WLP270: What Leaders are Learning about Themselves and their Teams
Today we jump straight in to a great interview with Ann Collins.
Ann is a leadership coach, founder of Blue Bottle Coaching who has been conducting some fascinating in-depth research with leaders of remote teams and the impact of COVID on their work.
Ann specialises in coaching leaders through transitional moments in their careers, and wanted to explore how the crisis was affecting them in their work. She chose 9 respondents to interview between September and December 2020, only one of whom had previous remote leadership experience - so the research reflected their shift to remote, as well as the intensity of change during this pivotal time.
The respondents found the process of the research participation valuable, simply to reflect on the challenges they had experienced, a space which had often been lacking for them professionally. Their background varied, with different industries and team sizes represented, and all were established and experienced leaders within their spheres of influence.
Ann Collins
The main challenges the leaders had experienced was in the rapid switch to new systems and procedures. Some were in high-compliance environments like law and pharmaceuticals, and had security concerns for online collaboration, but all of them had worries about the quality and effectiveness of their team’s communication and connection.
All made serious efforts to relate to and support the individuals in their teams, including more time spent on one-to-one conversations. They actually found it easier to maintain one-to-one connections, compared with the team culture and sense of identity, though many explored creative ways of doing this. Particularly by the December interviews, many were struggling with this, as well as their own work-life balance and boundaries (especially those without ideal spaces at home to work from).
The emotional toll on leaders emerged strongly in Ann’s interviews, and the way they were absorbing the emotional load of those for whom they were responsible. They had worked really hard over many months to embrace the wellbeing and mental health needs their colleagues working remotely, and felt this aspect grew in importance, often unexpectedly deepening the sense of connection they felt with their direct reports.
We’re seeing an emergence of a spectrum of sharing, and this may be a front on which people differentiate leadership styles and choice of organisational culture in future. Most people still aren’t used to emotional disclosure at a distance, and having to support people through a crisis but remotely put this firmly in the spotlight (the one respondent accustomed to remote found it much easier, to transition into the kind of engagement the pandemic demanding).
The experience of online meetings also emerged as a qualitative spectrum, and when these are the primary vehicle for teams to come together and connect, then it really matters,whether you’re having a good or bad meeting. A shared understanding of the role and purpose of meetings, and when to have them (as opposed to some other way to communicate), makes a big difference.
As an extension of this, organisations are increasingly having to understand and treat people as individuals - with different needs for connection and communication and working environment. The leaders Ann interviewed were hugely sensitive to this and working very hard to understand and address the unique needs of each person they supervised.
Some advantages of remote working that leaders experienced included a shift in atmosphere and increased creativity. Their teams became more independent and self-organised over their time apart, and some aspects of collaboration improved, to the point that the whole crisis served in some ways as an amazing team building experience! Seeing each other stepping up to new challenges proved inspiring and motivational, and new levels of trust were demanded and realised.
Ann identified a concern for leaders in managing and supporting their own needs, their energy levels, and this was a particular issue for emerging managers. Managing energy can present different challenges to managing time, especially when making the transition from managing a crisis to finding sustainable long-term ways of going forward.
Everyone’s needs, and therefore everyone’s solutions, are different. People re-energise in different ways, and self-awareness is vital here. When we boost our energy we boost morale, and when leaders do this it amplifies the emotions of the whole teams.
You can read more about Ann’s work and this research on LinkedIn, and she’d be very glad to connect with listeners there and send further details of her findings.
Her own podcast is Leaders who Love What They Do, and you’ll hear from our own Pilar in one episode too!
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