A number of leaders are struggling to figure out if their employees are performing. Here’s what I recently heard from a frustrated manager:
“I’ve no idea when my employee logs in and out. I don’t know know what to do.”
This is a typical case of misattribution. Instead of optimizing for visibility, we need to optimize for performance.
Gone are the days when we’d look at the door and silently judge when our employees walked in late or took off for a long lunch.
ICYMI – Google and Facebook are not bringing their workforce back this year, and Twitter’s going to let some employees work from home indefinitely.
Here’s the CEO of Box talking about the same trend:
In the new world, leaders will need to optimize for more sophisticated metrics such as trust, connection, and quality of output versus vanity metrics like “time clocked in“. I think this is a welcome change.
Leaders and founders will have to double-down:
- Clarity of messaging (Hi-fidelity)
- More storytelling and innovative ways of sharing it (visual and bite-sized). Some CEO[s] are opting for video messages versus company-wide email announcements.
- More goal-setting and measurement. (This needs to happen across all levels)
- Leaders will have to establish boundaries for themselves and lead by example for the rest of the group to follow.
- More humanity and empathy (one can only hope).
Change is coming and it’s coming fast. I see some bumps, but I’m optimistic.
Hope you’re well
Ali
