Six Areas of Expertise for the Modern Leader

Three in five employees don’t believe their leaders will be able to manage in a distributed environment, saying management is only “somewhat” effective in leading in it. That’s according to Leading From Anywhere: Driving Results in the Age of Distributed Work, a report from the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp).

“Distributed work is when businesses have one or more employees who work in different locations,” states Oracle.

i4cp notes that it’s not just hybrid work or geographic distance that constitutes distributed work; it also involves cultural divides; societal variances; generational differences; and work role, such as gig worker or outsourced talent. Cumulatively, those differences create an array of new challenges for leaders. They also leave leaders burned out and feeling spent at the end of the day, according to the report.

Learning from high-performing leaders

Leaders can take a page from high-performing peers and achieve success in this new way of work, Leading From Anywhere explains, by cultivating expertise in six areas.

Culture. Trust is fundamental in a dispersed environment. Leaders should expect talent to deliver on their commitments; team members should be open to diverse ideas and opinions; and both leaders and employees should collaborate and work in an authentic and transparent manner.

Structure. Structure has always been important, but in a dispersed environment it becomes more critical as leaders navigate multiple workstreams and more project-based models. Leaders need to effectively share priorities and ensure coordination and workload management across all organizational tiers.

Talent practices. Employers can use one-on-one meetings to shape meaningful work and identify growth opportunities. Employees ought to have a mechanism for recognizing their co-workers, and onboarding should include practices that fully embed new talent into their work teams.

Well-being. Highly effective leaders look at the big picture. They encourage not only benefits and practices that limit stress and create a sense of purpose, but also foster an environment where staff develop professionally.

Boundary management. Leaders should collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to align work products with team members’ skills and career goals. Leaders also should drive engagement, share resources where feasible and logical, and clearly prioritize tasks to ensure workloads are sustainable.

Technology. Establishing groupwide norms around technology, including collaboration tools, is—according to i4cp—a next practice, that is, “one that analysis shows strong positive correlation to bottom-line business impact, but is not yet widely adopted.”

Stick to your strengths

Leaders don’t need to be exceptional in all six areas, i4cp explains; rather, it depends on context. One leader may have to focus on culture, while another needs to concentrate their efforts on the organization’s talent practices.

The report notes that using the correct lever can lead to six-times-greater performance in distributed work.

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