Reflets Magazine #140 | In-Person vs Remote Working: What If You Relinquished Control?

In Reflets Magazine #140, Isabelle Rey-Millet (EXEC MBA 00) shares her views: has remote working changed the way we approach in-person working? As a manager, how can you deal with those who dread returning to the office and getting back with their team? We’ve made an online translation of this article available for free… subscribe to read the rest of the issue (in French)!

The COVID crisis has undoubtedly moved us forward ten years in terms of mindsets and maturity regarding remote working. Administrative resistance has crumbled simply out of necessity; as for other types of resistance, such as those linked to egos, to the need for power, or to hierarchical concerns (fear of no longer being able to monitor employees’ work, fear that work will not be completed, etc.), while they have not disappeared entirely, they have certainly been dealt a serious blow! In any case, things are not like they were before – and nor should they be.  

For employees, returning to the office might create a sense of reluctance or of enthusiasm. For some, remote working (or working from home) was a disaster, while others are having trouble with returning to the office.

Faced with the new state of affairs, companies must transform themselves in a number of ways: their workspaces, of course, but first and foremost their ways of working and their ways of managing. Employees are calling not only for more human-focused offices but also a more tailored, more empowering management style.

And yet while it is relatively easy to improve the work environment, it’s more difficult to change the management model. The cycles of lockdown and opening up have revealed the difficulty a great many managers have with leading and motivating their teams remotely or via hybrid working. The challenge for managers today is to motivate their teams and bring them together, create meaning, rebuild trust, and abandon once and for all the outdated model of “command & control”.

The foundation: giving meaning

Understanding what we’re contributing to and what purpose our work serves, is one of the most important drivers of action. Humans need meaning. 13 million French people find it in charitable activities, by helping others or by contributing to a cause large or small. We all want to feel useful.

And this is what is behind the creation of B-Corps, those companies that aim to put ‘People’, ‘Planet’ and ‘Profit’ on the same level. It’s the same concept that’s behind the French entreprise à mission (purpose-driven company) status. 

Meaningfulness develops a sense of pride at belonging. Because they know why they do their job, employees get involved in developing the decisions that they will then implement. By having a comprehensive vision of the issues and challenges it has to face, a team comes together and gains motivation. 

Hence the importance of making sure that your employees know what purpose their work serves and that they feel valued through the feedback they receive (individually and as a team) and through the information they are given.

A prerequisite: trust

In dispersed and/or remote-working teams, the topic of trust has become particularly important during lockdown. Many managers have had significant difficulties creating and managing a sense of team involvement. They didn’t anticipate the fact that frameworks of action and ways of working were going to change, and that virtual distance would also create distance between people on a relational level.

Building confidence in your team involves making the effort to determine – together – ways of working that meet the following three conditions: 

- produce results, because you cannot trust someone that neither delivers nor produces anything, or who neither agrees to nor keeps to any commitment;

- ensure alignment between thoughts, words and deeds, do what you say and say what you do, ensure words and behaviours are consistent with each other, whatever “level” you are at, because integrity inspires trust;

- take care of others, because you cannot trust someone who acts based solely on their own interests and who clearly thinks only of themselves when making decisions.

It is the manager’s duty to implement these ways of working and ensure they are followed. It is this trust, and the sense of meaning it gives everyone, that allows an adult-to-adult relationship to develop between the manager and their teams.

A challenge: instead of “command & control”, “trust, test & learn”

Many employees and managers strive to gain more independence and open up their field of possibilities. But the fact remains that it is not easy to change ways of working that have taken decades to be established within companies. As you climb the ladder, you gain power and impose your methods on others. And yet “command & control” is infantilising – it promotes submission and leads to lies or evasion. 

The management principles of “trust, test & learn”, on the other hand, develop a sense of responsibility and enable learning by opening up new agile approaches. Everyone can appreciate this relationship that is based on empowerment and independence at work, as well as the satisfaction that comes from understanding their environment and their contribution.

Happily, with the COVID crisis, more and more companies – aware of their limits – are looking at their “command & control” model and replacing it with “trust, test & learn”. The differences between the two management approaches are palpable:

- managing vs inspiring

- showing vs controlling

- delegating vs granting permission

- thinking that you know better than your employees vs being able to make use of your team’s talent

- remaining focused on the goal, results and efficiency vs prioritising ideas, people, the vision (that is communicated) and new approaches

- prioritising operational issues vs prioritising strategic issues 

- giving instructions and orders and making decisions alone vs asking questions and asking for suggestions before making decisions

- treating employees as subordinates and discouraging dissent vs treating the team as colleagues and encouraging them to think outside the box

- surrounding yourself with a team that can execute and implement plans vs surrounding yourself with people who can create and innovate

- recruiting based on experience, history and qualifications vs recruiting based on attitude, creativity and potential

- putting yourself in the limelight and claiming success for yourself vs sharing the exposure and prestige with your team

- encouraging action, activity and work vs encouraging ideas, innovation and enjoyment

- rewarding performance (regardless of means) vs rewarding entrepreneurial action and collaborative spirit

- using technology as a way of doing things better, faster and cheaper vs using technology as a way of doing things differently

- minimising risks and hating failure vs taking calculated risks and accepting failure and mistakes.

Moving from the carrot-and-stick “command & control” model to an open, “trust, test & learn” management style in which innovation, risk-taking and mistakes are allowed requires work to transform both mindsets and ways of working. Painstaking, precise, well-founded work that is essential in response to the urgent need to motivate people once more and bring them back on board within the company. But it’s a fair price to pay to bring in the new dynamic that your teams need in these unique times.

Translation of an article published in Reflets Magazine #140. To get and read the next issues (in French), click here.

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