliant on her input.
This was disempowering for the team and frustrating for Lisa. It increased her workload and drew her focus away from priority tasks. Things needed to change, and quickly. Lisa and I worked on a plan to bring out the best in her team, which gave them the confidence to work autonomously while also being active team members. The following five steps formed the foundation of Lisa’s refocused and remote-ready leadership style.
Five steps to leading an empowered team:
- Lose the need to control, allow team members to make decisions and create more autonomy.
- Set expectations of outcomes to be achieved.
- Provide the level of support needed to deliver on those outcomes.
- Give your team freedom to choose their rhythm to collaborate.
- Create smaller teams with more agility to avoid bottlenecks.
These are essential qualities for a high-performing team regardless of whether you are working remote, in hybrid or in person. Anything is possible when you’ve got an engaged team that knows how to get things done!
