Change leadership to make digital working a blessing, not a curse

This is not another post on how digitalization and new ways of working will change our lives. Actually, leaders should stop telling that story all the time - everyone got the message by now. And, guess what, most of your colleagues will probably know about the effects of digitalization better than yourself since they may well be younger - and thus more digital - than you are yourself.

In contrast, this is about what leaders can do to make the change a blessing and not a curse.

In 2008, Markus Albers wrote a book about how digitalization will lead to much more autonomy of employees. Now, ten years later in a new book called "The Digital Exhaustion" (as far as I can see only available in German as "Die Digitale Ersch?pfung") he says he can – in a way – declare victory regarding his prediction but that such victory may have come at an expensive price: Work matters creaping and crawling into each and every crack of our lives.

So, how can we reap the benefits of digital working for us and for our teams without suffering too much from the downsides? A couple of thoughts because I think we are at crossroads right now regarding whether the “new way of working” will end up being a blessing or a curse.

1. This is not a technical but a cultural issue. We now have all the technical means to work digitally, remotely, etc. but are lacking the cultural techniques to balance the increased autonomy with the temptation to be “always on”. (Depending on their motivation, personality, generation, point of view, etc., people may find "always on" not tempting but stressful - or both.)

2. Given culture always starts with leadership it is utterly important that leaders start with themselves. It may well be that I am still in the office at 7pm and would like to discuss something with a colleague, who may at that time sit at dinner or putting the baby to bed. Depending on hierarchy gradient, etc., the colleague may still take my call… The same may well happen the other way round: I may be the colleague leaving early to spend some time with the family and then open my laptop again after dinner – then talking to a colleague who likes to be done with work in the evening may create exactly the same situation. To me, key technique here is that leaders have to create a culture where every employee knows it is OK to say “now is not a good time”. How are we doing that? Maybe simply by asking first: “Can we speak now or is there a better time?” and making clear we actually mean it. Or, we may ask after the regular “How are you doing” something like “where are you?”, thereby prompting a response that may give indications that now is not the best time to speak.

3. Talking about when it is a good time for me to have a call it may not be a good time for my counterpart: We should all be aware of the difference between “makers” and managers and how their workday ideally is composed. Makers need long slots for concentration, not the 30min slot hopping the usual manager has. This is very nicely explained in a video here.

4. Of course, there can always be emergencies that require us to speak to someone right now but those are hopefully rare exceptions that prove the rule, and we should always characterize them as such.

5. Never underestimate “subjective importance” in the eyes of the receiver of a message. Many colleagues may respond to mails, SMS, What’s Apps, etc. they receive from senior leaders with more urgency than to messages from other people, or actually with more urgency than the message deserves. This is why, even when a leader works on the week-end he/she better not send messages out unless it is a real emergency. It is very easy to save all messages in the draft folder and shoot them out Monday morning. Or, at least tell your people the general rule that, if you send something to them over the week-end and do not mark it as URGENT there is no need to deal with it before Monday.

6. Let us also think about ourselves and the quality of our lives. With all the autonomy and freedom we are gaining, the temptation (or pressure, see above) to always check whether there is anything new sometimes seems sometimes irresistible/unbearable. Thus, we may need to think about a cultural consensus that e-mail is not the appropriate communication channel if we expect a reaction within the hour. If we need something urgently we better text a colleague (SMS or whatever we usually use in the country) or call him/her. Flip side of that same coin is that, if we somehow manage to make this the culturally accepted norm we do not have to stare at our devices in intervals of 5 minutes or less – more attention in meetings and more relaxation when we are off work.

What are your views? Am I being too old-fashioned, too critical? Too imposing? Obviously, if someone is happier staring at his/her gadget all the time then that may be their style – or, actually, not quite if they are a leader: People are watching leadership behavior and will take their leader's behavior for what is the expected/desired/wanted/rewarded behavior in the company – think about it.