The Future of Leadership – Presence with Purpose

By Brad Bunn, Senior Executive Service, Defense Logistics Agency Vice Director

In almost any organization today, nothing inspires more conversation, emotion, and opinion-sharing than the notion of the “Future of Work.”?Given that a huge portion of the federal workforce is comprised of knowledge workers who can perform many of their functions in a virtual setting, the federal government is among the landscape of large institutions grappling with this concept.

The COVID-19 pandemic taught many lessons and forced office-based organizations to disperse the workforce and perform critical functions in a virtual manner, leveraging technology to connect employees, teams, and customers.?Although the practice of telework was not new, most employees were accustomed to a schedule that included onsite presence and periodic or regularly scheduled telework from home.?

After two years of working virtually, a host of organizations decided to go “all in” on the idea of virtual or “remote” work.?If you look at job announcements today (private and public sector), you’ll see jobs categorized as “remote,” meaning the duties can be performed from anywhere.?Federal agencies, including my own, are debating how far to go with this concept.?

I won’t rehash all the pros and cons of this migration to virtual (there are plenty in both categories), but I do think leaders at all levels need to come to grips with the reality that “workplace” means something different in a post-pandemic world.?

At a minimum, we can expect the future of work to be a hybrid workplace, with a mix of virtual and physical presence.?Expectations for mission accomplishment, however, have not and should not change.?

As a senior executive, I view this topic through the lens of leadership.?Are our leaders equipped to lead effectively in this new environment, and are we selecting and developing leaders who will not only perform well, but thrive?

I’ll offer a few thoughts on the matter, based on a bit of experience (meaning lessons acquired through years of failing and succeeding, and learning from both).

E.Q. Matters

Regardless of whether you are physically co-located with your team, the job of a leader is to synchronize and harmonize resources (human, financial, technological) to accomplish objectives.?Truly effective leaders spend most of their time on the humans.?To build and sustain a team that delivers results greater than the sum of its parts, leaders need to develop and hone their emotional intelligence by getting to know your employees and what motivates, drives, and incentivizes them, and adapting your style accordingly.?“Virtual” presence will make this more difficult, but not impossible.?This means going out of your way to engage your team members, especially those introverts who would prefer to go days without human interaction.?The technology exists to enable this interaction…exploit it, learn from it, and adapt to it.?Don’t let physical dispersion of the workforce be the excuse for losing touch with your people.

Culture Conveys

Understanding the “culture” of your organization, i.e., the “unwritten” rules of engagement that manifests in how work gets done, will be even more important in the future.?In some ways, moving towards a more virtual, dispersed workplace won’t fundamentally change culture, rather it will magnify the existing culture, exposing the weaknesses and the strengths.?Knowing the difference is what separates leaders from good leaders.?

If collaboration, teamwork, and information sharing is bred into your organizational culture already, it’s unlikely that will stop, but good leaders need to ensure the technology, tools, and rewards align in a virtual/hybrid setting.?If unhealthy competition, stove piping, and information hoarding is already present in your culture, that will only get worse in the new virtual workplace.?Leaders must recognize those traits and take concrete actions to reinforce the healthy ones and remediate the toxic ones.?

Presence with Purpose

I don’t have the answer on what the right recipe is for combining virtual and physical presence.?Leaning on my experience, I’d say a hybrid approach will fit most organizations, but that is largely dependent on their goals, mission, culture, and maturity.?In my organization, as conditions have allowed more physical presence, we’re adopting an approach that promotes “presence with purpose.”?

Rather than fixating on some number of “telework days” versus “onsite days” at the individual level, we’re seeking a model in which physical presence has a purpose beyond simply occupying a different physical space during the workday.?Simple examples include scheduling events, staff meetings, and problem-solving sessions on days when the team is physically together, where more personal interactions and communication will occur naturally, and physical presence yields the best mission results.?

Depending on the size of the team and the nature of the work, the frequency of teams or units being “together-together” may vary, but some regularity of physical presence has other benefits.?Think of your pre- and post-meeting ad hoc encounters with peers and teammates, and how that contributes to professional development and shared understanding.?Think of the shared experiences of eating together at lunch, or traveling together on a business trip, or reacting to good or bad news as a group…almost impossible to simulate virtually.?(Do you remember your last fire drill?)?This is also how loyalty and affinity to an organization is developed and sustained, beyond the simple employer/employee transaction…incredibly important in my line of work: public service.

Among the core competencies for the Senior Executive Service is “leading change,” and we’re at a key point in the evolution of the American workplace, certainly the Federal workplace, where the best leaders will not only adapt to the new realities of a post-pandemic world but find ways to bring forward the best elements of the traditional way of working and seize upon the opportunities presented by a more virtual workplace.?What kind of leader will you be in the future workplace?

About the Author

Brad Bunn is the Vice Director of the Defense Logistics Agency in the U.S. Department of Defense.?Bunn has been a member of the Senior Executive Service since 2003; he was a 2020 recipient of the Roger W. Jones Award for Executive Leadership.?Mr. Bunn is writing this blog in his personal capacity and the views expressed in his column are his own.