#5 - Home - Workplace Castle or Workplace Dungeon? - WFH issue 2
What's the future for hybrid working, part 2
Last week, I responded to an email from Siobhan, a seven-year qualified lawyer, working in-house since shortly before the pandemic. Her team of 12 lawyers (of which she manages one) has been working 100% remotely since the pandemic started, and the message from her business is that remote working will remain the default, post-pandemic. My response, and advice, was directed at Siobhan as a team member, rather than primarily as a manager or leader of people.
This week’s email to me comes from Steve, who is Deputy General Counsel (DGC) of a multinational. My response to him, and my advice, is focused on the best way for him to manage his people, and to lead more generally, while team members are working remotely or working hybrid.
Enjoy reading, and please comment and contribute to the debate by posting direct on Practical Counsel. Also, please write in with your unique people issues to me (jonathan@middleburghassociates.com) - I unequivocally undertake never to reveal your identity and will change key details of your situation so as to preserve your confidentiality and anonymity (unless you don’t want this). I also undertake to write to you personally with my own thoughts and comments on your situation and am always happy to follow up with a call on Zoom or similar.
‘Dear Jonathan’ … and Jonathan’s Reply
Dear Jonathan,
I read last week’s issue of Practical Counsel with interest and was interested in your advice to Siobhan, as a 7 year PQE lawyer.
I am a DGC in a multinational conglomerate (a well known industrial manufacturing company). I operate within UK / Europe and am responsible for a large team of over 30 lawyers. We have largely been working remotely because of the pandemic issues in Europe, although it looks feasible that we will be returning to the office, part-time, shortly. As a corporation, senior leadership hasn’t yet published definitive post-pandemic guidelines regarding WFH vs. hybrid vs. office-based working, but it seems highly likely that it will be a hybrid working model, probably 2-3 days per week office based, the other days working remotely.
I’ve found it difficult leading my people during the pandemic. Everyone pulled together because there was no alternative, but Zoom fatigue kicked in relatively quickly and there have been a number of instances of mental ill-health, almost certainly as a result of the pandemic and remote working.
What’s your advice for leading a team through longer-term hybrid working? Is there a way to do this that’s going to maximise the likelihood of maintaining a cohesive team, while minimising the risks of lack of cohesiveness, ‘under the radar’ wellbeing issues etc. I’d be grateful for you thoughts.
Best wishes,
Steve (he/him)
Dear Steve,
It’s been a hugely difficult two years. Those who have suffered most are those who have lost family and friends during the pandemic. But, as has been reported so many times, across multiple media, there have been many badly affected by the pandemic, in varying degrees.
It has been challenging leading and managing during the pandemic. In responding in last week’s issue to Siobhan, I shared some of the results of the survey I had carried out in the form of a questionnaire to which over 1000 private practice lawyers had replied. The results of my survey were similar to those of other surveys of lawyers – namely that productivity has held up relatively well during the pandemic, that many lawyers have found working remotely beneficial in terms of their personal well-being; but that a significant minority of lawyers have suffered from a range of emotional and other challenges.
I want to highlight a few key findings from my survey in replying to you:
· 27% of respondents reported that their relationships with colleagues had deteriorated somewhat, a further 4% significantly.
· 14% of respondents reported that their ability to work as part of a team had deteriorated somewhat, a further 3% significantly.
· Only 36% of respondents reported that leadership had held virtual one-to-ones to check in with them personally; and only 69% reported that leadership had demonstrated concern for their well-being.
· 40% of respondents reported that the cohesiveness of their firm had deteriorated somewhat, a further 7% significantly.
Steve, these respondents were private practice lawyers, but the majority from well-known and highly respected firms in their respective jurisdictions. The figures might have been slightly better for in-house lawyers, but I doubt that they would have been much better.
My personal view is that the shift from remote working to hybrid working – which appears to be emerging as the predominant pattern – will carry its own challenges. Human beings are creatures of habit and generally respond well to routine. For many, remote working has become a ‘known’ over the last two years; individuals have developed their own routines and these have become familiar over time.
Hybrid working brings with it new uncertainties, especially as the majority of organisations I have spoken to have been loathe to establish hard and fast rules, preferring instead to wait and see what becomes the new normal, post-pandemic. As has been extensively reported, there is a major war on talent in the legal marketplace (especially for more experienced lawyers), and smart employers, be they law firms or legal departments, are avoiding doing anything that will make them either less attractive to prospective employees, or unpopular with their existing workforce.
This decision to eschew hard and fast rules around hybrid working itself carries consequences. It means, for example, that employees are uncertain who they will find in the office when they go there, unless their employer has established core working hours (e.g. Tuesday – Thursday), as some have done. The absence of hard and fast rules can make it hard for employees to decide an optimal pattern for their own working.
What follows are my personal suggestions for how to lead your team through longer-term hybrid working.
· The most important thing is to stay in touch with your team and to listen to what is going on – for each of them. This probably sounds trite, but I think the obvious is sometimes the most overlooked or the least honoured. The results of my survey suggest that a significant percentage of lawyers haven’t felt ‘heard’ while working remotely, either because their leaders and managers haven’t talked to them sufficiently, or because they have talked to them, but haven’t expressed personal concern in a way that has resonated.
· I am going to write in more detail in the next issue about active listening. It’s something that, in my experience, lawyers aren’t always terribly good at. It doesn’t mean having a one-to-one while simultaneously skimming a document or catching up on other emails. It means listening acutely and empathically. Active listening is needed now more than ever for your team members to feel heard and validated.
· Flexibility is good, but human beings also like boundaries. They feel confused by a lack of boundaries, or a lack of clarity. That might sound like I’m encouraging you to baby your team members or to patronise them. Believe me, I absolutely am not. Rather I’m urging you to be clear in your communications and consistent in the boundaries you set.
· I don’t think there’s a magic solution to the current debate – remote working vs. hybrid working vs. office working. Each organisation will need to set its own priorities – and in any event you’ll doubtless be constrained by the rules imposed upon you from above. All I’d say is not to be overly rigid in your application of the rules. This might seem to contradict what I said in my last bullet point; I don’t think it does. It’s a suggestion to temper rules and boundaries with a dose of humanity and common-sense. Lawyers often see life in clear-cut lines and black & white solutions; sometimes the lines are a little bit blurry and the best leaders and managers learn to live with a bit of blur.
· Focus on the practical, as well as getting the rules and your communications right. Your team members will appreciate you hugely if you are able to find practical ways to help them. This might be securing them the bits of kit or equipment needed to make working from home not just bearable but enjoyable. It might be getting them external help when they are suffering from emotional or well-being related difficulties. It might be talking through with them practical ways to keep all of their plates spinning. It’s notable in my survey that a significant percentage of lawyers with child-care issues felt that those issues impacted detrimentally on their ability to work effectively. You can help these employees by working with them to find practical solutions to their individual issues.
· Communicate with clarity and with humility. In one organisation that I have been consulting to, junior (and indeed senior) employees complained that some of the communications from senior leadership were tone-deaf. Purporting to empathise with employees while ruminating on the pleasures of feeding one’s chickens and enjoying country views doesn’t play well with younger lawyers stuck in crowded flat / apartment shares and stomaching the view of the brick wall opposite.
· Try to pick up on what’s really going on for your people. And if you’re not the best at reading the mood music or tuning into the personal (you wouldn’t be the only lawyer who isn’t) empower other colleagues to listen out on your behalf, discretely and empathically. It’s always better to recognise and compensate for your own blindspots than to pretend that they don’t exist, or that you are compensating for them – when you aren’t.
Steve, hybrid working is here to stay, like it or not. Most organisations that adopt a rigid approach to working – insisting for example on everyone being in the office 100% of the time – are, with very few exceptions, going to bleed talent. A very small number of organisations will be such coveted places to work that they can insist on office-based working. Most will not have the pull or prestige to do so, in my view.
So in-house leaders and managers will continue to need to adapt to the reality of hybrid working or remote working. I’ve made a limited number of suggestions above, believing that these are some key ways to lead and manage better in these new circumstances. I’d welcome views and other suggestions from readers of Practical Counsel, and I will try to summarise these in due course.
As always, I encourage members of the Practical Counsel community to write in to me at jonathan@middleburghassociates.com with the people problems and issues that are currently concerning you, or that are issues that come up for you regularly. And, as always, I will anonymise your observations / issues and preserve confidentiality and write to you individually in response to any scenario that I use in this newsletter.
Steve, I hope that you’ll find some of the above suggestions helpful. Please stay in touch and let me know how you get on.
Best wishes
Jonathan
GC Expert’s Insight of the Week
Tapasi Sil is General Counsel (South Asia) at GE Renewable Energy. A former Head of Legal (Gas and Power) at Siemens in India, Tapasi was previously Senior Corporate Counsel at Schneider Electric and has over 15 years experience of managing and leading in-house teams.
Dear Jonathan,
The challenge highlighted by Steve has been a common issue faced across many organisations and companies, including in my own Legal Team at GE. The last couple of years have been unprecedented and brought to the fore a variety of issues, including challenging the traditional 8/9 hours office-based working model.
In my view, hybrid working will probably be the norm going forward – something like 2 days office-based and 3 days online (this will vary from company to company).
The issue at hand is how we as a leadership group / senior managers in legal can keep up morale, sustain energy levels and keep larger teams feeling engaged.
The hybrid mode of working will, in my view, be beneficial, giving more flexibility to employees, saving time (e.g. commute time) and cost (fuel costs / environmental costs etc).
I would highlight the following key points in managing teams remotely / hybrid:
· It is very important to develop trust in your teammates. Treat them as ‘leaders’ in their own individual spheres – this will help in their development and enhance their sense of responsibility. Micromanagement should be avoided at all costs!
· Set up regular bi-monthly, monthly or quarterly ‘non work’ team meetings. These can be virtual or physical. Don’t talk shop in these meetings. Use the meetings to discuss a range of topics, including non-related work stuff like your team members’ hobbies, interests, and other challenges.
· In these meetings and interactions, be the listener. Get to know each colleague better, as an individual, and to establish a personal connect. Have a drink (alcoholic or otherwise), even if it’s an online meeting. You can set the tone that helps your team members to relax and unwind. This will also help the development of trust and make you more approachable as a leader. Depending on the culture in which you are situated it may even be appropriate to bring in other family members, to chat about colleagues’ kids and other relatives.
· To manage mental health and well-being challenges, speak with HR and organise sessions, workshops and fireside chats with motivational speakers and other leaders from the company to understand how people across the organisation (and beyond) are dealing with Zoom fatigue and other mental and emotional challenges.
· As a leader, be available to your team, as much as possible. This will help with team morale, and help with team cohesiveness too.
· When working hybrid, use your offline (i.e. office-based) days to meet colleagues, stakeholders and others. Your online days (i.e. remote-based) days can be designed to be more focused on the processing of your work – manage your timetable and business expectations accordingly.
These are just some of my thoughts. I hope that you find them helpful, Steve.
Best wishes
Tapasi
Key Takeaways
1. Hybrid working conditions require leaders and managers to work even more assiduously than previously at developing and maintaining the trust of their team members.
2. Leaders and managers need to stay in touch with their team members regularly and listen carefully to what is going on for them.
3. Make it crystal clear what the rules are, and what your expectations are of your people; but show flexibility and humanity in applying the rules.
4. Find practical ways to help your employees – whether around well-being issues, child-care issues or other issues caused by the switch to a hybrid working pattern.
5. Have regular one-to-ones and regular team meetings – they are a key priority. But also hold regular social events and provide opportunities for your team members to let their guard down – if they want to.
6. Communicate with clarity and humility. Remember that your team members might be having a miserable time or working in conditions that are more difficult than the ones you are experiencing.
7. Try to pick up on what’s really going on for your team members – and / or enlist others to keep their ears to the ground, to help you to do this.
8. Obtain help from HR and deploy other resources that are available to you, in order to provide well-being sessions and motivational inputs for your team members.
9. Organise your time so that when you are in the office you meet as many people as possible, and spend quality time with them.
10. Be available to your team, as often as you can, and as much as you can.
And Now …
Contribute to the debate and write in with your comments and observations. Also write to Jonathan with any other people issues you face as an in-house lawyer.
Jonathan can be reached by email at jonathan@middleburghassociates.com
A note for you picky lawyers; and a plea for tolerance
I am a British lawyer by background and went to both school and University in the UK. So my English is British English. I have taken a conscious decision to write this newsletter in British English, but to try to avoid phrases that aren’t common outside the UK. Sometimes, though, I’ll use a phrase that isn’t commonly used outside the UK, without realising that it is a Britishism.
My plea is for you to tolerate the British spellings and grammar and the occasional Britishism. And to focus on the substance of the newsletter rather than the occasional (to you) annoying turn of phrase, bit of grammar of unorthodox spelling.
Thank you and best wishes,
Jonathan Middleburgh
The focus on WFH in this and last week's newsletters has offered a useful platform for discussion. Here are my thoughts.
Remote working has become a thing since the pandemic but in fact it has been with us since there was the technology to enable it. The challenge has been the sudden nature of the transition, prompted by Covid, for organisations who hadn't planned for it and had a mindset that suggested this was only a temporary arrangement.
The challenges of running a team remain the same. To build enough trust and ambition to allow a group of individuals to work well together to achieve agreed outcomes. The technology is there to support this and if a team leader can find ways of using it creatively, excellent results can be achieved.
Having said that I agree with other contributors who suggest that finding out what team members need is key. In most cases team members want to perform well and the team leader can do much to make obstacles disappear if they can understand what they are.
Much is written about asking open ended questions but learning to do that under pressure is in fact very difficult. I often suggest using a crib sheet in a 1-1 to help gain valuable information in a user friendly way.
Having mined the information there are ways of discussing your findings with the team and experimenting with different approaches, guided by their comments. You don't have to know the answers, situations are changing so fast it's not possible to know them, you have only to understand how to share the challenges in ways that elicit practical next steps that individuals can take responsibility for and report back on. Regular meetings where everyone is given an opportunity to comment and make suggestions about what they could be doing gradually builds the confidence and commitment that will generate results.
We are in the age of making it up. If a team leader can create a space where it is safe to do so, a lot more can be acheived