What leadership strategies are/aren’t working in a hybrid or remote work environment?
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Chief Information Officer in Education2 years ago
You need to have some accountability for which days you agree to be on-site — folks can’t say, “Well, I'll just work one more day from home this week.” We’re using a hybrid model and it has been good to have the balance of in-person culture. There's a reason we have core days when we’re all on-site: we want to be together to build bonds. We probably need to bring back a bit more in-person activity. I've struggled with culture building online; we've tried different things, but you just don't feel the connection.CIO in Finance (non-banking)2 years ago
What doesn't work is doing virtual happy hours. I can't do, or even put my team through another Zoom happy hour. People recommend things like virtual magic shows, but we're already on this screen way too much. I tell my team to disconnect over the weekend, because it’s just so easy to keep checking whichever screen when you’re working from home. It's tough because for a lot of people, when you're at work, you're in work mode. When you go home, you can be in home mode, spending time with the family. But as we all have seen, when that separation starts to blur, you can mindlessly spend all day on emails, every day. All of a sudden you're like, "Wow, all I've been doing is work." That leads to burnout, which is where the Great Resignation comes in. So I'm trying to hedge on things like mental health versus how much output I can get from a person. The thing that I feel is helping is making sure that I have a one-on-one with every single new hire. That way they know somebody in the C-suite and they understand that we're more than desktop support. I try to be a culture carrier and let them know that they now have a familiar face if they need anything.