Ep. 153: Heather Polivka - Leading Hybrid & Remote Teams

Email:  heatherp@heatherpsolutions.com


Linkedin: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherpolivka/


Design your hybrid/remote work experience: 
https://www.heatherpsolutions.com/


Train your new/first-time managers to lead hybrid and
remote teams: 
https://www.awesomepeopleleaders.com/


FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch:
(00:05)
 Welcome back to Count Me In. Here with you again is your
host Mitch Roshong and this is episode 153 of IMA's podcast
series. In today's conversation. You'll hear about leadership
needs that relate to hybrid or remote teams as you listen to my
co-host Adam, speak with CEO advisor and speaker Heather Polivka.
Heather founded Heather P solutions to work with progressive
leaders of small and mid-sized businesses to accelerate revenue
growth by creating work environments where people thrive. Keep
listening to hear her discuss the evolution of business
leadership styles and how to overcome the challenges associated
with each.
 
 Adam: (00:50)
 We're talking about remote work today, and it's been
something, a topic that everybody's been talking about,
especially with the commencing of COVID-19 and every that, how
that shook the modern world as far as the work world and
everything else. So we're going to focus really on a remote and
hybrid work, as people are coming back to offices. And so let's
start with this question. How is remote and or hybrid work
benefiting teams or businesses now?
 
 Heather: (01:17)
 There was a lot of benefits. I obviously, I think people
know the benefits from an individual employee perspective in
terms of flexibility, maybe saving on that commute. And you give
some of the time back to the company and some of the time back to
your, your personal life. But that also that, that benefits teams
a lot, first of all, teams and business now have a broader access
to talent. You're no longer stuck within your particular
geography in terms of, you know, who has the skills or the
experience that you're looking for. So it allows you to build the
team with the skills and capabilities and experience needed to
forward your business strategy. The other thing is retention of
talent. You know, an employee moves away, goes to school for
whatever reason gets married here, relocates, you don't have to
actually lose that talent. You can keep them wherever they go.
And I think that's particularly when I've worked for employers
that really like to employ military veterans and their families.
And so that is a whole host of talent that you get to retain even
as they, as they move around. And there has been some
productivity, at least maintenance and in many cases gains. And I
think it's because the number of people are doing what I said at
the beginning. I used to do this. Like if my commute time was an
hour, I would give a half hour back to me for sleep or working
out or whatever, and I'd give a half hour back to the company.
and so that has helped with some productivity. And then the last
thing I'd highlight is it's broken down some of the barriers
between work and life. And I know that, millennials in that have
not necessarily had those strict walls between work and their
real life, but I know maybe for those of us a little bit older,
we kind of had that separation going on. But when you've got kids
hopping in the zooms and dogs barking in the background, it makes
everyone more human. So while we've had less one-on-one
interaction, it's also, I think, broken down some of those
barriers that we used to maintain between work and life and a
good way.
 
 Adam: (03:27)
 It's almost like you can still be professional and then
have a dog barking in the background and under, and everybody's
been there and seen that, and it's no longer this taboo thing,
you know, like that businessman who was talking on the phone in
the news and his wife came in and the kid came in, his wife came
in to just get the kid out and nowadays people are like, oh,
there's your child. And they would just keep moving on, you
know?
 
 Heather: (03:48)
 Exactly, exactly. And I think that's, that's, I think
that's healthy and that's really good. And I think it's
particularly healthy for leaders to kind of shed a bit of that
and make themselves a bit more human and vulnerable in the
workplace.
 
 Adam: (04:05)
 Speaking of leaders, how do you think they need to evolve
their style to work with remote teams? And then, you know, on the
other side of that, what types of leaders should companies be
looking for in this type of environment?
 
 Heather: (04:19)
 Yeah, that is such a great question. I think one that a lot
of companies are struggling with, particularly I tend to work
with more small and mid-sized businesses. And, but my background
obviously is in fortune 100, many times, especially when you're
talking executive leaders, regardless of the size of the
organization, there is a way that we have all learned how to be
successful. I pulled this lever, I do this thing and it creates
those results, right? So we're now asking a whole host, a
generation really of executive leaders to no longer really use
the formula that they know, and that has been successful for
them. And guess what, they're human and that scares them very
much. And that's led to some of the defaults thinking of, we've
got to get everyone back in the office and because that's the way
they know how to lead. And so when we asked, like, what do we
need from leaders to lead in this environment? You know, one is
the old command and control model of leadership doesn't work well
in hybrid and virtual work, right? Because even if you're in a
hybrid work, you can see how people, when they're in the office
are going to be doing more of the kinds of work that it involves
interacting with other people. So a leader could walk through an
area and just see a bunch of employees sort of sitting and
talking in the lounge area, which quote, unquote, doesn't look
like work. And yet that's the kind of work they're going to focus
in on when they're in the office, because their intense focus,
productivity work is the work that they can do at home. So that
command and control of if you monitor and you manage employees
that doesn't work well in hybrid or virtual work, instead leaders
have to shift to managing the outcomes and the objectives and
supporting people in whatever they need, whether it's what
resources do you need, or what roadblocks do I need to break
down? You know, what is it I can do as a leader to support you,
to deliver on that outcome? And that's very, very different than
managing people.
 
 Adam: (06:34)
 For sure. So what are some of the challenges that come up
when you're, when you're, when you, so let's say you've gotten
that style, you're getting that style down. What are some of the
challenges that you are going to start facing as you work with
remote and hybrid teams?
 
 Heather: (06:46)
 Yeah, there's, there's four buckets that I see most of the
challenges come into and it has to do with communication,
performance management, relationships and project or task
management. Those are the four buckets and some...