Semco Style & Remote Work: Self-Management

One of the principles of Semco Style is Self-Management. It is about allowing smart, capable, and brilliant humans to make their own way toward a shared goal (aka the opposite of micromanaging and boxing in their thinking).

Think of it as putting power and responsibility back into the hands of the people or as Semco describes it: Self-management in companies is about bringing flexibility back to the workplace by enabling teams to make more and better decisions themselves, every day.

Check-ins and meetings should be held regularly to align or clarify work, however, the underlying assumption here is that smart people are capable and will get their share of the work done without leaders and managers needing to constantly jump in and ‘save the day’.?

In the first article in this series, I spoke about trust as a foundation for both Semco Style and remote work.? I referred to Ricardo Semler’s analogy “is this a workplace or a boarding school?” and how it all boils down to treating adults as adults.?

Your employees are adults who run families, households, social clubs, and possibly even ‘side hustles’ as well as showing up to their jobs every day. We’re all self-organizing all the time, but somewhere along the way, the world of work forgot about that. Semco style brings it to the forefront.

Remote work done right relies on trusting people to get it done, from wherever.?

Similarly, self-management is an important component of remote work as it provides companies with the opportunity to unlock new levels of discretionary effort by restoring employee autonomy and giving people their time and autonomy back. Give smart people the freedom and autonomy to solve tough problems.(...)

Read the full article HERE.

About the author: Andy Golding is the remote-work manager for SaaS procurement firm Sastrify. She is an author, TEDx speaker, and commentator on employee experience, ‘humans-at-work’, and all things remote work.?