The world of work is changing rapidly. There are more virtual teams, mobile workers, and free agents than ever before. We outsource globally, build ad-hoc project-based teams, and have adopted a more consultative model of employee contribution. Technology has advanced and more workers are telecommuting or participating in some kind of flexible work arrangement.
The work has fundamentally changed, but our leadership style has evolved more slowly. Have you upgraded your leadership style to keep up with today’s flexible workforce or are you still clinging to a traditional “command and control” type of leadership? Here are 5 leadership changes that will not only boost your team’s performance and productivity, but also make managing your mobile workers easier and less stressful for you.
5 leadership changes to manage flexible workers
- Judge performance based on results. Instead of judging performance based on office politics and the amount of time they spend in the office, start judging performance based on the results your employees produce. Are they doing what is required for their job? Are projects completed on time? What about the quality? Many people excel in office politics and spend a lot of time in the office, but don’t actually produce worthwhile results. It’s time to stop rewarding those behaviors and start rewarding only results.
- Pay for results. Instead of paying for a portion of the time (eg, activities completed in 8 hours), pay for a portion of the work (eg, end results). Consider paying per project instead of paying for billable hours. You have hired your employees to do a certain job. Does it really matter how much time it takes to get the job done or does it matter that the job is done? When you switch to paying for results, you’ll see a reduction in time spent on unnecessary activities and your processes will streamline.
- Give employees control of their time as a reward Allowing people to “leave early” or take Friday off unexpectedly isn’t really a reward. However, giving people full control over their time and schedule is a great reward. Whenever your team produces results, let them have full control over their schedule: they choose their work hours and days, they choose when they need time off, they even choose where to work. You can trust your employees to act like adults. If you are focused on results, rather than time, they will make sure they get the job done and do it well.
- Insist that employees only work the hours necessary to complete quality work. Stop waiting or encouraging employees to work long hours at the office. Putting time on your face is outdated. Just because someone is in the office for 10 hours doesn’t mean they’ve done 10 hours of work. They may have spent time in the break room, talked to colleagues, attended meetings, and actually accomplished nothing in the entire 10-hour period. You just can’t judge performance by long hours. Change your mindset by insisting that employees only work the hours they need to complete quality work. Encourage them to go home or take a break when they have reached their goal and do the same yourself; be the model
- Trust employees to act like adults. Isn’t it time we stopped treating people like children and started trusting them to act like adults? Leadership is about providing your team with clear direction, offering resources, facilitating the process, and then stepping back and relinquishing control. Instead of acting like a hall monitor in kindergarten, watching your employees’ every move, start trusting your employees to act like the adults.
These five changes in leadership style will enable you to effectively manage a mobile workforce. Have you incorporated these changes into your leadership style? If not, take one or two turns and start taking baby steps in that direction. These leadership changes are all about keeping an eye on the bottom line, giving your employees control of their schedule, and relinquishing control. If you can master these five changes, you’ll see fewer performance issues, increased productivity, and higher-quality results produced by your team.
© 2009 Ashley Acker