Challenges and Choices in the Hybrid Work Environment

Returning to the Office Provides an Opportunity to Demonstrate Trust

Organizations have an opportunity to intentionally increase trust with their people by the open and collaborative way they handle plans for people returning to the office, says trust expert Randy Conley.

"As a leader, you have a choice on where to invest your energy. You can do it through micromanaging and strictly enforcing everyone's work schedules—or you can spend your time empowering your people, investing in them, trusting them, and helping them achieve their goals, regardless of whether they're sitting in a nearby office or joining a Zoom call from home.”

Now’s the Time for Authentic, Transparent Conversations

Conversational capacity is the ability to have constructive, learning-focused dialogue about difficult subjects, under challenging circumstances, and among people with diverse views. “This is an important skill as we try to figure out what the post-COVID workplace looks like,” says bestselling business author Craig Weber.

“We need to develop this skill for two reasons. First, people have different views about what's appropriate and what's not appropriate based on their previous experience. The second reason is that some people are questioning whether they want to go back to the kind of work environment they had before. So the ability to engage in balanced, learning-focused conversations that take into account the needs of both the organization and the individual is pivotal.”

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Putting Employees First During Change at Global Industrial

Just as everyone was getting used to working from home, we were tasked with the challenge of moving back into the office. “In addition to the turmoil of the pandemic, we knew our people would be feeling many different levels of fear and concern about returning to the office. We needed to arm our leaders with the tools to support their people,” says Joe Dunne, director of sales enablement.

The organization’s leaders already used SLII® and Coaching Essentials® skills to set goals and manage the performance of their teams, so they understood the importance of having effective conversations. Global Industrial mapped the specific competencies of the sales role to each development level of SLII so that the language was embedded into their sales process and culture.

“To continue the great work we had started with SLII, we asked our partners at The Ken Blanchard Companies how they could help us with this challenge,” says Dunne.