MODERN LEADERS

Workers are not coming back to offices in the same way as prepandemic. A new book argues good leaders need to be able to inspire and encourage their virtual workforce, wherever they are

Just as heroic leaders are a relic of the past, so too are traditional workplaces where we can expect to see the people we lead, or are led by, every day. There is much talk about the loss of human contact many leaders now feel in a remote working environment. A survey of almost 11,000 employees across 16 countries found that 78 per cent of leaders are concerned about the ability of remote employees to build solid interpersonal relationships with colleagues, and 72 per cent are concerned with a potential deterioration in organisational culture.

The quality of leadership impacted human connection and a sense of belonging well before the pandemic saw many of us work from home. Anyone who has worked in a toxic workplace culture knows simply being in the same location as the people you work with is no guarantee of a sense of belonging. Human connection happens when leaders make deliberate and thoughtful choices about how to lead with their head and hearts, whatever the context.

Whether the people you lead live in the same home or are people you may never meet in person, the same mindset and approach to modern leadership applies.

Much of the debate about remote work erroneously reduces the discussion to a binary decision – work at home or work in an office. This approach simplifies a complex issue to a transaction of thinking about where you physically sit to complete your work.

Clearly, not all roles can be performed at home; teachers, nurses, bus drivers, butchers and so many other essential roles need to still be done in a workplace. However, increasingly a large proportion of the professional, whitecollar workforce can complete their roles at home and the pandemic demonstrated they could do so effectively.

Having a workforce you do not physically see is not a new idea. For decades multinational companies have worked across borders, time zones and cultures with company leaders rarely physically seeing all those they lead. Some leaders seem to wistfully remember the good old days, when everyone arrived at the office on time in the morning, shared laughs and impromptu moments over morning coffee and attended the same meetings at the same time. And there were plenty of positive times in those days. Bonding with colleagues happened easily, opportunities to be mentored and learn from more experienced colleagues abounded.

But those days were not everyone’s experience. It was never the case that serendipitous interactions necessarily happened for whom, and when, they may have been most needed. For those working in dysfunctional workplace cultures, having to go into the office