The way teams work is changing, and with it, the role of the people who lead them. As remote and hybrid work become increasingly common, managers are facing questions about communication, collaboration, trust, and team performance.
As part of PSM’s Future of Business series, we invite our professors to explore questions that are shaping the future of management and leadership.
In this article, Anna Provodnikova, Head of the DBA Program at PSM, shares her perspective on the future of team leadership. With expertise in Strategic Management and Leading and Managing Teams, and experience across both academic and international business environments, Dr. Provodnikova brings a valuable perspective to the question:
Will Tomorrow’s Managers Lead Teams They Rarely Meet in Person?
Article By Anna Provodnikova, PhD
Head of the DBA Program at Paris School of Management
Remote models are increasingly common in today’s global work environment. To lead a team is a challenging task, especially it is tough enough to lead a team that you never meet in person. It includes many things, from inspiring and engaging employees to supervising and building rapport in your team.
What are the crucial factors for effective virtual management? They are Emotional Intelligence and better knowledge about work-life balance.
Emotional Intelligence
If you want to be a successful remote leader, you need to develop the ability to understand and manage your own emotions and recognize the emotions of your team. Emotional Intelligence is a critical factor in leadership, particularly in remote workforces.
Virtual managers need to develop social awareness and emotional intelligence. They cannot see their staff in person; they deal with strong emotions due to cultural differences, time zones, and technology. It is easy to misunderstand what someone feels without seeing them, their gestures, and their emotions. Therefore, a leader who works remotely must be aware of the emotions of their team members. Using emotional intelligence by managers can prevent conflicts and misunderstandings.
Managers with Emotional Intelligence give their teams confidence, patience, and engagement so the work keeps flowing. They create safety and openness in the working environment where their employees can trust their managers, feel secure to express their ideas, and expose their emotions without being criticized.
One of the challenges for virtual management is to keep their teams responsible while working from home. Managers with a high degree of Emotional Intelligence manage to set up clear goals, be fair, and protect their staff from exhaustion, particularly by recognizing signs of burnout and disengagement.
Work-life balance
Healthy work-life balance is one of the important aspects of virtual leadership. On the one hand, leaders must create a balance between their own professional and personal lives, as one of the challenges for virtual leaders is to keep work-life balance and overcome the temptation to be online all the time. On the other hand, virtual leaders must accommodate work-life balance in their teams in order to prevent burnout and support the overall well-being of their employees.
The development of policies that encourage work-life balance is especially important for female leaders who must balance their work with family obligations. These policies must include flexible work schedules, parental leave regulations, and remote work choices.
For effective leadership in remote work environments, management styles must be adjusted to the needs and challenges of their teams. Successful remote leaders must pause and reflect on the mental health of their employees as well as their own health, and be able to overcome any obstacles of remote work.
So, what makes you a successful virtual leader? While some managers put much effort to quickly adopt a remote workforce, they do not put their employees’ personal needs and mental health first, that hide on a deeper level. They view these issues as less urgent than technical troubleshooting. But leading a remote team is a far more challenging process that includes burnout, isolation, and poor mental health. As a leader, you need to be able to identify when your team members are struggling. You must create a new digital life that can help your employees to have a sense of belonging and feeling that they are looked after.
Future outlook
It is expected that more companies will maintain a hybrid workplace model. It offers a competitive business advantage as it attracts and retains talented employees. This business model supports work-life balance for employees and offers employees and employers more flexibility in planning work activities.
Physical office spaces will remain attractive if certain benefits are provided for employees, from healthy food to a vibrant and social atmosphere. Supportive collaboration, social interaction, and knowledge sharing will be the most significant reasons for being physically present in the office. Moreover, it will be crucial to develop modern, flexible, inspiring, and sustainable workspaces in order to attract and retain talent.
Future leaders
Future leaders must excel at balancing virtual workspaces with human skill sets in order to create a trusting team-working environment. The significant elements of effective leadership are trust and human connection, especially in hybrid and remote teams. The main priority for future leaders is relationship-building, providing support, offering guidance for team members, and fostering an environment where employees feel understood and motivated.