Latest news with #hybridWork
Fast Company
4 days ago
- Business
- Fast Company
20 effective ways to personalize your remote leadership approach
Flexibility is essential to effective leadership, especially in remote and hybrid work environments. But flexibility doesn't mean being hands-off or vague—it means knowing your people well enough to lead them intentionally, based on who they are and how they thrive. To that end, 20 Fast Company Executive Board members offer advice on how today's managers can adapt their leadership approach to meet the needs of remote team members. From customizing communication styles to co-creating expectations, these strategies offer practical guidance for leading with empathy, clarity, and results. 1. BE INTENTIONALLY FLEXIBLE, BUT DON'T OVER-FLEX. Be intentionally flexible and spend time getting to know your team. Anchor yourself by sharing what matters to you, the company, and each team member. Focus on building deeper relationships by sharing personal and professional passions. Adapt meaningfully but avoid over-flexing to maintain your effectiveness for your team. A leader who twists themselves into a knot is of little help to others. – Karl Giuseffi, Talent Plus Inc. Leaders need to embrace the fact that people learn and work differently. That might mean working at midnight or all day on Saturday. Apart from attending meetings and other obligations during traditional work hours, leaders should celebrate creative approaches to work as long as the outcomes are achieved. – John William Patton, ProVention Health Foundation 3. KNOW EVERYONE'S COMMUNICATION STYLE AND DEFINE EXPECTATIONS. Managers who embrace flexibility and personalization will be able to modify their leadership approach for remote employees. This process entails knowing every team member's communication style, clearly defining expectations, and giving constant support. The key to making remote workers feel appreciated and involved is having regular check-ins and creating a trusting and autonomous workplace. – Christena Garduno, Media Culture 4. UNDERSTAND STRENGTHS AND MOTIVATIONS. Remote leadership starts with understanding each team member's strengths, personality, and needs and then setting clear expectations for outcomes. Great managers take the time to understand what motivates people. Flexibility in communication, providing the right support and clear accountability standards, and building trust along the way create a motivated and cohesive team. – Marija Zivanovic-Smith, IEX 5. USE 'PERSONAL USER MANUALS' TO GUIDE LEADERSHIP. We ask each new team member to create a personal 'user manual' that lays out their working preferences, unique strengths, and how to build trust with them. These are shared in team meetings and stored where we can all reference them. This helps keep individual preferences top of mind. – Shani Harmon, Stop Meeting Like This 6. CO-CREATE AGREEMENTS BASED ON WHAT WORKS. Ask each person about the best remote work relationships and virtual teams they've experienced. Use those insights as a springboard to share what you value, so you can co-create agreements on communication, response time, feedback, and staying connected. Agree to check in at least quarterly to revisit what's working and what might need adjusting. – Bonnie Davis, HuWork 7. MAKE IT REAL BY LEADING WITH CURIOSITY AND INTENT. It's all about showing up and meaning it. Relationships start with shared intent. They develop through shared interest, and then normalize through interaction and adaptation through interrogation. Show others you want to know more by engaging and asking questions. Meaningful adaptation results when you apply what you feel, observe, and learn in this journey. Make it real. – Maury Giles, Material 8. STAY ANCHORED IN TRUTH BUT BE OPEN TO OTHER PERSPECTIVES. As a company that has been remote by design for 20-plus years, we've learned this: Anchor your leadership in core truths that don't change, but stay flexible where it counts. One team member prefers talking by phone instead of Zoom? No problem. When you know where you can flex, you can meet people where they are and lead in a way that drives results and builds trust. – Sarah Buckler, Tangible 9. APPLY THE SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP MODEL TO REMOTE WORK. Get familiar with a framework that has been around for decades: the 'Situational Leadership Model.' This can be invaluable for both in-person and remote relationships. SLM focuses on understanding each individual's skill and motivation for the task at hand, and aligning your leadership style, as the manager, to the situation. – Amy Radin, 10. TAILOR COMMUNICATION TO GEOGRAPHY AND INDIVIDUAL NEEDS. Effective remote leadership means tailoring your approach by listening to each team member and understanding their unique motivations, work environment, and communication style. Geography and workspace impact performance more than you think, and consistent, personalized communication opens doors and strengthens connections. – Evan Nierman, Red Banyan 11. BUILD COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES AROUND WHAT DRIVES AND DRAINS. Learn what drives your remote staff and what drains them, and build out communication strategies that reflect this information. Doing so shows an understanding of each team member and allows you to meet your workforce where they are today. – Caitlin MacGregor, Plum 12. USE EMPATHY AND AUTONOMY TO MEET PEOPLE WHERE THEY ARE. Leading on job sites and in boardrooms taught me that leadership isn't one-size-fits-all, especially in the era of remote work. Empathy and adaptability are essential to relate to people's certain rhythms and needs. This is where autonomy comes in by creating ways for them to show up, even if over Zoom. What matters most is empowering people to deliver their best, wherever they are. – Larry Brinker Jr., BRINKER 13. TRUST YOUR TEAM AND COMMUNICATE INTENTIONALLY. Leading a remote workforce requires a shift toward more intentional communication. That includes regular 1:1 check-ins, setting clear written expectations, and understanding each individual's unique work style. Prioritizing the human element will strengthen your team. Trust your employees to work independently and give them space and freedom to complete tasks without micromanaging. – Jon Garrison, Registered Agents Inc. 14. RECOGNIZE WHEN REMOTE WORK ISN'T THE RIGHT FIT. When I sent my team home to work during COVID, one worker's performance dropped dramatically. After he and I tried several approaches, we realized that he simply wasn't suited to remote work. His performance improved almost overnight when he returned to the office! The leadership lesson: Remote work isn't suited to everyone, so leaders should be open to requiring office-based work when needed. – Christina Robbins, Digitech Systems 15. USE FEEDBACK TO ALIGN AND SUPPORT INDIVIDUAL WORK STYLES. Good leadership isn't static. What works for one person might miss the mark for someone else. We treat feedback like infrastructure. It keeps us aligned, opens up space for autonomy, and helps each team member work in a way that actually works for them. – Alex Seaman, 16. FOCUS ON EQ AND ONE-ON-ONE CONNECTIONS TO UNDERSTAND NEEDS. Develop emotional intelligence and individualize their approach based on each team member's unique working style, communication preferences, and personal circumstances. Building meaningful one-on-one connections through regular virtual check-ins allows leaders to better understand each remote employee's needs, preferences, strengths, and challenges. – Britton Bloch, Navy Federal Credit Union 17. LET TEAM MEMBERS DRIVE 1:1S AND ACKNOWLEDGE REAL-LIFE CONSTRAINTS. We have been fully remote for more than six years. I get to know my team's work habits, schedules, preferences, and so on; for example, I don't schedule 1:1s during kid pickup windows or schedule travel on holidays. I ensure they are in control of our 1:1 agenda. Part of our 1:1 conversations includes the hurdles they are facing and what they need from me. I need them to know their success is my job. – Mack McKelvey, SalientMG 18. LEAD WITH TRUST, RESPONSIBILITY, AND BALANCED CHALLENGE. I've been working remotely since 2012, long before it was mainstream. Done right, it reduces drama and boosts output. I lead my team like I was once led: with trust, responsibility, and just enough challenge to grow but never to burn out. More companies should lean into it. – Al Sefati, Clarity Digital, LLC 19. PRIORITIZE RESULTS OVER METHODS. Make it clear that results matter more than methods. Let your team know they can approach tasks in their own way, as long as the work is done well and on time. This builds trust and lets remote team members work in the way that suits them best. – Travis Schreiber,
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
HSBC considers ordering all staff back to office 3 days a week
HSBC is considering a global mandate to force employees back to the office at least three days a week, as the bank seeks to reconcile a patchwork of policies across its sprawling operations. Chief executive officer Georges Elhedery has discussed a group-wide return to office policy with executives across the bank's businesses, according to people involved in the deliberations, with some managers expressing frustration that many employees are still mostly working from home. Discussions are ongoing and no decision has yet been made, said a person familiar with the talks. HSBC declined to comment. HSBC, which employed 211,000 full-time equivalent staff at the end of last year, is an outlier among large global banks, most of which have already introduced more stringent hybrid working requirements in a drive to get employees back into the office. HSBC employs more than 400 people in the Republic. READ MORE At HSBC, policies about how often employees are expected to be in the office have so far been determined by the senior management for each different line of business. HSBC UK has already told employees they are expected to spend at least 60 per cent of their time either in the office or with clients, or risk having their bonus cut. If adopted, the new rules would align HSBC with other UK lenders such as Barclays, which introduced a minimum office attendance requirement of three days a week earlier this year. [ Working from home is here to stay despite what some bosses think Opens in new window ] But they would stop short of the harder line approach adopted at Wall Street banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, which have demanded that all staff go to the office five days a week. While senior bank executives have been eager to return to pre-pandemic work life and bring employees back to the office, the mandates have contributed to a desk shortage that for HSBC runs into the thousands. Hybrid working was initially seen as a positive by HSBC's former chief executive, Noel Quinn, who said a reduced property footprint would cut 40 per cent from its global head office costs. Will rent reform make building apartments viable? Listen | 40:12 The bank announced in 2023 that it would leave its headquarters in Canary Wharf and move into a building with about half the space near St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. HSBC originally planned to move all employees into its new headquarters in 2027, including approximately 500 staff located at Queen Victoria Street, according to a person involved in the plans. It also planned to downsize its Mayfair office, which houses HSBC's private bank and is among its most expensive leases, by giving up several floors. But HSBC may end up keeping those offices as it tries to find desks for thousands of employees, the person said. The bank is also in the process of further job cuts, which will help reduce the number of desks needed, they added. HSBC is also considering renting office space in Canary Wharf at 40 Bank Street, an option that has raised eyebrows internally after the bank's announcement that it would leave the area. 'Having cut the umbilical cord, you kind of want to go,' said a senior executive. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
Forbes
13-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Building A Stronger Feedback Culture In Remote And Hybrid Workplaces
Keli Frazier-Cox is the founder of Promote Leaders. getty The shift to remote and hybrid work has changed how we communicate with our teams. One of the greatest challenges I hear about from the leaders I work with is determining how to deliver constructive input effectively in these environments. Providing meaningful guidance in remote and hybrid work environments requires intentional effort. You want your feedback to be heard, understood and acted upon. But you can't fast-forward through the steps that build true connection with your employees. You first need to get to know them as people, understand their unique motivations and establish trust. Then you can share your perspective—and it will be much more likely to resonate with them. The structure of virtual meetings often prioritizes efficiency over connection. With leaders juggling 10 to 12 (or more) back-to-back meetings daily, conversations become task-driven, leaving little room for meaningful interaction. As a result, check-ins are reduced to a quick 'How are you?' before diving straight into the agenda. This lack of relationship building creates a disconnect, making feedback feel transactional rather than supportive. Without a foundation of trust, employees may question the intent behind the criticism and wonder whether it truly serves their growth or is simply an obligation. According to data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, 23.7% of the U.S. workforce worked remotely in some capacity in February 2025. With nearly a quarter of employees working from home, it's increasingly imperative that leaders master the art of providing effective feedback in remote settings. Start by getting a feel for each team member's baseline emotions and communication style. How do they naturally express feelings such as excitement, engagement or concern? In remote workplaces, where nonverbal cues are limited, it's even more important to be able to discern these differences. I recommend keeping your camera on during calls and encouraging your employees to do the same. You can't observe their facial expressions and demeanor if you can't see them. For example, an employee may furrow their brow when they're concentrating, but you could misinterpret their expression as a sign that they're upset. Learning to recognize these nuances leads to more meaningful communication. Many leaders rush into task-oriented conversations without understanding what drives their team members. Instead of getting frustrated that they haven't done something you've repeatedly asked them to do, pause and get curious about the reasons behind their actions. Why should they care? What motivates them to show up for their job every day? What are they enjoying most or least about their role? What are they hoping to learn or accomplish? Take the time to understand every team member's personal and professional development goals. When you connect a task or piece of feedback to personal motivation, your guidance strengthens your relationship. Establishing trust with your team takes time. Show that you are trustworthy through your actions, big and small. Demonstrate follow-through in consistent ways, such as sending a promised email or following up on a request, reinforcing that you are dependable and genuinely invested in their success. For both managers and employees, the idea of giving or receiving feedback often raises anxiety, causing a knee-jerk, 'Oh no, this is going to be terrible' reaction. But that doesn't always have to be the case. Don't reserve feedback strictly for negative or concerning issues. Reframe it to celebrate milestones and projects that have been successful. By recognizing and acknowledging how an individual has succeeded and provided value to a project, team or organization regularly, you lay a foundation of trust you can draw on when you need to deliver critical feedback in the future. One of my clients, a national nonprofit that serves severely ill children and their families, went fully remote during the pandemic and operates this way today. They recognized that increasing the frequency and quality of delivering feedback would be one way to accelerate leadership impact in their organization—but they needed to focus on more than just the tools. Like many nonprofit employees, they are passionate and mission-driven, but grapple with balancing empathy and accountability, struggling to give feedback because they felt it was too negative. I helped them see that the opposite is true: Feedback is essential, especially in a remote environment. It's a way for you to coach, help and empower your team to be more effective in their individual roles—and the organization's overall mission. My team and I worked with leaders at all levels of the organization to: • Define clear leadership qualities and expectations, creating a common language. • Train every 'people' leader, from the CEO to frontline managers. • Reinforce models through quarterly check-ins, skip-level meetings and regular performance sessions. As an example, we took a common feedback model, SBI (situation, behavior and impact) and focused on two areas: impact and questions. It's easy to identify areas of improvement, but what is the impact on them, their careers, team or deadlines? When delivering positive feedback, impact can be even more powerful. How much time you saved or the impact on your colleagues or customers can provide positive reinforcement that builds engagement and loyalty. Then, we spent a significant amount of time asking questions. Before delivering a plan, or pushing into 'tell' or 'solutions' mode, we encouraged leaders to practice using curiosity to foster trust and understanding, setting the stage for co-creating next steps. Participants in the training program were given pre- and post-program engagement surveys. The results showed significantly improved confidence among leaders and perceptions of feedback among employees. Feedback should be an ongoing process, not only reserved for formal performance reviews. If you want your input to be received, understood and applied, focus on building relationships, recognizing motivations and earning trust before offering your perspective. Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?
Forbes
13-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Why CEOs Shouldn't Jump On The Return-To-Office Work Mandate Bandwagon
Scott Francis is Technology Evangelist at PFU America, Inc. and Ricoh Document Scanners. The pandemic proved that organizations can be agile, creative and innovative to preserve business continuity. A Pew Research report found that in October 2020, 71% of surveyed employees with jobs that could be done from home were working from remotely all or most of the time, a huge uptick from the 23% who said they teleworked frequently before Covid-19. Five years later, many organizations—including the federal government, Goldman Sachs and Amazon—are issuing return-to-office (RTO) orders, while few remain committed to providing hybrid work options. The RTO trend could accelerate rapidly; a 2024 survey by found that 87% of responding executives planned to issue RTO demands by the end of 2025. However, a 2025 PTI Consulting survey found that 70% of responding U.S. remote or hybrid workers would be likely to seek new jobs rather than return to the office. While the pandemic accelerated remote work, it didn't take long for most employees to fully embrace it. According to an August 2024 Zoom study, 83% of surveyed employees felt more productive in a remote or hybrid work model. Similar to offering medical or retirement benefits, the ability to work from home (or a mix of remote and in-office work) is often seen as a perk. Once organizations offer any perk, it is very difficult to take it away without some backlash, which may lead to less productive teams. It is too early to assess the impact on organizations mandating RTO policies, but there will be ramifications. The impact of RTO mandates will vary from industry to industry. However, it's very possible that trained and experienced personnel will leave for better offers. According to a paper published by S&P Global Market Intelligence, workers most likely to resign after an RTO mandate were also more likely to be highly skilled and tenured employees. These same companies also took significantly longer to fill vacancies and saw their hire rates decrease. Turnover is costly. The Society for Human Resource Management estimated in 2017 that the average cost to replace an employee was six to nine months of their salary. Organizations should weigh whether forcing employees back to the office is worth losing their top performers and replacing them. A 2024 LinkedIn Workplace Report showed job posts that mentioned remote work were far more popular, while a 2023 Shiftboard study found that workplace flexibility was a significant consideration for surveyed Gen Z and Millennial workers. Companies benefit by removing geographical limitations for their candidate pool. Office mandates can also be a red flag that management has trust or control issues, which stifles innovation and creative problem-solving and serves as a recruitment barrier. Finally, more time in the office means job candidates have to factor in commuting costs and time. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that on average, the typical worker spends nearly one hour each day commuting to and from work, significantly impacting job-seekers' work-life balance. The average car emits roughly 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, according to the EPA, mostly from burning gas during daily commutes. If every organization required its employees to return to the office, it would be impossible to decrease carbon emissions in the U.S. (or anywhere, for that matter). Fewer commuters daily means fewer cars on the road, fewer carbon emissions, cleaner air and less wear and tear on our roads. I believe that if more companies offered work remotely, the U.S. could cut transportation-related emissions by millions of tons annually. Organizations are constantly watching their bottom line and trying to cut costs. According to Global Workplace Analytics, hybrid and remote work can save businesses an average of $11,000 per year if employees are allowed to work remotely just half of the time. Sustaining remote and hybrid workforces requires less space. Businesses can move to smaller and cheaper office spaces and employ 'hot desking' in which employees book desks to accommodate more workers with less space. If this were the 1990s, remote and hybrid work would be impossible. Luckily, we have access to tools and advanced technologies that make team collaboration effective, fast and efficient. There is no shortage of unified communications platforms (Slack, Microsoft Teams, etc.) to keep teams connected in real time. Videoconferencing tools like Zoom and Google Meet, as well as smart videoconferencing devices, are a good substitute for in-person meetings. Dozens of project and task management tools (Asana, Zoho, Trello, Basecamp, etc.) are also available to drive productivity and collaboration. Document scanners drive centralization by enabling the digitalization of paper documents, which can then be integrated into workflows after being uploaded to Google Drive, Salesforce, accounting or ERP systems. Beyond making sure remote teams are aligned on what needs to be done and by when, these solutions can reduce the need for meetings. The 'future of work' had a lot of hype during and after the pandemic. Not just a buzzword, the 'future of work' is the transformation from endless cubicles and bright fluorescent lights (think Severance) to workplaces that put employees first by offering meaningful work, flexibility, purpose, the opportunity to upskill and the potential for upward mobility. Offering flexible work environments is a big part of the future work ecosystem. While offices will never disappear, they're no longer the glue that holds businesses together. Organizations that embrace a remote-first work culture will attract top talent and create more diverse, distributed and global teams that will help them fuel expansion, growth and market success. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Fast Company
30-05-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
This is the process that lets managers get the best out of their team
What does it mean to be a manager? In today's world, managers need to wear many hats. They have to be a mentor, mediator, communicator, coach, and numerous other roles simultaneously. But at its core, management is about matchmaking. You need to map the talents of your team to the needs of your business. That means making the most of your team's combined talents and unlocking the diversity in your team. Unfortunately, as managers struggle with limited time and resources, they overlook this critical component. All too often, managers end up assigning tasks on autopilot, matching business challenges to job titles rather than thinking creatively about how to leverage people's hidden talents or offer growth opportunities. The shift to hybrid and remote work has also reduced opportunities for the spontaneous discovery of people's hidden talents. This can end up shrouding people's true strengths. Collaboration and engagement can also suffer. Fortunately, unlocking your team's strengths doesn't need to be time-consuming. Over the past three years, I've helped dozens of teams unlock talents they didn't even know they had—and match those talents to the most pressing challenges they faced—through this simple, three-step exercise: Step 1: Self-reflection Gather your team together—ideally in person —and ask everyone to write down their talents and strengths on a flip chart. Emphasize that this isn't a competition to see who can list the most strengths, but rather about identifying the talents that people might take for granted or struggle to recognize in themselves. Sometimes, we're so used to our strengths that we don't even notice them. Encourage them to think about what they find easy to do, or what people come to them for. This short 15-minute period of self-reflection lays the foundation for using the hidden talents for the benefit of the team. Step 2: Team input Next, go around the room and ask each person to read their strengths aloud. Resist the urge to discuss or critique the strengths each team member identifies. Simply ask the rest of the team, 'What talent or strength do you see in this person that they didn't mention themselves?', and have the person write each additional talent on their list. And before moving over to your next team member, ask the team, what's the number-one strength of this colleague that at this moment we should use much more as a team? As you go around the room, each person will be surprised by the strengths their team sees in them. As their manager, you're likely to be surprised as well at the number of hidden, untapped talents that may surface. This step is often particularly powerful for more introverted or less confident employees, who might generally be more hesitant to talk about their strengths. I've found that while teams always have something to add for everyone, it's often the quieter members who receive the most additions from their colleagues. The step uncovers underutilized talents and lays the groundwork for deeper appreciation and trust within the team. Step 3: Match strengths to challenges The final step is to connect the strengths they've revealed to the challenges your team currently faces. For example, I worked with a biotech company that struggled to collaborate with another department. The team had identified that Georgina was highly collaborative, and so she became the natural choice to lead cross-functional projects. Paul's talent, on the other hand, was structuring information that could be used to address the challenge of distilling insights from complex data. And Tim's talent for visual storytelling could help address challenges in communicating with investors and other stakeholders. In this way, teams can collaboratively move beyond asking, 'Whose job is this?' Instead, they can ask, 'What talent could help us address this challenge?' It dynamically redefines roles, making full use of often overlooked talents such as: Spotting talent: The ability to recognize potential in oneself and others. Offloading: Knowing which initiatives or activities they need to stop (or simplify). Finishing: The drive to see projects through to completion. These are not always the talents you see on a résumé. But when you face a challenge, knowing the specific strengths that each team member possesses can be extremely helpful. Make your matches stick By design, this 90–120 minute exercise is short and simple. However, to drive lasting impact, it's important to ensure that your team members continue to have opportunities to flex their talents. For example, Michael often clashed with senior leader Frank over project approaches, stalling progress. The team recognized that Anna, who excelled in stakeholder management, could bridge the gap. Anna began mentoring Michael, helping him engage Frank's input early in the process instead of letting conflicts fester. Michael's projects then moved faster. Both Michael and Frank came to appreciate Anna's mentorship, and she continued to assist the team with similar stakeholder challenges. Embedding this practice into your management style can be as simple as revisiting the exercise during weekly stand-ups, monthly team meetings, or even as part of onboarding new employees. The key is to commit to ongoing self-reflection and feedback. Regularly measure progress, share successful matches, and be willing to adjust the approach as your team evolves. Being an effective manager today means stepping back from the daily firefight to invest in your people. When you act as a talent matchmaker, connecting individual strengths and organizational challenges, you unlock a powerful resource that drives both team performance and engagement.
