CAVO Ep. 77: Leadership Trends to Watch for in Remote Work for 2023

Will the topics and events we witnessed surrounding remote and hybrid work in 2022 continue in 2023? What new matters and actions might we see in 2023? Shauna Moran, a remote and hybrid team performance coach, facilitator, and trainer chats with Melody Rawlings, Director of CAVO, to answer these questions and more.

To learn more about Shauna, visit https://www.shaunamoran.com/

Transcript

Melody Rawlings
0:00 
And welcome to the Center for the Advancement of virtual organizations podcast trends to watch for in remote work for 2023. I'm Melody Rawlings, Director of Cabo and today I'm joined by Shana Morin, a human focused performance coach, facilitator, trainer, and author specializing in Empowering Entrepreneurs, leaders, teams, and professionals to achieve alignment, success and peace both within themselves and their work. Today, we are discussing trends to watch for in remote work for 2023. Welcome, Shauna, and thank you for taking the time to come and chat with me.

Shauna Moran
0:37 
Thank you so much melody. I'm very much delighted to be here.

Melody Rawlings
0:41 
Yeah, it's exciting to welcome 2023 And the new opportunities for advancing remote work. And before we dive into our discussion, would you just get us started by telling us a bit about yourself?

Shauna Moran
0:52 
Absolutely, yes, I'm based here. It's an Irish accent that your listeners will be hearing. But I currently reside in Vancouver, just off the coast of Vancouver, actually on a little island called Bowen Island, the unceded, territory territories of the Squamish nation. And I've lived here for about three years. And, you know, I work primarily remotely, I support remote and hybrid teams. And I've been doing that long before the world shifted to remote. I've been doing that for the past six years.

And my story started when I worked for an international company remotely for Ireland, from Ireland. And I experienced a lot of challenges, as well as a lot of benefits of remote working. But there were many challenges there in relation to burnout, which is the big one, engaging team members, understanding how we connect and collaborate in a virtual world, making sure there was no proximity bias, because we did work in a hybrid team. And at that time, you know, there was nobody talking about remote work, there was nobody researching it, there wasn't any resources like your podcast. And your resources that you have. It was it was something that was nearly swept under the carpet, really, people didn't want to say they were remote working. And so what what happened for me was I decided to go back to university while I was working. And I researched innovation management, and I based all of my research for a whole year around for motion hybrid companies.

And from that research, I was able to make improvements within my team and support my organization and changing their culture. But what happened was, I was approached by a lot of the people that I was working with the clients I was serving who were, you know, technology companies and agencies, and they were saying, Shona, we've been remote, and we don't know what we're doing, or, you know, we are struggling to find local talent, we need to hire remotely, we want to support different time zones, how do we do it. And that's where the seed for operate remote was planted. And quite quickly into speaking with these companies, these entrepreneurs, these teams, I realized that there's a, there's a huge piece missing in being able to support them and being successful at remote and hybrid work.

And that piece that was missing was really the emotional intelligence piece. And the part where we need to look inwards, that self awareness where we need to change the way we think, right, because that's a huge part of being a successful remote team. And that's when I decided to go back and specialize as an executive coach. And that's what I do today, and I've done for the last five years is a blind coaching, training, consulting together to create a holistic view of remote work. So one of the biggest challenges that I solve for organizations is supporting them in reducing that burnout. And I've actually just written a book and published a book at the end of 2022, on managing employee burnout, how to create a happy, healthy, and engaged team.

And that's really, my area of expertise is supporting organizations and getting to the root causes of what's going on, in their organization within their teams. So that everyone can can just feel happier. I mean, ultimately, that's, that's my goal. That's my impact. My intention is, you know, life's too short to feel unhappy at work validity. So that's why I'm here, you know, to help people feel happier in their work.

Melody Rawlings
4:24 
Oh my goodness, yes, it is. It is too short to be unhappy in anything that we're doing and you've hit on so many different topics I wish we had time to really delve into. I do have to say I love your accent love the Irish accent. I love your accent. Well, thank you and you live in an amazing place. I've been there just enough to know how beautiful it is and and what what a great place to live and I'm sure it's must be inspiring as well. And, and what you mentioned about the astigmatism I know you didn't use that word, but the astigmatism is associated with working remotely what like, I think you said people didn't really want to acknowledge they were working remotely back before remote work was a thing, right.

And so that's just really interesting. I also worked remotely just while worked in actually more of a hybrid format, before hybrid was a real thing. And as in higher ed, so I worked. I taught classes, a couple of days a week, face to face, and then I taught online, and then we're talking back in the early 2000s. So it really resonated with me, so many of the things that you said, and I think you would agree that we witnessed some interesting events surrounding virtual work in 2022. And of course, it is still evolving. And you alluded to that, in that introduction that you gave, is we are still seeing virtual work or remote work evolving.

And but in 2022, we saw things like that come to mind or like the great resignation, quiet quitting. And perhaps the most significant was the new policies on hybrid work. And the challenge that brought and I've heard other remote experts talk about hybrid work is even more challenging than remote work. But of course, that could be a podcast in and of itself. Do you believe any of the trends that we saw in 2022 will continue into 2023?

Shauna Moran
6:18 
Great question. For me, you know, doing this work, it's it's important to be aware of the trends, for sure, and to look at what's going on. But when we think of the great resignation and quiet questioning and these terms that have been created for this, my question is always why, you know, why is this happening? What is the root cause of this.

And, in my experience, you know, there's there's a handful of root causes, but one of the biggest ones that I see is that teams are burnt out, they're unhappy, they're unfulfilled in their work. And whether that is because they've been asked to come into the office a couple of days a week, and their commute is a couple of hours long. Or it's because, you know, their workloads have intensified, which is, is huge for a lot of people right now, because we've had to cut costs across the organization in some cases. So it means that people are taking on more work, or whether it is they, you know, don't have that support from their manager, it's really important to look at, what are the root causes behind it? You know, why are people leaving our company? Why are people just quitting without having a conversation around it? How come our managers or leaders don't know that there's an issue in the first place? So, you know, do I do I believe that any of these trends are going to come forward in 2023? To some extent, yes. Because research is showing us that even in 2023, burnout is still one of the biggest challenges for organizations for teams, Slack did a recent survey and found that 43% of middle level managers reported burnout. So like 43%, is huge.

And I can guarantee if that 43% are experiencing burnout, which they are, their teams are also having the the ripple effect of that they're probably stressed and overwhelmed themselves. So my work is all about understanding what the root causes are. And, you know, I do this by looking at the three major pillars of reducing burnout, and where burnout comes from. And the first pillar is the self. So how are we as individuals equipped to understand ourselves? What's that level of self awareness? Do we know? How to manage ourselves to prioritize? Are we aware of how to eliminate distractions when we need to? Do we understand stress and how it shows up within our body? Are we aware of our nervous system? Do we have strategies in place that work for us that can calm that nervous system and bring us back to a state of of rest and digest? Are we supported around creating and communicating healthy boundaries? Do we have that balance for ourselves? So the second piece is a huge is a really big pillar. But as we know, burnout is not an individual problem. It's a systemic issue.

So the other two pillars are equally if not more important. And the second pillar is leadership. And leadership accounts for up to 70% of variance in employee engagement. So take this 43% of middle level managers, if they're burnt out, they're going to have a massive impact on their teams engagement. huge, absolutely huge. So how leaders are showing up in terms of there's a couple of key things that I go through, but I'll give you top level. You know, helping team members manage their workloads, having a centralized place, making sure there's realistic timelines, ensuring that their team members are clean You're on, this is what's expected of me, these are my key responsibilities.

And this is how success is measured. And I can measure myself, and you can measure me on making sure that I have quality, ongoing, trusted support for my leader on an ongoing basis. So that there is that psychological safety that those doors are open. And finally, that there is fair treatment at work, you know, that I am treated fairly by my peers that I am respected, that I feel safe. There, they're the main key areas within the leadership category. And that also falls into the third pillar, too, which is the organization. And when we're looking at what is the impact on an organizational level, it's looking at things like remote first processes, right? How many team members are burned out that have back to back meetings all day, every day? Right? So we need to revisit those processes on an organizational level? What's our mindset as an organization, our culture, you know, do we promote hustling, for example, and gogogo mentality?

Or are we allowing our team to go with ebbs and flows, and to really do a retrospective after a big sprint? So all of these things come into consideration, but they're the three core pillars. And honestly, when I speak to organizations, I say, it's you don't have to do something revolutionary. And sometimes looking at what other organizations and the big tech companies are doing can distract us from those foundational principles that I truly believe and know are the most important things, you know, when it comes to reducing these trends and reducing burnout show for all?

Melody Rawlings
11:39 
Absolutely, and I'm glad that you made the point of we'd label these things such as great resignation or quiet quitting, but it is it's it's the causes of these things. So that may be the term or the label that the media are whomever put on it. But what is what's underlying that, and what what's causing that. And so you bring up several different things, and burnout and stress, I do hear that, and I read about that, and I hear it from other virtual experts as well.

So is a real problem. And, and there's just things that we haven't worked through that we will agree continue to work through and hopefully improve upon, and you gave some great ideas for how those can be. Maybe not overcome completely but mitigated and we can strive toward toward come overcoming them completely. So do you feel that remote work in 2022 became stronger or mobile, more well established? Why or why not?

Shauna Moran
12:40 
In 2022? And yeah, I mean, to some extent, I think there's, there's two, there's two sides to the coin. There's the companies that truly embraced remote work, whether that was 2020 2021 2022. And by embracing remote work, I meant that they went all in, and they said, Okay, we're going to work remotely, we're going to, we're not going to wait for us to be able to come back to the office. You know, we're going to embrace what we have right now, which is remote work, and we're going to put all our energy, there are resources there. And we are going to consistently improve the way we operate as a remote team.

And those companies, you know, I've seen last year have really started to get into thriving as as a as a remote organization, then you had the other companies that were, you know, still very much considering coming back to the office. And you know, a lot of them came back into the office in 2022. And they've been trying to navigate this hybrid world. But we have to remember that a lot of our team members, a lot of professionals have had a lifestyle change since they were in the office in early 2020 2019. You know, and I see this a lot with my clients, their team members have maybe moved to an island like I have, or, you know, they have, you know, they've had a kid and they understand the benefit of being able to work from home because they can show up more in both areas of their life.

Or they've got a dog at home and they're like, Nope, I'm not leaving this dog every day. And I see this. So there's a resistance when it comes to do people actually want to be in the office or not. And a survey done by zippia It was in Forbes a couple of days ago said that 68% of Americans would prefer to be fully remote. And that shows us that the definition of success for people has changed. It's not to say they don't want in person or they don't want the office, but we have to be we have to be really listening to what our teams want.

And you know that is that is really really important as we go into 2023 and not to try To force wash, you know, the force what's what, what we think is best for the organization. And I, you know, I had a client recently, and they're hybrid, and there were two days in the office. And then they went up to three. And, you know, I was working with the executive director, and he was saying, you know, we want people back in the office, because creativity is higher. And that's just the way it is. And although our teams don't really want to be in the office three days a week, creativity is higher, and it's better for the organization. So my question to that is, how do we measure that, and it's very difficult to measure creativity, it's often a feeling that we get, you know, by what we see happening, it can be difficult to measure that and quantify it.

But it's really important that we do, because with any change that we make, so whether we say to the team members, two days are mandatory for now, here's why. Here's the data until we get to the level that we want, then we can open up even more flexibility, right? So it's trying to balance that organizational need with the needs and wants of our employees, and really listening to what they want. But educating them on what successful flexibility looks like and what needs to be met in order to do that, I think is really important.

Melody Rawlings
16:19 
Great points. And I agree with you, how do you measure creativity, and there are another and I've read them many articles out there that supporting the fact that people are more creative when they're working from home or working remotely. So that so you would find just the opposite of that. In you know, in some of this research that has been done. So you're kind of alluded to this about for 2023, do you have anything further that you want to add about what might be on the horizon for 2023? Regarding remote work,

Shauna Moran
16:55 
I think that you know, there's going to be more opportunity for for flexibility. And that's going to be a huge, a huge opportunity for organizations to double down on supporting team members being able to have have more flexibility in their day. That's that's ultimately where we're going. And so, you know, doubling down on things like those remote first processes, making sure that output is measured, you know, asynchronous communication is going to be even more important than ever. I read actually, somewhere last week, someone posted asynchronous communication is just going to become the norm.

And I don't know if I would agree with that just yet, because I think there's a huge gap in knowledge from from workers as to how they can be effective asynchronously. I mean, and then you have the likes of Shopify, I don't know if you read that melody, but they they close all meetings with three people, three participants are over for 2023. So very drastic change. And I would love to know, and I haven't found any information on that yet. But, you know, how are they supporting their team and developing their skills around asynchronous communication, if there's going to be no meetings with more than three people. So I think companies are going to try a lot of different experiments around this, which can be good. But ultimately, we need to come back to making sure that our teams are equipped to handle these changes.

And they're clear on the why, you know, why are we learning more about asynchronous communication? Why you do? Why should I invest my time in this? Well, if you do it equals more flexibility for you? And what does that look like in your in your weekly work week? So getting teams on board are going to be even more important than ever. And, you know, finally, I think, just with the the economic climate, or, you know, what they're saying about us, you know, there's there might not be as much of an opportunity for a lot of organizations to hire different positions.

So it's going to be really important this year to make sure that our team members are supported in managing their workloads, understanding their capacity, and that they have the trust with their manager that they can prioritize When, when, when it's needed, because even last year, you know, with a lot of the leaders that I coach, it sometimes can be a case of an extra task on that really sets them into that stress cycle. And that can be that can be detrimental. So making sure that we're being realistic, and we're reality testing, the workloads that we have, and the output that's expected is going to be really important as well.

Melody Rawlings
19:40 
Absolutely. And when you mentioned trying new things, employers will be trying new things. So you know, the word experiments come to mind experimenting with different approaches, different policies and procedures and so forth. And that that also, I'm sure you agree would bring a lot of stress or could bring a lot of Stress, as people don't know what to expect, or don't know what they're going to run into, or find the next day at work or what policy has changed, so it's going to be interesting.

That's for sure. So that brings me right into the next question I have for you. And that is what might remote workers do to promote and sustain remote work, remote work for themselves or to support their organization to thrive in remote work, which well, I think both first to promote remote work for themselves. And then how could they do that to their organization? at large?

Shauna Moran
20:36 
Yeah, yeah. Well, so firstly, with, you know, remote workers themselves, and this, it doesn't matter what level of the organization you're at, whether you're somebody very junior, you're an individual contributor, or leader, we all need to be proactive about sustaining ourselves. And it's not a case of, you know, maybe years ago, you would have set a schedule every week, and you would have followed that to a tee. And it was, it was quite rigid, and it worked.

The world that we live in right now is very disruptive, and it's changing all the time, there is so much change, change is constant nearly every day, in some cases, whether that's what the project you're working on, as you said, Melody, the the policies that are changing internally, there's always going to be change. And then you add in things like time zones. And you add in things like technology. And thankfully, you know, technology allows us to work remotely, and it's wonderful. But there's also limitations to it. Right? We can be constantly connected, we might struggle with that separation from work and home.

So you know, for anyone listening, I think it's really important to look back on 2022, the last couple of years, your experience so far with remote working, and trying to establish you know, the things from your experience that served you well. And in terms of your mental, your physical, your emotional health, are the things that did not serve you well. And I want to give some examples to get people thinking about that. Right, so So maybe let's look at the things that didn't serve you well. So it might be things like, you know, maybe you've said yes to too many meetings.

And the days where you didn't take a break throughout the day, you've noticed that it was more difficult for you to focus and to concentrate. Or maybe it's you've noticed, you have a habit of even when you you shut down your laptop, you're on Slack, or you're on email on your phone in the evening. And you kind of always have, you know, an underlying current of thinking about work. And that's not serving you because you go to bed, you can't sleep, it's a very common story, you go to bed and you can't sleep, because you're thinking about work, then you don't get a good quality sleep, and then you wake up the next morning, you're fatigued, and you're drained and you're tired. So looking at the things that did not work, and what can I do to change that in 2023.

And it doesn't have to be those massive goals. Really, you know, I've worked with clients where I've supported them in removing things like slack off their phone, setting better, better boundaries with technology, and that has made such a difference to to everything to their level of focus to their happiness to their well being to the quality time with their family. So looking at what what is really going to support you to anchor it in 2023. And then also what are the things that served you equally as important, there's probably some things that you did or are doing that are working really well for you. And it's always a nice reminder to say, to look back on a time, when was the time I felt happiest when I was remote working?

When did I feel, you know, at my best in terms of my energy levels in terms of the quality and clarity in my mind, in terms of my, my my own well being and look at what were you doing around that time, I think is really important. And you might identify some some things and practices that you were doing that maybe you haven't been doing since. So that's always a good way to start. And, you know, as I said, those root causes that I mentioned, managing your workload, getting clear on that having a centralized place for that. Starting to have regular conversations with your manager or your leader. And asking them for support around that workload when you need it speaking up about that is really going to be something that will drastically improve your quality of of life, really, and your quality of work.

And, you know, then I think in terms of how remote workers can support their organization and being better at remote working, you know, something I do a lot with organizations is create standard best practices and operating procedures and things like how do we how do we use Slack in a way that is Not interruptive for people, how do we how do we create a list of do's and don'ts that that work for us that are effective, that are flexible. So I think, you know, researching that for yourself and starting to explore some of the best practices around the tools that you're using, can really work speaking up, and if something needs to be improved on. So for example, if you get an an invitation to a meeting, and there's not a clear agenda, and it's two hours long with no break, and there's no attached documents, etc, etc, there's too many people that speak up, right, hold others accountable to doing better as a remote company.

And finally, the other thing is, you know, asking the asking the questions around your own output and sharing that. So if you can get to a place as a remote worker, where you are proactively sharing information about what you're doing updates on your projects, or your workload, and you're sharing that in an asynchronous way, you're starting to create that environment where we don't need to have as many real time meetings to provide those updates, you know, so we can actually use time together in real time to deeply collaborate or brainstorm ideas rather than providing updates.

So thinking about your own transparency, and that is also going to support you as a remote worker, because you're going to feel more confident in the transparency that you have, and then your communication. So you're going to get, you know, approval reflected back to you. So you're going to feel more more confident and grounded in what you're doing, which can be challenging when we're working remotely, you know, we ask the questions, are we doing enough. So this is something that will support you as well.

Melody Rawlings
26:46 
That's such great perspective and advice. From a personal level, and just doing an inventory to see what does and doesn't work. Sometimes I think we are so busy, we don't even have time to think about that, or we don't find the time to think about that. And then I hear from so many people having issues sleeping at night because they can't get work off their mind. They're thinking about what they didn't do or should have done or will be doing tomorrow.

So such a great point there. And just to know what worked and what didn't work is great advice, and then focusing on what does work and trying to reduce or eliminate what didn't work. And then on the employer front, speak up. I think that's so important as not to be quiet when you need to talk to your manager about what's not working. Once you've done the personal inventory, and you know, what's not working, then speaking up and going to your boss, just great, great advice. I couldn't take notes quite quick enough. So I had to reconnect with you some time just to fill anything I missed, but I'll go back and listen again.

So really appreciate it, Shauna, it's just been such an informative conversation. Are there any closing thoughts you would like to leave with us? For example, could you let our listeners know where they can purchase your book and how they might connect with you?

Shauna Moran
28:07 
Absolutely, Melody, thank you for having me on and for creating the space to talk about these really important topics. So thank you for that. I'm very grateful. And yeah, secondly, if anybody wants to connect with me, you can connect with me on LinkedIn, Shawna Morin, head to my website, www dot operate remote.com. There's actually a freebie section on my website, where you can download an eight part free video course, that will support you in identifying your team's Root Cause when when it comes to burnout.

So anyone listening that seeing burnout within their team within their organization that will support you in establishing what that root cause is for 2023 and beyond. So you can actually solve it without wasting time and money. And then, yeah, on the book, you can get on on all major platforms like Amazon, for example. But I do want to offer a discount to anyone listening here today. Or at any time, there is a link below in the show notes where you can get a 20% discount. So you can click that and enter the discount code at checkout. And the book is called managing employee burnout, how to develop a happy, healthy and engaged team.

Melody Rawlings
29:20 
Thank you so much, and for that code, so our listeners can benefit from a discount there. So it's just been a pleasure chatting with Shanna Morin, thank you for joining us in support of the Center for the Advancement of virtual organizations. We greatly appreciate your insights and know our listeners will benefit from your expertise.

Shauna Moran
29:41  
Thanks, Melody.