1.1 Build values alignment

Even in the twenty-first-century world of hybrid working and flat organizations, the hierarchy reasserts itself at critical moments: performance assessment, pay and rewards, promotions and budget negotiations. Firms are becoming more equal, but some managers are more equal than others. The disciplines of management are harder to execute when managing a team of professionals you cannot see. Note the following seven examples:

● Passing information up the hierarchy and passing orders down it – but most information has been liberated by technology from the hierarchy. If knowledge is power, power is bypassing middle managers.

● Monitoring progress and assuring quality – this is much harder when you cannot see what team members are doing.

● Assessing performance – hybrid working forces greater autonomy and accountability for team members, making performance assessment more transparent.

● Delegating work and assigning tasks – delegating becomes harder because communicating is harder on a hybrid team. It is easy to communicate the ‘what’ needs to happen, much harder to convey the full context of ‘why’ .

● Motivating and encouraging the team – you cannot motivate a team by email or instant messaging.

● Solving difficult challenges – professionals do not want the most interesting challenges taken away from them. Hybrid working forces you not just to delegate more but to delegate more effectively.

● Selecting, developing and progressing the team – if they are not with the team in the office, new team members may struggle to know who does what, build relationships and absorb the values of the team.

● Securing budget and resources for the team – it is harder to negotiate for budget and resources when you cannot work out the politics of budget time in the corridor and around the coffee machine in the office.

Each of these challenges of hybrid working will be explored in this book. Hybrid working forces managers to raise their game; you have to be more deliberate and purposeful in everything you do. Informal and ad hoc management worked well in the office: crises, mistakes, misunderstandings could all be solved in real time with the people in front of you. Managing in the office was forgiving of errors, because you could spot them and fix them fast. Managing a hybrid team, on the other hand, is unforgiving: miscommunications are hard to spot and may fester until it is too late. In this chapter you will discover how to build the trust and influence you need for success in a hybrid team, and how to build a team that has strong trust:

● Build values alignment. ● Find goals alignment. ● Demonstrate credibility. ● Manage risk. ● Create your network of influence.