Several corporate leaders have blamed remote work for issues in performance, communication, or workplace culture – championing company-wide return-to-office (RTO) mandates as a solution to their problems. Yet, these issues occur regardless of physical location, remote work just brought them to light. What remote work truly uncovered was an overall weakness in managers and executive leadership. Here’s how flexible work environments exposed widespread gaps in today’s corporate leadership.
Remote Work Uncovered Ineffective ‘Management By Observation’
Managers choosing to lead by visual cues rather than effective coaching and mentorship quickly struggled in remote environments. Leaders equating line-of-sight supervision with effectiveness found themselves without their primary management tool. Open and effective communication is essential for managing remote individuals. Without it, teams underperform and flounder. Leadership derived mainly from physical presence can also mask attributes such as delivering unclear expectations, poor feedback skills, and an inability to identify measurable outcomes. Corporate executives quick to blame employee locations rather than spending time to identify potential management issues may not see improved results with an RTO policy.
The Inability To Set Clear Goals Becomes Evident In Remote Work
Remote work requires communicating clear priorities, defined success metrics, and ownership clarity. This allows employees to successfully work on their tasks autonomously while knowing when to ask for help. Strong leaders effectively identify and communicate the right key performance indicators. Time spent with a green “Available” status on Teams does not correlate to a company’s bottom line. It is the responsibility of managers to work with their direct reports to set goals and progress checkpoints.
The introduction of remote work highlighted how many leaders assumed that if a person was sitting at their desk typing away – they have the tools, guidance, and training to be successful in their job. This is not always the case and ‘looking busy’ is not an indication of job success. In 2017, when only 2.5% of the U.S. workforce worked remotely, a study by VoucherCloud found that the average office worker is only productive for 2 hours and 53 minutes per day. Maximizing employee time requires clear communication and leadership that guides without micromanaging. Without a strong understanding of goals and direction, employees cannot use their time effectively in any work setting.
Remote Work Detects When Distrust Replaces Empathy
Assuming an employee is all of a sudden no longer equipped to do their job sight-unseen is a leadership failure, not a staff issue. Remote work revealed many leaders choose to distrust their employees rather than giving them space to complete tasks. While working remotely requires self-direction and structure, it is the leader’s responsibility to remove roadblocks so that the individual can progress with their work.
If an individual is struggling, the leader needs to make time to create a safe space for the employee to communicate what exactly is going on. It could be a lack of understanding, difficulty collaborating with another employee, or something else halting progress. Remote work shed a light on leaders lacking time and empathy to support their teams. When a team does not meet their goals, a subpar manager may be tempted to blame remote work as the culprit rather than admit their own lapse in leadership.
Good Leaders Adapted, Others Never Accepted Remote Work
In any large-scale organizational change, middle management often bears the heaviest burden. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2019, organizations faced a trial by fire. Employees went to sleep planning to go into the office and woke up to a 100% work-from-home policy. There was no time for any formal change management to ease the transition. Solid organizations adapted and educated their leaders on the fly on how to lead remote teams. Other companies failed to equip managers with the tools and resources needed to be effective, or their managers had no desire to change their ways of working. Strong leaders created their own structures and communication workflows for their teams. Middle management and executive leaders were tasked to tweak their leadership styles, creating ongoing connection points with staff while allowing them focus time to deliver quality work.
The recent surge in RTO mandates has sparked debate in what is causing these new policies. Yet, one factor may be at play: resistance to change amongst leaders. Choosing to revert to the “old” ways of working ignores the fact that increased autonomy and flexibility have already proven effective. Expecting employees to forget these lessons reveals a serious gap in modern corporate leadership.
Remote work did not weaken work ethic. Instead, it revealed which leaders relied on proximity leadership instead of effective management tactics. A remote work environment requires leaders to step-up their communication skills, empower teams, and feel comfortable with losing control. The future of work is not about where people sit. It is about being effective and supportive leaders, regardless of location.