The Digital Leadership Gap

In 2022, it is estimated that 30% of the Canadian workforce is working remotely. Compared to 2016, with an average of only 4%, this drastic increase in remote employees may leave some leaders struggling to effectively manage their teams.

The emergence of the digital leadership gap shines a light on the challenge of managing people in a virtual medium. Leaders who have traditionally worked with their teams in person now need to adapt and change. They will benefit by exploring and considering what they can do to reduce the risk of a digital leadership gap.

Leaders working with employees in a digital world now face the following kinds of challenges:

• Maintaining meaningful communications with employees. Leaders need to fill gaps caused by the loss of spontaneous conversations that occur when working in the same space.
• Creating a sense of teamwork among employees when communications and interactions are limited.
• Supporting and coaching employees around their perceived workload and habits regarding when they plug in and out of work to establish clear boundaries.
• Managing scheduled virtual meetings.
• Finding space to allow employees spontaneous access for easy-to-answer questions.
• Balancing verbal and written communications for building trusted human relationships. It’s difficult for employees to trust a leader they never talk with regularly.
• Depending on technology working correctly for connectivity.

Navigating the digital gap

The structure of the digital world facilitates more non-personal communications that are more focused on outcomes, tasks and results. The informality of casual relationships between meetings for many employee-manager relationships is reduced and, in some cases, lost.

In the digital age, more leaders are being assigned to lead people whom they have never met in person. And some are being assigned direct reports they may not interact with for days, weeks or even months at a time.

For leaders to maximize the employee experience and provide employees with the feeling of being connected to their culture and work requires a different level of attention.

• Discuss communications frequency — Discuss with each employee the frequency of communications that will help them feel connected and negotiate what works for leader and employee. Do not assume all employees will want the same amount of connectivity.
• Create one channel for quick access — Create a plan for rapid access if an employee needs to contact you in an emergency or to discuss something important. Explore the viability of a safe digital medium for high-priority communications only, texting or using a subject line tag for emails such as: “Priority — need to talk with you ASAP.”
• Schedule culture experience meetings — Have meetings that are focused solely on employees’ experience to determine what is and is not working and how you can support them.
• Limit online meetings — Establish a boundary on how many hours an employee is expected to sit or stand in front of a computer in an online meeting. Keep in mind they will be spending other hours on emails and core work. Build movement and diversity into the workday whenever possible.
• Make unplanned phone calls — Demonstrate that employees matter by making random phone calls with no specific agenda other than to check in to see if they have any questions.
• Create and monitor clear email etiquette — Work with all employees on clear protocols on how emails will be written and when it’s time to pick up the phone. For example, ensure emails are short and to the point, with clear asks and information but no debates. Leave those to phone calls or online conversations. Outline how CCs will be used; define an internal service level agreement around responding to peer emails; and once a month in a team meeting evaluate how email communications are going.
• Design meetings with intention — Have a clearly-defined agenda for all meetings and allow time at the beginning and end for general conversations and small-talk. Creating space for being informal can help employees transition between meetings.
• Discuss online camera expectations — Set expectations for when cameras and mute will be used. Talk about what is working with your team to create a tone of digital civility.
• Train teams in digital communications tips — As the world of digital communication evolves, digital emotions are being established that have different meanings to males and females regarding the use of all capitals, emojis and acronyms. Provide employees insight so they are aware of what they are doing and how they are understanding digital communications.
• Plan in-person meetings when possible — Commit to meeting all employees in person at a frequency that is operationally possible. There will never be a substitute for human interaction.

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