How do you lead and acknowledge people from a distance?

When the coffe machine talk is gone, what do you do?

For many of us, our work life has drastically changed during the pandemic and many employers want their workforce to keep working from home even when the pandemic is over. The reaction to that is of course very scattered, some look forward to work from home and some see that as a continuous nightmare, a never-ending isolation. Is there anything we can do to adopt to this new situation?

Anything we can do to make it easier?

First of all, it is a major difference between working from home and working from distance but unfortunately these two are treated as the same. The home offices we use right now must be seen as a temporary solution with very poor psychosocial and physical conditions, this is well known and has created endless of jokes and memes on Internet about poor video meetings and parents with home schooled kids. To be fair, many actually enjoy working from home and have adopted to this in a very good way, it is most likely a combination of a personal ability to adjust and employers way of understanding and handling this unusual situation.

However, home is not an office

I am convinced that the current situation with home offices, based in temporary locations as bedrooms, kitchens and living rooms will be an exception and handled differently after the pandemic is over. I believe we will see more of local Co-working places in small city centers, residential areas and local communities (ironically taken over from small businesses that will not survive the Amazonification). This phenomena is already very common in bigger cities for all the younger nomads and startups, but I am convinced this will be a much more spread alternative. We pay a monthly fee and then use the common space (fully technically equipped) where will get new Co-working colleagues and social interaction. People who are desperate to get away from home, people who are either tired of the current situation or just very curious to meet others. This will solve a part of the psychosocial challenges our employees will face. These Co-working environments will substitute a lot of what we got together with our colleagues in our office but with the difference that we will meet and socialize with people in a similar situation being Co-colleagues. Not a bad idea, but....

The leadership part will be a challenge

Acknowledgement and Belonging. Two factors that are deeply into our human nature and not so very hard to understand and practice, but it takes a little bit of a different leadership to handle that from a distance. Many leaders already follows the modern dogma of leadership where motivation, coaching and self-leadership are very central factors in order to become successful. This new structure with people working from a distance will demand further expectations on good leadership. Many companies, with a more traditional (read outdated and old fashioned) leadership style, will as a result of poor leadership go out of business.

However, I am sure that companies will create a new C-level position CWE (Chief Working Environment) that will have a different and opposing position compared to HR. Any C-level management without understanding of the new demands from new structures and generations, will have a severe problem in the future.

As experienced during C19 and validated in numerous researches and inhouse questionaries, staff in many companies are not satisfied how the psychosocial situation is addressed by management. This is a great source of frustration and friction.

How do you acknowledge people from distance?

So, let’s now focus just on acknowledgement. Is it possible to create the same atmosphere of appreciation as in the office?

Based on Herzberg’s Motivation Theory model (or Two Factor Theory), we are all as human beings depending of the need of being seen and acknowledged in order to be motivated and as we all know, motivation is the driver for highly performing organizations. Motivation is also the base for being loyal and stay with your employer, in other cases, as soon as it is possible, we move on to another job.

So, what could we do to acknowledge people working from distance, how could we actually replace the coffee machine talk where leaders have a chance to chit chat and ask those questions or make those comments that boost our employees?

A few ideas on how to boost people

Let me give you a few examples how we could create a sense of appreciation (and doesn’t cost anything!):

Micro acknowledgement                     - care about the small stuff! Make sure you see it!

Communicate wins       - take every opportunity to celebrate

Remember birthdays                          - distance doesn’t mean we stop having birthdays

Determine pride points                        - remember people why we are proud to work here

Let people do "quarantine projects"    - spend some time on something that engages

Send out handwritten notes                  - send a postcard just to say Hello!

Turn off emails btw 7pm and 6 am       - show that you care, make people not work 24h

All the above are easy things to do, all it takes is an interest in other people and the understanding that seen people are motivated people and motivated people will perform.

Remember one thing (and these are a few words from an old dog who has been through several crisis in the past), our employees will remember how we treated them during the rough times and that is how they will treat us when the times are good. That is how it works!

In these times of crise, our leadership tends to be very operational. Things are do-oriented, problem-solving and task-focused. It is quite natural and also a base for survival. Just don’t forget to focus on our most valuable resource.

Our employees!