Workplaces, whether face-to-face or remote, are not spaces of freedom as everyone knows, but intended to produce value for the company in return for a salary: this is the very basis of the employment contract…
Many managers seem to have forgotten their roles: training, leading, stimulating, encouraging, supporting and deciding, in particular, is not the primary mission of a leader? These “oversights” seem to have become more visible since the pandemic and the often-forced introduction of remote working.
How many members of staff today report a laissez-faire attitude on the part of their direct managers who no longer seem to play the role of moderating and stimulating the team. Is it out of convenience or worse, out of incompetence? We would like to say to these team leaders: get a grip on yourselves and do it quickly!
The constraints linked to the pandemic will one day cease and the “new normal” is being put in place. It is therefore high time to “get a grip” and reframe, in the right sense of the word, the inter and intra group activities.
To believe that a team can manage itself and that only technical decisions or decisions with a financial impact bring real value is an insult to the staff and to human relations.
Without being moralistic or dogmatic to the point of being very boring, it is important to remember a few principles:
• Informing and training one’s team is to give them a sense of their mission and commitment.
• Supporting and advising means taking care of the team members in order to integrate them and help them progress.
• Playing the role of referee during sensitive discussions means showing empathy and a sense of balance.
• Deciding when necessary is simply taking responsibility for successes but also for failures: after all, isn’t the leader also paid for this?
• In remote work, checking in with team members does not require much effort and brings so much to the table.
• Treating remote and face-to-face people equally is simply ethical.
It seems obvious, but we have to admit that too many leaders, under the pretext of efficiency and effectiveness, no longer say hello when they enter a meeting room, physical or virtual; they forget the basic codes of conduct of propriety (what does that mean?) and consider that young people entering professional life have the infallible science and should not be accompanied.
Most leaders are extraordinarily knowledgeable and have an irreproachable and benevolent attitude. It often doesn’t take much to improve the situation, so we need to take advantage of this period of ‘renewal’ to try new, more inclusive approaches, while not believing ourselves to be in a ‘carefree’ world. Let’s be confident: the future is full of promise and the staff want to do well.
Good choice, good thoughts and good reading.