The hidden opportunity for humanity behind remote work
do you know this story
of this man who’s lying on his deathbed
with his wife next to him
asking him what his last words are
the man looks into the eyes of his wife
and says
darling i wish i had spent more time
in the office
now culturally the office is not the
place where
we imagine to spend most of our lives
but why what is it that we need
but seem not to find in the office
and how is this going to unfold now that
the world is remote
because with most of the influential
companies
announcing that they are staying remote
we’re seeing the start of a
true revolution
but this revolution is not about
deciding whether offices are a good or a
bad place to be
it’s not about deciding where people
work
no this remote revolution is about
rethinking redesigning
and rebuilding the way organizations
function
and how we lead people remotely
and that’s why i believe that this
remote revolution
is our best window of opportunity to
make a lasting
positive impact
and that’s why i am here today to change
your views on the remote work
by showing you three opportunities in
remote work that most leaders are not
yet fully aware of
and those three opportunities will not
only be part of shaping the future of
work
it will also reconnect the remote
workplace to what we people need
and those three things are trust
purpose and strength
now let us start with trust shall we
who have you ever experienced the need
to clock in and clock out in
the workplace you know to track your
time
how did you feel
right well my friend last year told me
that she had quit her job
when i asked her why she told me that on
one afternoon she went to the doctor
with her little child
when she came back home she got a phone
call
it was her supervisor he asked her
why she wasn’t working that afternoon
when she later found out that his
company was tracking the activity on all
the remote laptops
she felt so untrusted as a person that
she left this job on literally on the
same day
now she’s okay now but with this story
we probably all of us remember
situations in which we felt untrusted in
the workplace
and i do for sure and i also remember
just
how bad i felt as a human being not
being trusted
but this remote revolution gives us new
opportunities
opportunities to build new organizations
new company cultures
where we have real trust at the core
because when the world went remote you
would expect
automatically that the supervisory
aspects of an office place would fall
away
and that trust would increase but the
opposite is true
because in 2020 79 of people reported
some level of micromanagement
in the remote workplace
micromanagement is the opposite of trust
it’s the number one killer of
psychological safety in the workplace
and when we people feel untrusted
we are unhappier we perform less
and we leave companies faster
and that is a real problem because
trust has value for human satisfaction
in the workplace
and for businesses because in a study
done
by watson wyatt a large hr company
they found that high trust organizations
have a three times
higher output to shareholders compared
to low trust organizations
so when we people feel trusted in the
workplace we excel
but we have forgotten to give freedom
and autonomy to people in the workplace
and we can prove it with this high level
of micromanagement that was reported
in 2020
this relates to remote work because
trust has always been important
it’s not now that trust is more
important than in the past
but this remote revolution does more
than changing the way we work
this remote revolution also exposes
companies and leaders
suddenly we are able to see whether it
was real trust or fake trust back in
those office days
now remote rev this world revolution
gives us the opportunity to build new
company cultures
with real trust at the core how
leaders must design the organization
around giving autonomy and freedom to
people
in the company it is essential to
succeed at remote work
and that is the possibility the
opportunity that we have right now
but what if you do give trust to people
in the organization
how do you then make sure that you get
the best out of them even when they’re
sitting at their kitchen table
well to do that people need to really
understand
why their work matters and this leads me
to point
number two purpose
because when we are sitting in an office
space
it is easy to feel like you’re in it
together you know we’re aiming for the
same thing
but when you’re sitting at home it
becomes very difficult to feel like you
belong to a team
and working on something meaningful
and that is where purpose comes in and
i’ve seen the value of purpose
in my management career because at age
24 i got promoted to a warehouse
director
and i was very inexperienced i struggled
a lot as a matter of fact
but thankfully i had a colleague steve
he was 40 years older than me and he
decided to mentor me
and so we would go on a trip through the
warehouse
to observe people working
and he would ask me leon what do you
see here and i would look around and i
would say
well i see people working
all good and he would say
no you’re wrong what you see here is
lethargy
they are tired i said
tired they started working an hour ago
how can they be tired already
he said no they are not tired because of
that
they are tired because they lack energy
enthusiasm and motivation in their job
i said okay you got my attention
why is that
he then told me something
which still today is deeply in my belief
system
he told me that day
what they need here is to understand
why it matters to spend here most of
their lifetime
picking up pellets and putting them in
trucks what they need is
purpose as your job as a leader to give
it to them
i was blown away by those words
i even didn’t really understand them
back in those days
but throughout my 20 years of leading
people and teams
i got to see the value of purpose in the
workplace for both
people and the business
and there’s data too to prove that
because
a large management consulting company
did research
towards purpose in organizations and
they found that
83 of people want a purpose
in their job to find a deeper meaning in
day-to-day work life
but in the same study only 21
of people said that they actually find
purpose
and this is this is too low because
just like with trust purpose motivates
us to show up and makes us feel good
about what we do
and when people in the workplace feel
good about what they do
they’re more engaged and when people are
more engaged
it’s not only good for satisfaction in
the workplace it always leads to better
business results
how does this relate to remote work then
well imagine you’re sitting at home at
your kitchen table
not understanding why it matters
to today do that work what is the
importance of your work
the risk is that work becomes very
transactional
lonely there’s even a risk that people
become commodities
just being paid for a to-do list
and we must avoid that because
everything
with trust purpose has value for people
and businesses
in the workplace and what leaders must
realize is that for people to succeed at
their kitchen table
they really need to understand why their
work matters
how can leaders do that by designing the
organization
around an articulate mission and vision
statement
having powerful company values with
which people really resonate
so that they feel they belong to a team
with a meaning
even when they’re sitting at home that
is the opportunity we have right now
with this remote revolution
but what if you do give trust and
purpose to the people in organization
how do you make sure that they stay
engaged and stay
motivated well to do that people need to
work within their
intrinsic strengths and that leads me to
point number three
because we all of us have this
biological
computer program defining our traits our
preferences
and our strengths and when we know our
own strengths
and those of our colleagues it opens
doors
knock knock for interpersonal coaching
relationships
and that is a good thing because the
gallup institute who does a lot of
research towards human engagement in the
workplace
found that among a dozen of large
companies
their highly talented engaged people had
something in common
93 of them said my manager coaches me
on my strengths when people work within
their intrinsic strengths
they get intrinsic motivation and
intrinsic energy
and it increases engagement and we know
by now what
engagement does but
we have learned to choose jobs based on
whether it’s close to home or it pays
well
or it’s in line with the studies
and we forget too often that we must
choose also jobs
with which we can really maximize the
use of our strengths
and i saw the value of using strengths
in my management career
because last year i met erica
and she’s my business partner before i
met eric i was working for two years
alone
and i’m not a strong executor from
nature i’m a
strong communicator i’m strong in
strategy and comm and and futurism
and not being strong in execution made
me lose time and energy in those two
years
erica on the other hand is a strong
executor strong in achievement strong in
intellection competition she gets things
done way faster than i do
but ever since we both work together
we’re both happier more productive
and moreover our business results have
been ever better ever since
working within your strengths and
complementing yourself with people
gives value to people satisfaction in
the workplace
and gives business value and this
relates
to remote work because now we have the
chance to choose jobs wherever it is in
the world
to really maximize our strengths how can
new leaders use this
by designing the future organization
around what
strengths are why they matter and how to
work with them
essential for people to succeed at the
kitchen table to work within their
strengths
now is the opportunity to do that
you see now
that this remote revolution is much more
than a shift from an office to a kitchen
table
it is a shift in our work culture
and what leaders must realize is that
in order to succeed at this remote work
revolution
they need to design organizations that
reconnect the workplace to what we
people need
and those three things are trust
getting freedom and autonomy in our work
purpose really understanding why
our work matters belonging to a team
with the same meaning
and working within our strengths so we
feel good about what we do we’re
motivated to show up
and be at our best even when we’re
sitting at a kitchen table
those three things are the real
opportunities in this remote work
revolution
and it doesn’t matter whether you
are an employee or a freelancer
or a leader because these three
opportunities are for everyone
everyone has the inequality to step up
as a leader
and to demand these opportunities in the
workplace
because think of all the possibilities
when there would be more
trust purpose and strength through
everyone’s
work life we would not only increase job
satisfaction
we would also tackle complex problems
such as
climate change pandemics
and poverty way faster
as one global united remote
workforce this
is our time together
we have an opportunity here to make
remote work
not just a consequence of a virus
but a new start for humanity to rethink
redesign and rebuild the organizations
of
the future and with that
i want to inspire all the leaders out
there
to take this remote revolution as the
best
window of opportunity to make a lasting
positive impact
in the world
you know this man that story
with this man on his deathbed you know
with his wife next to him
his wife asks him what his last words
are
the man looks into the eyes of his wife
and this time answers
darling i am happy that i spend
most of my time with you because
i was trusted in the workplace i got
freedom and autonomy
to have a work-life balance i found
meaning in my work
and i maximize the use of my intrinsic
strengths
to serve this world
isn’t that something we all of us want
deep inside