Stuck in the Middle: The Impossible Job of Remote Managers
Nobody ever says “I want to be a manager when I grow up,” but inevitably in our careers it’s likely we’ll step into a managerial role.
For those who are or became managers during the pandemic, they’ve often been tasked with an impossible dilemma: What do you do when Leadership wants everyone back working face to face, while Individual Contributors insist on staying remote?
This increasingly common dilemma is directly tied to the Role of a Manager. At Flip the Script we define the domain of Management as overseeing the Tactical layer that fits between Strategic (Leadership, CEO or Owners) and Operational (Individual Contributors).
It has been well documented now why Individual Contributors love Remote Work. They’re able to increase their productivity, reduce anxiety, gain more control over their time, and (for non-white or non-male employees especially) not have to worry about fitting into an office monoculture.
At the Strategic level organizational Leadership is a lot more skeptical of Remote Work. They often don’t trust their Managers or Individual Contributors to achieve the same level of quality or outputs without being able to see it all happening with their own eyes. It could be that Leadership has learned to work a particular way (ie they’re “old school”) and are more hesitant to change. Or maybe they feel their own identity as a Leader is challenged when they’re stuck behind a screen instead of the hands on approach offered by a shared physical space.
So that brings us to Managers, who are increasingly stuck in the middle.
The first thing to remember about management is that Managers don’t directly create any value for an organization. Instead, they are value multipliers – managing Individual Contributors in a way that (ideally) multiplies their output and the value created for the organization.
They are responsible for understanding and enforcing the strategic decisions made by Leadership (even if they might not completely agree with them).
Managers are also responsible for keeping their team of individual contributors happy and productive (and now more than ever, keeping them from leaving the organization).
This is why when it comes to decisions about how an organization gets things done, the question of how an organization works – remote or hybrid or in-person -- is especially a challenge for Managers. Not surprisingly these Managers are also increasingly burning out and leaving their roles as part of the ‘great resignation’.
So what should the leadership of an organization do as they navigate the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic? Here are three things to do right now with your management team.
Listen to your Managers – They're the ones hearing directly from your Individual Contributors about how the work is going. What’s working about remote, what they miss most about being in-person. When they’re burned out and how Leadership decisions are impacting them (especially going back to in-person work).
Empower your Managers – Delegate more decision-making authority to that management level. Let them make decisions about what’s working for their team and what’s not. If they’ve successfully managed a team remotely for the past year and think continuing to operate remotely makes sense, don’t overrule them and force their team back to in-person work again.
Invest in Your Managers – Managing people is a hard skill, and one that far too people are formally trained in before being thrust into the role. Without training managers tend to emulate the styles of their own managers (most of who were also not trained) thus leaving the probability of learning good management skills to chance and luck of the draw. When it comes to managing a team remotely, a whole new layer of required skills is added to the role.
The debate over in-person vs hybrid vs remote work isn’t one that’s going to be decided anytime soon. And as your organization continues to navigate the changes brought on by the pandemic, strong management is critical to success.
If your organization is looking to invest in its Managers, Flip the Script offers a comprehensive 12-week course for both in-person and remote management.
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