Don't Let An Empty Office Be Your Legacy

By Aaron McEwan

I was catching up with an old friend over Zoom the other day and we were reflecting on an evening spent drinking Guinness in a Dublin bar with a bunch of executive coaches. One made the point that sometimes in life and in business, you just have to get out of your own way. Those words resonate with me now more than ever before.

Today’s business headlines suggest that many global businesses are seemingly waging a war against their very own employees: layoffs, the curtailment of political and self-expression, hustle cultures, return-to-office mandates… It makes for disheartening reading. Unfortunately, the leaders of these businesses have failed to read the room, and it’s going to be their undoing.

After more than 3 years of advising senior executives on the benefits of hybrid work since COVID-19 first emerged, I’m convinced that many CEOs can’t – or don’t want to – grasp exactly how profoundly the world of work has changed. Let me explain.

Emotions over data-driven evidence

Back in March 2020, I started fielding enquiries from clients in China, where workers were being sent home to work due to a virus that no one yet understood. They wanted to know how to quickly roll out and manage remote work, at scale.?

Pre-pandemic, the pros and cons of remote work were relatively well documented, but research focused on very small populations of employees. Remote workers tended to report high levels of engagement and productivity but often felt disconnected from colleagues and organisational culture. They were considered an afterthought, awkwardly left out of meetings taking place in-person. For many people, remote working was viewed as detrimental to career progression: out of sight, out of mind.

The pandemic changed all that. With everyone in the same boat, the downsides largely disappeared. Workers felt more connected to their work and their colleagues, but also to their organisational culture . Productivity, job satisfaction, engagement and work-life balance largely improved. Building an evidence-based business case for remote/hybrid work became much easier. In fact, as the data continues to build, the advantages to workers and businesses alike has become almost impossible to ignore.?

When organisations offer a reasonable choice as to where people work, as well as on which days and during which hours, their employees are more likely to stay with the organisation, experience less fatigue and achieve high performance . Diversity and inclusion outcomes also improve. Women, people of colour, neurodiverse employees and those with disabilities, chronic illness or caring responsibilities have benefited enormously from increased flexibility.???

Unfortunately, for some leaders, all this evidence hasn’t changed a thing.?

The decisions being made at the top of the organisation about remote or hybrid work are increasingly being driven by emotions, not data. The responses I hear from executives are typically: What about our culture? How can we collaborate if we don’t have people in the office? How do we know that our people are actually working? How can we possibly innovate without those magical water cooler conversations??

They are ignoring the compelling evidence that we’re actually in the midst of a new revolution – the human-centric revolution. And just like the industrial and digital revolutions completely changed the way we work and live, the human-centric revolution is set to disrupt life and work in ways that are hard to fathom. And business leaders have a clear choice: embrace the change or hold onto what was.?

History repeating?

This is what’s become known as a ‘Kodak moment’. In the 1990s/2000s, countless organisations were disrupted by the same tech companies that dominate today’s headlines. Very few saw it coming. Kodak is held up as the poster-child of failing to evolve with the times, but the same could be said of Blockbuster, Toys R Us, Blackberry and many others. They held onto their analog business models, their physical stores and their tactile keypads while their competitors embraced the digital transformation and freed their businesses and their customers from arbitrary, physical limitations.?

Today, the same thing is happening to those tech companies. The disrupters are being disrupted, but it’s not from other tech companies with their charismatic ‘tech bro’ CEOs. It’s from companies being led by diverse and progressive leadership teams who are demonstrating human leadership , who are taking their Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) and Environment, Social & Corporate Governance (ESG) responsibilities seriously, and who embrace the fact that work has changed, forever.

These innovative leaders appreciate the gift they’ve been given: a rare opportunity to grow sustainably, to hyper-accelerate their digital transformation, diversify their talent pools, and deliver a compelling and highly personalised employee experience. At the same time, they’re helping to address some of the urgent problems facing the world, like gender inequality, environmental destruction and soaring rates of anxiety, depression and burnout – to name just a few.?

These leaders see the opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint by shrinking office space, reducing commutes and limiting international air travel. They see how they can contribute to happier, healthier families and communities by offering true flexibility and work-life integration. They see an opportunity to ease the housing crisis by allowing people to live and work where it’s most affordable.??

Sadly, these leaders are in the minority.?

So, what’s really going on? Why are so many CEOs jeopardising future success by refusing to de-couple work from the physical office and ignoring the humans that fuel their success? I believe it’s three things.

It’s their job

Firstly, the work that executives do is different to the work of the people they lead. Sixty-five percent of knowledge workers now do the majority of their work remotely and they say this is where they do their best work. When you spend most of your day producing things – writing code, creating reports or speaking with clients over video – it makes sense. These tasks are often best done away from noisy and disruptive open plan offices.?

In contrast, leaders are building relationships, they’re influencing people, making decisions and motivating others to do the actual work. They’re not really producing anything. So they don’t necessarily need a quiet space away from the hustle and bustle of the office. And when they do, there’s always the airline lounge or they can simply close their office door!?

When your job is mostly relational, it’s natural to want to be in the same physical place as your stakeholders. Leading a complex business from your home office probably feels a lot harder than doing it in person, but it is possible with the right digital tools and a willingness to be intentional about how your teams collaborate and innovate. More on that later.?

They are disconnected from life’s everyday struggles?

The second issue will hit a lot closer to home, and although I’m generalising, it needs to be said: most executives live a life of relative privilege.

Take Andrew. He’s the stereotypical CEO of a large multinational business headquartered in a major capital city (incidentally, a 2019 study revealed that just 5.5% of all ASX 200 CEOs were women, while an astonishing 7% were named Andrew).?

Andrew has a corner office and a parking spot in the building. He’s got an executive assistant, a Chief of Staff and the IT department on speed dial. At home, he’s got a nanny, a cleaner and a guy to mow his lawn. He has access to considerable disposable income and resources that enable him to disconnect from work, eat well, exercise and invest in his health and wellbeing. Andrew also has autonomy, lots of it; sure, he’s accountable to the board and shareholders but he can spend his days doing mostly as he chooses.?

Contrast that with Christina. She’s struggling with cost of living pressures, she can’t find an affordable home, and she travels an hour and a half on public transport every day to get to and from work. She barely sees her children during the week and she’s paying a huge amount for child care. She then spends weekends recovering and doing all the domestic chores that her CEO outsources.?

There’s no time for Christina to nurture the relationships that are important to her or invest in the things that nourish her. The opportunity to work from home during the pandemic was a godsend! She was happier, she was saving precious time and money, she was more present for her children and her partner, she was eating well and exercising for the first time in years. She was doing some of the best work of her career… without the agonising compromises and trade offs.?

That’s why the flexibility and autonomy afforded to those able to work remotely is so appealing. Empathy and walking in the shoes of others – even if only hypothetically – should be obligatory for CEOs. The bubble world of Andrew and his executive colleagues does not reflect the reality of life for Christina and her peers. Forcing Christina back to the office is akin to taking away Andrew’s airline lounge membership and making him work in the middle of the concourse.?

It’s about digital dexterity

Finally, the capabilities needed to lead a digital business in this new world of virtual, distributed work are completely different to the ones that executives have spent a lifetime honing. The reality is, these days rallying the troops around the next great initiative isn’t about ‘pulling them into a bunker’ via an all-company meeting, or walking the floor to make sure everyone is committed and delivering.??

Instead, it’s about creating authentic human messages delivered through digitally distributed channels. It’s about connecting people to purpose and building commitment to the cause without relying on physical presence to do the heavy lifting. Today’s leaders need to be masters of social media and the digital tools that can scale their message and extend their influence beyond the office walls and onto the devices that their employees and stakeholders use every day.?

The problem is, I don’t know too many CEOs who have an active Tik-Tok or Instagram account. I know a few who know what a ring light is but most are in the dark – both figuratively and literally! This is backed by Gartner research, which suggests that only 16% of leaders outside of IT have high digital dexterity - the ambition and ability to use technology for better business outcomes . They either aren’t interested in – or don’t understand the impact of – using emerging technologies to drive digital business transformation.?

Instead, we’re getting these knee-jerk, emotional responses demanding that people return to the office, because that’s where the executive team feels most comfortable, most capable and most in control.

Now is the time for executives to get out of their own way

When business leaders ignore the data and mandate a return to the office based on gut feeling, they aren’t just ignoring the concerns of their workforce, they’re playing with the very survival of their businesses. They risk jeopardising their digital transformation strategy, ignoring their ESG responsibilities, undoing their DEI gains and severely limiting their ability to attract and retain the talent needed to grow. Ultimately, they risk stalling or even winding back progress on the issues being prioritised by their boards and their shareholders.?

It’s decision time. The workplace changes outlined above are not going away. The genie will not be put back into the bottle. Executives can either continue doing what they’ve been doing and leave a legacy that is characterised by anemic growth, fractured families, sick and burnt out employees, and polluted, soulless cities. Or, they can get out of their own way and courageously step into the future. The legacy for these leaders will be a thriving, sustainable business and a positive, lasting contribution to the social and environmental wellbeing of the world.?