What actually wouldn’t be on the list (always like to start with a twist!) when working with our Exec and senior leaders is TRUST. This just hasn’t featured in our conversations, we really haven’t heard of concerns around not trusting people when WFH. Interestingly we operate a HOT (honesty, openness, trust) principle with all of our Exec teams based on the belief that if you invest energy into opening up, sharing and communicating the trust will follow. It seems to be bearing fruit in this new way of leading

Where we would place some emphasis is the ability to ‘read people’, to be able to pick up on the subtleties, nuances and cues in your interactions with your people whether in 1:1’s, groups or teams. Always an asset in strong leadership but when working virtually leaders may need to rethink how to pick up and respond to verbal and nonverbal signals both from peers and direct reports. This means eyes and ears everywhere as well as delivering on the issues at hand

Emotional investment follows on from this because what we actually have heard lots about from leaders is how much easier and effective virtual meetings can be in covering the tactical and transactional agendas. Result! A positive. BUT, equally we hear how much more demanding it is to pick up on the less tangible agendas around culture, tone, mood all of which ultimately count towards lasting effectiveness. Both are needed and personal levels of comfort and discomfort need facing up to and addressing – we all as leaders have to now, more than ever, dig deep and look to develop leadership qualities we are less comfortable with

This leads onto leadership styles and how working virtually may shift the emphases given to a range of communication strategies; when to ask and question more than tell, how to provide greater clarity on context and purpose, making sure everyone is participating (on or offline) even when a deadline is looming. To some degree it mirrors the art of good facilitation where inclusivity, challenge and achieving outputs with shared levels of commitment all need to happen within a prescribed time frame. Most importantly, the responsibility for initially making all of that happen seamlessly is with you as leader

The good old Johari Window (which we have referenced before) comes into its own when looking to raise levels of self-awareness with its quadrants on Open/Blind/Hidden/Unknown. The challenge is to reapply it to the context of leading remotely, what does it throw up for you when viewed through this different lens of leadership? It’s a great exercise and so useful to compare with how you would have answered when you could actually sit in the same room as your teams and peers (remember that?!)

The desire for creativity seems to be popping up more now than it was at the beginning of the pandemic. As we adjust to WFH and virtual leadership becoming part of the day to day fabric of how we all operate we’re increasingly hearing teams and leaders craving more creative input – but they don’t quite know how to encourage or engage with it. Almost Catch 22, this requires some creative intent and purpose before the creativity can happen! Working out inventive ways of changing agendas and ways of inputting to up the energy and creative buzz

Positioning with clarity – we could write that word in 6 foot high letters and it still wouldn’t be big enough! Now more than ever, if you want your people to become involved, to produce results through their own initiative and act at pace they need to appreciate the what and the why. We are all being stretched in so many ways, personally and professionally, and we don’t have the luxury (who thought it was one in the first place!) of a quick head round the door and just checking out what it’s all about to make sure you’re on the right track. There’s a fog that can get in the way of our messaging and we need to make sure we have cleared it before setting people onto task and into action

The responsibility of ensuring your teams’ mental wellbeing is in a healthy place, left until last because it’s probably the biggest challenge facing leaders now and one of the hardest to deliver. How many times we have heard in the past that folk can feel under appreciated by their leaders, or they simply don’t know if they are highly rated and most commonly the power of celebrations are undervalued and utilised. Magnify the feelings of insecurity this can lead to by whatever large number comes to mind in these times of virtual working. Genuine appreciation and kindness are being ranked higher than ever before in terms of organisational values and approaches to leadership. People need to know they are valued and if there are performance issues these need handling in sensitive and clear ways with some space for discussion and a checking out of the impact of the feedback