Geraldine Woloch-Addamine is the Founder & CEO of Good4work, Team Engagement Software for remote teams. She is French and lived in Paris before moving to San Francisco in 2014 with her family. She provides thought leadership to help managers and leaders build their new virtual leadership style. She draws her inspiration and expertise from a variety of diverse stories she’s experienced while navigating 15 years in the corporate world in France and the US as a Manager, HR Business Partner, and Director in large, mid-sized, and small businesses of the industrial and high-tech sector. Geraldine holds a Masters in HR from Sciences-Po Paris and an HR certificate from UC Berkeley extension.
In 2022, the management upskill begins with building new professional networks.
What do managers need? All the studies mention a solid managerial approach will be the cornerstone of the Future of Work.
For this reason, managers must learn how to be great communicators and coaches to develop their team members through supportive and consultative behaviors before challenging them.
When leaders believe in innovation to make the change happen, it’s called transformational leadership. They work on inspirational motivation while challenging their people with trust and respect. Many organizations went through this process successfully during the pandemic.
Changing a culture to adapt to the virtual world is about giving a new meaning to the effort that transcends everyday problems.
Key learning #1 - Picking the right tool is critical
Experts vary on the number of cognitive biases we may hold. The scariest list comes from Wikipedia, with over one hundred - 188 to be exact. Less than 20 permeate the workplace. People's beliefs create a corporate culture. And I wonder to what extent they might be at the root of the resistance to change that is slowing down the Future of work set up - the flexible workspace - that a large majority of people want. Let’s dig in.
For the remote or hybrid market to be mainstream, some people/companies have to take risks for others, and this could give a long-term competitive advantage to them with better people retention rate. But why does it take so long to implement social innovations?
As humans, we need to “see” to decide
Why do we have so much resistance to change for the flexible workplace?
Social innovations and the adoption curve
To date, all the surveys and data show that 75% of employees would prefer working from home at least half the time. Even more powerful data underscores that minorities would prefer working remotely to escape tensions at the office.
How to become the best people ally
What’s cool with the 2021 role revamp of HR is that the hybrid constraint pushes practitioners and business decision-makers to put people first in the competitive war.
Considering people are the best asset of modern management and top-notch companies, it offers a bright future to the HR role. What other functions can recruit, make all the people love their companies, grow and stay to such an extent? It’s also a huge responsibility.
The concept of trust perception combines three psychological factors: competence, benevolence, and honesty. Considering that one of the most critical skills of a Manager (especially in the virtual world) is communication, you can’t build trust without being intentional about connecting with EACH of your teammates. And not just with teammates you like or know better or meet in person.
Over the past few years, the employee engagement market has slowly but steadily shifted towards the Employee Experience.
Companies now understand the importance of winning the talent war as their best competitive advantage.
We are going through a blurry, timeless world where any processes, defined roles, and responsibilities can increase team cohesiveness and productivity. Equally, leaders can benefit more from leadership routines to improve performance.
Virtual leadership routines are essential for three reasons:
1- "Leadership is a muscle you practice"
It’s okay to learn how to be a strong virtual leader because, as Simon Senek says, “leadership is a muscle you practice,” and most of the time, people are not taught how to lead. And if leadership is a gym, you can learn how to be a good coach and motivate virtual teams by tapping into everyone’s strengths and potential.
We see that it’s quite hard to shift in a fully virtual environment because it requires a new skill-set for managers. But let’s not forget the purpose, as we are all working on building the best virtual workplace.
Now, let’s dig into the most complicated challenge at the core of the new virtual leadership skill set. How to get the most of the virtual workspace and hit collective goals while respecting individual freedom and work-life balance?
We usually love being on track with our plans, and the least we can say is that a global pandemic is a significant obstacle to moving them forward. We are stuck if we don’t adjust to the new environment, and it’s forcing us to get out of our comfort zone.
