top of page

Which questions are CEOs asking about leadership in our new hybrid context and how can teams set-up for success?With my colleagues at the Drucker School of Management in Claremont, California, Vija




With my colleagues at the Drucker School of Management in Claremont, California, Vijay SatheBernie JaworskiKatharina Pick and Dave Specht, we conducted in-depth interviews of CEOs of mid-to-large sized international organizations. The results were recently published in the “Effective Executive” publication (link in the comment below).



From our work, four main questions emerged about their experience of this "at scale" hybrid set-up:


1.    How to create superior customer value from the “living room”?

2.   How to hire/retain the best when the world is flat for talents?

3.   How to maintain executive presence when not physically present?

4.   How to take the pulse of the organization, remotely?


You will find first answers and examples in the article, and yet my belief is that we are still in an emerging, unsettling, state of hybrid with much to be learned.


Most organizations are not convinced that they have found the right balance between F2F and remote. They are still concerned about the mid- and long term impact on creativity, onboarding, diversity and mentoring.


What I consistently see though, as quoted in our article, is that “the quality of time you spend together increases the quantity of time you can spend apart”. And that a few principles help teams to master this hybrid context:


· “Build a sense of community before you drive activity”: meet face-to-face, and regularly, even without a specific need. Why? It helps build trust in good times that you will leverage in hard times.


· When you do meet, ensure there is collaboration, exchange and learning taking place. This how trust is built.


· Explicitly discuss and agree on the way your team will work in this hybrid context. Many teams have simply “slipped” into a new hybrid set-up, without establishing new teamwork standards. It is in those “discussions they are missing” that most of the friction is to be found.



Hybrid is here to stay. And yet it still feels a bit unsettling. Benefits are huge and challenges are real. Let’s continue to shape the Future of Work intentionally! 

Aktuelle Beiträge

Alle ansehen
bottom of page