Remote team management: Moving from control to trust, from Anne-Laure Marcadet
Photo by Charles Deluvio
Several months after the transition to teleworking, many organizations are wondering what comes next. Some have decided to continue to telework 100%; others meanwhile, opt for alternating between being in the office and at home, while some professions have no choice but to return to being in the office only.
Although highly appreciated by workers, the benefits of teleworking have still not convinced some managers. A Léger survey conducted on behalf of the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Québec (CCIQ) among a representative sample of private employers with 10 or more employees indicates that 93% of employers want to bring employees back to the office, in particular because they believe that there is no gain in productivity.
Why is office work so popular with executives and managers? Because it allows for better control of employees, especially in terms of their actual working time.
Let us present you with a different perspective. What if this type of management, mostly based on control, and supervision was made obsolete?
What if, instead of controlling work time, we control the results achieved, regardless of the time spent?
This results-based management approach has been adopted by several governments, including Quebec, France and the United States.
What if, at the end of the day, managers had a little more confidence in their employees to get the job done, as long as the deliverables are delivered on time? Since trust is one of the key success factors in teamwork, whether it is with colleagues from the same organization, with partners or clients, it is important to recreate it to better meet challenges together.
In fact, many studies have demonstrated the impact of trust on commitment, autonomy and performance.
Paul J. Zak, founding director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies and professor of economics, psychology and management at Claremont Graduate University, has demonstrated through his studies that building trust reduces stress by 74%, increases commitment by 76% and increases productivity by 50%.
Why rely on trust rather than control in your teams? Because by being more autonomous, your employees are more proactive. Proactivity means initiative, the ability to propose ideas, to create new ways of doing things, even new products or services. In other words: Trust is good for the ability to adapt and to innovate. And in these times of COVID, where everything is changing rapidly, organizations that still want to be around in a few years cannot afford to miss out.
So why is it so difficult to trust?
First, because it totally challenges the traditional role of the manager, the one who knows, who has more responsibility and who decides alone, a trend that can be reinforced in these times of uncertainty.
Secondly, because it is not something that can be decreed overnight. It must be done in a structured approach at several levels: At the level of leadership and team culture, at the level of skills and know-how, as well as at the level of the monitoring tools made available to employees. Because trust does not mean that employees have no framework. Quite the contrary, they are now accountable at the individual and collective level.
We therefore suggest asking yourself a few questions in order to move from strict management to marked out trust:
What role do I want to play from now on as a leader, as a manager?
What do I have to accept to let go? And what will I gain?
How can I assess the level of autonomy of each of my employees to ensure that they are ready?
Considering where each member of the team is at, what do I need to feel confident? Conversely, how do I create a healthy and open work environment where everyone feels free to try, share and therefore create?
What sandbox do my employees get to play in? What are the winning conditions, the limits?