Is Remote Work Changing the Nature of Successful Leaders?

Over the past 12 months, remote working has come to dominate the professional world. The practice is now either strongly encouraged or formally mandated by as many as 88% of organizations worldwide.

While this shift may have been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the wheels of change were in motion long before it hit, with the number of people who work remotely steadily rising by 140% since 2005.

The Rise of the Remote Worker

Why is this? Well, while the flexibility, instant commute, and cost savings of working from home may be attractive to employees, as is the fact that they can be more productive during working hours, the benefits for employers have proved to be just as appealing:

• Companies that allow remote working have 25% lower employee turnover than those that don’t.
• A typical employer can save about $11K per year for every person who works remotely (even half of the time).
• And perhaps most importantly, 94% of surveyed employers report that company productivity has not suffered at all since going remote.

These benefits of remote working for employers are well-established, but the recent forced adoption of remote work by many has left companies scrambling to adapt— especially when recruiting for leadership positions. As the shift on where we work continues to evolve, how will the traits of successful business leaders evolve too?

Two Types of Leadership Culture

First we need to look at the way in which leaders emerge and establish themselves in different company cultures. There are, broadly speaking, 2 types of leadership culture:

Ascription Culture

In this case, leaders within an organization gain status based on their personality, charisma, and commitment to the company over and above their skills and abilities. 

This type of culture generally favours the “company man” or indeed “company woman”—the type of individual who garners support by showing dedication to the company and its values.

Ascription culture is common in the traditional office environment, where it is easy to form alliances with management and use charm and charisma to win over colleagues too. 

The rise of Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, is a classic example of ascription culture in action. Jack inspired and led change based on a vision he had for the company, and was the central figure of its 20 year renaissance between 1981 and 2001.

Achievement Culture

In an achievement culture, skills, abilities and results matter much more. Leaders are selected and judged more on the outcomes they achieve and less on their personality.

This type of culture tends to dominate in companies that do much of their work remotely. This is because working remotely makes it harder to exert influence based on who you are, with the power of personality being heavily diluted by distance. What’s more, there are fewer places to hide if you are not achieving the right results.

GitHub is well known for being one of the first companies to embrace remote working and the culture of achievement, highlighted by key hires such as Erica Brescia, former founder of Bitnami.

Because remote working changes the nature of how we engage with our jobs, the profile and role of a leader changes too. As more companies adopt remote working in place of a physical office, they will move from an ascription culture to an achievement-oriented one.

From Talking the Talk to Walking the Walk 

While the leaders of tomorrow may make themselves known by the results they achieve, recruiters must dig deeper and look for other traits to distinguish the good candidates from the truly great. Because the nature of work has changed so much, the traits of a successful leader have changed too.

We need leaders to be able to talk the talk and walk the walk, so while it’s great if they are personable, an effective presenter, or have a commanding presence (many of the traits of successful in-office leaders), but they absolutely must have the following traits as well:

Clear Written Communication

The vast majority of communication within remote teams is done in written form. Office chat platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams or emails are the primary method for how most remote teams collaborate. Written communication is very much the foundation on which successful remote teams are built.

One line explanations, vague instructions and unclear feedback lead to confusion and tension among remote team members. Leaders of remote teams must be able to communicate information and expectations clearly and quickly.

Being Proactive and Goal Oriented

Put simply, in order for remote organizations to thrive, they need to hire doers. While the power of personality may have been king of the office, it is much weaker amongst remote teams.

This doesn’t mean that remote leaders need to be flat or uninspiring. It simply means they need to be self-motivated. There needs to be some intrinsic force that drives them to want to better themselves, the organization and the team members for whom they are responsible. 

This should extend to a keen focus on goals— both in terms of setting attainable goals for their team and achieving key business objectives.

Employee Trust with a Focus on Outcomes 

Micromanagers will have a hard time leading remote teams. In order to be an effective remote manager, leadership needs to let go of the notion that having an employee at their desk means they are being productive.

Remote teams thrive on trust that is backed up by outcomes. Good remote leadership cares less about when employees are on the clock, and more about whether they are achieving their goals.

A Good Enabler of Connection and Collaboration  

Being in a remote work environment does not negate our need for connection. The best remote leaders understand this, and try to foster a culture of engagement and collaboration among their remote employees.

Great remote leaders are also great connectors. They’ll have creative ideas for getting team members to form relationships and will place great emphasis on collaboration. It’s easy for remote teams to stick to their silos, but a good remote leader will put a lot of time and effort into identifying and breaking down barriers.  

Be Supportive and Encouraging 

Because it can be more challenging to build relationships in a remote setting, leaders need to be very intentional about creating a supportive and encouraging culture. Culture always starts at the top, so it’s up to remote leaders to be approachable, mitigate problems, and magnify successes. 

Fostering this type of environment will make remote employees more comfortable to approach leadership when they’re facing issues, ensuring those issues are highlighted and dealt with before they can become business-impacting.

Need to Find the Best Executive Leadership Talent?

There’s no doubt that the modern workplace is changing rapidly. If you are looking for a solution who can help you find effective leadership to guide your organization, check out Key Search.

We understand the challenges of hiring leadership talent for fast growth tech companies— remote or not! Learn more here.