Hybrid Leadership - Opportunities, Implications & How to

The future of work is here! Companies are rethinking work, leadership and what it means to be an employee today. 2-3 remote workdays a week is the new norm, and everything from office buildings, to IT, leadership, and culture - is now being redefined and transformed.

We invited a team of corporate- and startup experts to provide you with the latest data and key takeaways for your hybrid workplace strategy, including your work with organisational wellbeing.

The expert’s top 6 takeaways for your Hybrid Workplace Strategy, TechBBQ 2022.

Listen to the live panel talk from TechBBQ 2022 via Mind And Body Lab - your online toolkit here or get key takeaways for hybrid workplace strategy, together with bonus information in this quick read - enjoy!

Hybrid Leadership expert panel at TechBBQ 2022: Fie Højland, Founder & CEO, Mind And Body Lab, Mia Jung, Head of Acceleration CSE at Copenhagen Business School, Malene Madsen, CEO & Founder Woba.io, and Caroline Stadsbjerg, Business Psychologist Human Engage.

Data is king!

In times of uncertainty look at the data. Based on both quantitative and qualitative data from a set of different data sources: The “Hybrid Leadership & Mental Health Report” made by CfL and Human Engage among 1300 people from the top 20 companies in Denmark, and the 400 companies using the employee engagement platform Woba.io, together with CSE at Copenhagen Business school’s work with startup founders and leadership, and Mind And Body Lab’s work with online leadership and wellbeing among the top 10 Danish companies the past 3 years - we discussed hybrid leadership, opportunities, implications and how to.

Opportunities

The Great Resignation, war for talent, wellbeing, and stress rates are on the agenda for top leaders and HR professionals today.

“Companies today are facing a higher staff turnover than ever before, why it is so important for companies, HR, and managers, to rethink what we call their people retention strategy” - Malene Madsen states.

While most companies are changing to hybrid work now or at the beginning of 2023, some of these leadership challenges could be turned into new opportunities in a hybrid and digital world.

“In our Hybrid Leadership and Mental Health Report we saw that work-related stress decreased during the COVID lockdown, and that wellbeing increased” - Caroline Stadsbjerg says, and continues:

“Further 68% said that they are more efficient when working from home, and 95% said that influence in relation to working remote or at the office is the most important thing, why we believe that autonomy and flexibility are key takeaways for companies to work with.”

Implications

Corporate culture is among the top challenges to work with in a hybrid context according to the reports, data, and 4 experts.

To begin with, corporate culture can be defined as the basic assumptions - also known as “the way we do things around here”, the expressed values: strategies, goals and philosophy, and the artifacts: the visual structures, buildings and processes, according to MIT Professor Edgar Schein’s Organisational Culture Model.

”When companies are working hybrid, we challenge both the basic assumptions and the artefact level - why there is a need for more explicit communication, to understand, and more expressive communication, to feel the energy, because we need to communicate through two computer screens” - Fie Højland explains.

Secondly, culture is something that is shared by a group of people, it’s collective, why companies need to look at ways to build this online.

“We help companies create a collective consciousness, it sounds very yogi-sci-fi, I know - but it’s actually not. It’s social science made online - and it’s working, why we have recurring customers for more than 3 year now” - Fie Højland says.

How to

Our top 6 advice for Hybrid Leadership is to help companies get started with their Hybrid Strategy - as Malene Madsen explains it:

“2/3 of companies still don’t have a detailed plan for hybrid work - well that is stressful!”

1) Hybrid work is NOT a solution for stress

While company data suggests that remote work, flexibility, and autonomy helps decrease work-related stress, this might not be the solution for all employee segments.

For families with small children and a hectic everyday life hybrid work might be great, but for young people, people living alone with an extrovert preference - working from home might be another stressor in their work life, why we suggest customized solutions.

2) Rethink wellbeing & engagement

Business leaders are responsible for nearly 50% of the overall employee wellbeing, a combination of employee stress, health, energy, mood, motivation, and overall performance - why we believe organisations need to rethink their work with corporate wellbeing and employee engagement.

”The intention behind is valuable in itself. Among the respondents we saw an increase in wellbeing at the companies who took action, who were proactive in regards to wellbeing initiatives during COVID lockdown” - Caroline Stadsbjerg says.

3) Know your own bias

Know your own bias in relation to hybrid work, trust, diversity etc. As a leader as well as an employee your preference for or against something should not influence your strategy - why we cannot emphasize this enough: Base your strategy on data - ask the people in your organisation.

4) Base your strategy on data

Ask your employees and remember all the levels in your organisation. Segment and priortise the information and begin to formulate your strategy. Include the different employee segments in the strategy formulation process too, and allow them to co-create the business solutions.

5) Be brave a build trust

Be open to talk about private matters such as stress, family life, mood, energy drain, and energy gain. When you work remote, you communicate through screens why you need to be more explicit and expressive in your communication both as a leader and as an employee to get your message through.

“Talk about what’s difficult. Reflect together. Anxiety is often related to projections, thoughts about what others think and feel, and this can grow in our minds when we are working remote, and we cannot test the reality of these thoughts the same way remote, as when we are working face 2 face” - Mia Jung states.

6) Customize solutions online and face 2 face
One size does not fit all - why you as a leader need to find ways to customize digital solutions to the individual context - remote and face 2 face.

While some employees are looking forward to continue working from home 2, 3, 4 days a week others might want to return to the office. Based on the different employee segments in your organisation allow people to tap into a variety of work related- and social settings, offline and online.

Make it flexible, autonomous, co-creative, and data-driven.

Hybrid Leadership Panel Talk - TechBBQ 2022