Remote and hybrid work (a mix of at-home and in-office) has become a new normal for many organizations, yet many lament that this arrangement has made teamwork more difficult.
Many of the leadership teams we work with struggle to collaborate in this type of environment. But what’s holding them back isn’t where people work. It’s how they show up in this new reality.
Building–and maintaining-team alignment becomes more crucial than ever. We believe that remote work is not the obstacle, but rather, a great opportunity to improve leadership and team cohesion.
Re-Aligning a Remote Leadership Team
A financial services client we work with has many key leaders working mostly remotely. The leadership team recently met for a strategic planning offsite and the extent of their misalignment became evident.
Leaders didn’t have visibility into what each was doing, so some assumed work was not getting done that was, in fact, underway. Others felt that some leaders were being allocated more resources because their initiative (or the leader) was more visible.
Much of the time designed for strategizing got eaten up by tension, resentments, and team members trying to compete for attention.
The CEO brought us in to facilitate greater team alignment. Trust needed to be rebuilt, so we focused on creating a safe space for conflicts to surface and for honest and productive dialogue to happen.
The team came away with greater clarity of goals but also better understanding of each other.
They realized that to perform well, teams require constant realignment, especially when working remotely, and that time needs to be dedicated to building the team, not just accomplishing functional goals.
What Remote Leadership Teams Must Keep In Mind
THE ALIGNMENT GAP
Never assume alignment! Remote work will amplify any lack of alignment within the team. It also makes it harder to notice rising issues and disagreements.
When team leaders don’t intentionally reinforce purpose and priorities, members fill in the gaps themselves, often incorrectly.
This means: The team leader must be more present and proactive in engaging all members. Team meetings must be used to constantly realign on priorites and build shared accountability.
THE VISIBILITY TRAP
Visibility does not equate with performance. Team members who are, by nature, more introvert and less vocal will be even less visible in a remote work environment.
This means: The focus must shift from activity to outcomes. Define success clearly and give people the autonomy to achieve it. Make time in team sessions to celebrate wins.
THE SILOED MENTALITY SPIKE
Remote work might increase the more independent leaders’ tendency to focus solely on their department and lose sight of the organizational goals.
This means: It becomes more important than ever to structure team meetings to enhance cross-team collaboration, visibility and engagement.
THE CONVERSATION AVOIDANCE PROBLEM
Difficult conversations are even harder on screens. Disagreements can be left unspoken, eroding trust and making it impossible for the team to row in the same direction.
This means: The team leader must set the tone in team sessions, creating space for open, honest, respectful dialogue where everyone is welcomed to voice their opinion.
RELATIONSHIPS BREAKDOWN
Remote work means fewer occasions to build relationships and get to know each other. This can lead to more misunderstandings and miscommunications.
This means: Team sessions need to include time for relationship-building. Get the team to know each other’s working patterns and share individual strengths and challenges, so they learn how to support one another.
Building Team Cohesion, Intentionally and Consistently
When done right, leadership team sessions are not a waste of time. They are opportunities to address what’s going unspoken, remove obstacles to collaboration, and create trust and clarity of direction.
If tensions and misalignment are high within your leadership team and you don’t know how to rebuild trust and have the tough conversations, let’s have a chat.
