There have been and will be more and more rapid changes in working life, with implications for both individual and community levels, but also for working culture. Digitalisation is transforming work into a wider range of opportunities and challenges. The extension of working conditions to remote working has changed the ways and places of working and increased the responsibility of workers to take more autonomy in planning and carrying out their work. Leadership and its diversity has become a topic of debate, and its importance in today’s changing working environment is highlighted.
In their article, Larson, Vroman and Makarius (2020) highlight the challenges that have emerged from remote work, such as “lack of face-to-face supervision” and “social isolation”. Ddi’s global leadership forecast 2023, on the other hand, has listed the phenomena that influence leadership in an extensive study. I chose the ones that I feel will affect the working practices of my workplace, as well as the management skills needed for the phenomena.
Connecting and peer-to-peer has become more important with the shift to remote and hybrid working. Leaders crave a learning culture where interactive experiences with peers play a bigger role than self-directed learning. Lack of development programmes negatively reflects on the success of the organisation, which is why development programmes and positive learning environments are an essential part of organisations (DDI 2024c.) My workplace has implemented a remote learning platform where each employee and manager can develop their skills according to their own needs and time resources. However, these learning platforms lack interactivity and a coaching approach. The results of our organisational well-being surveys show that there is a need for more interactivity, both in general and at the development level. In my opinion, there is a need for more activity from supervisors and managers to indentify employees’ learning needs and also to organize time for learning together at work. An interactive learning culture needs to be implemented in a planned way with the teams in order to become embedded in the organisation.
Remote working has increased isolation and loneliness. In the long term, loneliness reduces the worker’s sense of belonging to his or her organisation, which increases the risk of dismissal. Leaders who experience their work as meaningful are 9 times more committed to their job than those who do not. Leaders who experience a purpose in their work are 2.4 times more likely to stay in the company over the next year. One way to increase job meaningfulness is through positive career conversations that increase self-reflection and purpose in work. Fry (2003) argues that a core of values-based leadership is that leaders must act in according to their values in order to motivate themselves and their subordinates in their work (DDI 2024d; Larson et al. 2020; Fry 2003, 693.) This phenomenon influences the practices of my work, so that our team works according to values. We develop a range of services that aim to improve people’s well-being in a holistic way. Our team has a low turnover rate, even though we work on projects of limited duration. I also see from our organization’s managers that meaningful job content, our organization’s commitment to the well-being of managers and employees, and the freedom to influence and create meaning in work in general increase job satisfaction and engagement among them. What is required of leaders to increase purpose of work is definitely an investment in self-reflection, reflection on values, and clarification of expectations and goals related to work. Working according to values and principles is strongly linked to ethical practices in management. You can read my reflections on ethical leadership in the post “Ethical leadership”.
“Coaching Cultures Are Effective, But Dwindling” (DDi 2024a). The study shows that the less coaching leadership is provided by managers, the less leaders need it. Only 23% of leaders desire coaching from their esecutives, but those leaders who effectively received coaching from their managers were twice were twice as supportive of coaching and had a positive attitude towards their organization’s development culture. Coaching was also seen to have an impact positively on leaders’ career development opportunities. In addition, they felt less need to change organisations to get career development opportunities. A coaching culture is also known to have a positive impact on the commitment of both leaders and staff. A suggestion from the research is that a positive model of managers promotes coaching leadership (DDI 2024a).
The analysis by Larry Yo (2007) was also in favour of a positive example. A coaching culture is seen as more effective than commanding leadership, yet commitment to it is not straightforward. If coaching is not carried out intensively or the interaction between the coach and the coach is not close, the benefits of coaching leadership do not emerge at the level of the entire organization. There is a desire to invest in the development of coaching skills for managers and leaders, but after initial enthusiasm, it is noticed that coaching skills have not been adopted. It is recognised that a coaching culture should be embedded at organisational level and team coaching is seen as the most effective way to achieve this. Team coaching creates a parallel learning process, where participants acquire the ability to coach their attitudes and skills with their own knowledge (Vesso & Alas 2016, 315; Yo 2007,6.)
It has been found that some remote workers feel that remote managers do not know the needs of their subordinates, which is why managers do not know how to support or help their subordinates sufficiently (Larson etc. 2020.) I observe the same phenomenon in the workplace, that sometimes several team members feel that they work alone and feel that the manager does not fully know the work of the subordinates. This is reflected in poor support at work. However, there is a supportive atmosphere in my workplace, but I find it very variable, precisely because of the hybrid work. Monthly development or check-in meetings are attempted, but are often cancelled by the line leader. As a team, we try to have weekly joint Teams meetings where there is an opportunity to discuss more freely or according to pre-agreed themes. A coaching culture requires leaders and managers to be proactive in conducting scheduled meetings and discussions with employees. In addition to self-reflection, leaders and managers should encourage their employees to brainstorm and develop work and working practices. Such that kind of development requires the leader to organise, for example, facilitated workshops or to set aside time for a team meeting.
References:
DDI 2024a. Global Leadership Forecast 2023. Coaching Cultures Are Effective, But Dwindling. Website. https://www.ddiworld.com/global-leadership-forecast-2023/coaching-cultures. Accessed 29.04.2024.
DDI 2024b. Global Leadership Forecast 2023. Website. https://www.ddiworld.com/global-leadership-forecast-2023#. Accessed: 29.04.2024.
DDI 2024c. Global Leadership Forecast 2023. Leaders Crave the Human Experience of Learning. Website. https://www.ddiworld.com/global-leadership-forecast-2023/development-experiences. Accessed 29.04.2024.
DDI 2024d. Global Leadership Forecast 2023. Purpose drives engagement. Website. https://www.ddiworld.com/global-leadership-forecast-2023#
Larson, Barbara Z., Vroman Susan R. & Makarius Erin E. 2020. A Guide to Managing Your (Newly) Remote Workers. Harvard Business Review. 18.03.2020. Article. https://hbr.org/2020/03/a-guide-to-managing-your-newly-remote-workers. Accessed: 30.04.2024.
Vesso, Signe and Alas, Ruth 2016. Characteristics of a coaching culture in leadership style: the leader’s impact on culture. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 14 (2-2). http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.14(2-2).2016.06. Accessed: 10.05.2024.
Yu, L. (2007). The benefits of a coaching culture. MIT Sloan Management Review, 48(2), 6. Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/benefits-coaching-culture/docview/224958946/se-2. Accessed: 13.05.2024