Pillar I: Create a Unified Hybrid Leadership Team

1. Using values to unify
   • I articulate who, in my leadership team, is involved in the process of identifying company values.
   • I get full commitment and buy-in from the leadership team on company values.
   • I encourage my leadership team to research inspiring core values.
   • I consolidate company values with my management team to integrate the ones that resonate most.

   

2. Role-modelling and setting the tone
   • I build trust by refraining from rushing to fix things; instead, I allow my team members to think through challenges themselves.
   • I build trust by saying when I don't know.
   • I adopt a positive attitude by being mindful about how much time is spent with negative co-workers.
   • I adopt a positive attitude by choosing positive language and becoming more conscious of the words being used.
   • I adopt a positive attitude by being nice to colleagues.
   • I inspire my team by setting a clear goal for my leadership team to inspire their team.
   • I inspire my team by offering personal and professional development opportunities, encouraging continuous learning (online or face-to-face), normalizing feedback, and encouraging knowledge sharing.
   • I inspire my team by sending regular pulse surveys asking for feedback and taking action on the feedback shared with me.
   • I inspire my team by exhibiting integrity and by conveying the importance of integrity within my leadership team.
   • I inspire my team by exhibiting integrity and by asking my management team: ‘What makes integrity important in our organization?' ‘How will integrity allow you to do your best work?' ‘Who do you need to work with to exhibit high levels of integrity?'
3. Setting common goals
   • I identify business goals for my leadership team by facilitating the process and letting my leaders contribute so that they feel emotionally involved in the goals.
   • I ensure that my leadership team comes up with their own common goals because it creates accountability and ownership within my team, and it will keep team members aligned towards a shared objective.
   • I pose the following questions to my leadership team to help them set common goals: ‘What does our company/team/business unit stand for? What are our values?' ‘What is the reason the company/team/business unit was created?' ‘Where do we want the company/team/business unit to be in 10 years, in 20 years and in 30 years?' ‘What is one goal that will never be compromised for other goals? In other words, what value is more important than any other value in our company/team/business unit?'
   • I help my leadership team set SMART team goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely) because I understand that when my leadership team do this they are much more likely to focus their efforts and achieve their goal.
   • I ask my leadership team the following questions to help them set specific SMART team goals: ‘Are our team goals specific enough?' ‘Are our team goals measurable? If so, how will we measure our goals?' ‘Are our team goals achievable?' ‘Are our team goals realistic?' ‘Do our team goals have a timeline associated with them?'
   • I shared with my leadership team some examples of SMART team goals.
   • I make sure that my SMART team goals are aligned with the business goals that have been previously identified by our team.
   • I document team goals because I understand that writing down goals increases the likelihood of achieving them.
   • I ask each of my leaders to write down the team goals in their strategy and to share their strategy with each other.
   • I encourage my team to use active words such as, ‘We will increase our customer NPS to 90% within the next 6 months across all geographies.'
   • I don't have just one leader solely accountable for a team goal; I ensure that every leader plays an active role for each team goal by articulating how each leader will play a role for each goal.
   • I am specific and clear about what success looks like.
   • I ensure that each team goal is connected to the business goals and the organization's values.
   • I measure progress on team goals through frequent check-ins and ensure that progress tracking is part of our regular meetings agenda.
4. Creating opportunities to co-lead
   • I match leaders intentionally for co-leadership projects by thinking about the outcome and asking questions such as, ‘What am I hoping to achieve with this co-leadership team?' ‘What result do I wish to get with this specific team of leaders?' ‘How will this co-leadership further unify my leadership team?'
   • If some of my leaders are not as aligned or as unified as I want them to be, I consider asking them to become a unit by inviting them to co-lead a specific project together.
   • I always consider matching leaders from departments that do not usually interact because I understand that these cross-functional, co-leadership teams will spark creativity and innovation and open up new collaborations that will further align my leadership team.
   • I monitor and facilitate the relationship between co-leaders because I understand that co-leadership projects will inevitably bring some conflicts. I know that healthy conflict is actually essential for the success of the organization because it allows everyone to feel heard and valued, and it helps reach the best outcome for the business.
   • I expect conflict, and I tell my leaders to also expect natural, healthy conflict during their co-leadership journey to normalize healthy, productive conflict within my leadership team.
   • I encourage my co-leaders to establish some rules that will help them reflect on their co-leadership dynamics.
   • I remind my co-leaders to ask for help when they meet a roadblock.
   • I remind co-leaders to define roles and responsibilities.
   • I encourage my co-leaders to be open and honest about who owns what and to keep each other accountable.
   • I encourage my co-leaders to bring the fun into their co-leadership projects.
   • I remind my team that co-leaders who are having the most fun in their projects are often those who also are the most successful with their projects.
5. Scheduling informal time
   • I set up non-work-related spaces to better build rapport, trust, and positive feelings among my leadership team.
   • I create Slack channels that are dedicated to non-work topics, including: pets, family, games, motivation, travel, weekend plans, etc., for my leadership team to encourage small talk and informal conversations between my leaders.
   • I encourage the CEO, managing director, or the most senior person to be an active participant in these non-work-related Slack channels so that other leaders and employees will mirror their CEO's behaviour and share their own personal stories.
   • I host virtual breakfasts, lunches, and coffee breaks, and I pick a day and time that suits most people by taking into consideration time zones or by rotating the time to make it fair for everyone in a dispersed team.
   • I pay for my team lunches because it demonstrates that it is my organization/team/business unit who wants to facilitate social interactions between all colleagues, and because it also sends the message that my organization values time spent together socializing.
   • I test the format of my virtual breakfasts, lunches, and coffee breaks and I let participants get involved.
   • I host group learning sessions because I understand that leaders and employees will stay at the company longer if I invest in their career development. I recognize that learning and development sessions at work boost employee engagement and improve collaboration.

Pillar II: Build Extreme Transparency

1. Attract and retain transparent people
   • I check all candidates' references rigorously by posing open questions about the candidates to their previous employers and listening without interrupting.
   • I document everything so that I can go back to my notes if needed at a later stage.
   • I contact the references myself if I am the hiring manager, rather than using a third-party agency, because it's important that I speak with previous managers to get as much context and background as possible about my prospective employee.
   • I give candidates assessments to test their skills, work style, and experience before hiring because I understand that assessment tests are a great opportunity for me to assess how transparent the candidate is, based on the information they shared previously on the resume.

     

   • I research the candidates online to judge whether they are the candidate they claim to be on their resume because this will help establish how transparent and trustworthy they really are.
   • I pay attention to a candidate's body language and tone of voice during the interview process because these can reveal a lot more about them than the words they use.
2. Encourage leaders to embrace social media
   • I encourage my team leaders to embrace social media by sharing valuable information for our customers online because I understand that this will organically build trust with our customer base, and it will also build credibility and thought leadership.
   • I encourage my team leaders to embrace social media by reading and responding to people's reactions online because I understand that social media is a two-way communication, and this will build engagement.
   • I understand that connecting with customers online will also build brand loyalty, so by inviting my leaders to read users' comments and respond, it will demonstrate that we actually care about our customers and prospects.
   • I invite my leaders to leverage social media by focusing on company culture because I understand the importance of engaging with employees' posts on social media.
   • I encourage my team leaders to embrace social media by being authentic.
   • I invite my leaders to leverage social media by sharing what they are comfortable sharing and building on it, because I understand that the more they share, the more natural it will become for them to share, and the more trust it will build with our community.
3. Promote open communication
   • I host open meetings where all participants are encouraged to speak up and contribute.
   • I often implement the round-robin method where each participant takes a turn to speak.
   • I often appoint a dedicated meeting host to ensure that each participant gets equal speaking time.
   • I foster open communication in hybrid work by limiting the use of chats during meetings because this can be very distracting and take the attention away from the presenter.
   • I encourage meeting participants to speak up if they have any question or feedback during the meeting so that everyone can hear them and focus on what is being said rather than being distracted by the chat conversation.
   • I prioritize networking as often as possible to foster open communication.
   • I often start meetings with some icebreaker questions for the participants.
   • Wherever possible, I try to schedule some networking and team-building time face-to-face as this is the most powerful way to build rapport. If face-to-face team-building is not possible, I host virtual networking meetings.
   • I do frequent check-ins with my team, and I practise an open-door policy.
   • I send emails to my team to say that I am available at specific times for catch-ups to encourage people to call me and discuss any topic they want to.
   • I invite people to add colleagues during meetings when needed to encourage an open-door policy in a virtual world.
4. Create a flatter organization
   • I empower front-line employees to get involved with the leadership team.
   • I create opportunities for front-line employees to speak directly with the leadership team.
   • I host regular all-hands meetings that are hosted by individual contributors because this is a powerful way to achieve extreme transparency and to let information flow from employees who are ‘on the ground'.
   • I delegate decision-making to everyone because each employee is trusted to make the best decision for the organization, without any need to request approvals.
   • I encourage everyone to become role models, even more than in an in-person environment.
   • If I work in a hybrid work environment, I work as many days remotely as I do in the office, sending the message that I support a hybrid work environment.
   • I encourage my senior managers to become inspirational leaders and to lift people up by celebrating employee empowerment.
   • I invite leaders in my team to embrace opportunities to mentor some employees to show their support and availability.
   • I lead through consensus because as the organization becomes flatter and as the team continues to be geographically distributed, it is important that leaders transition from a traditional ‘command and control' leadership approach to a ‘consensus-led' approach to leadership.
   • I often ask open questions in team meetings; I listen and take notes.
5. Create employee-to-leadership communication channels
   • I support two-way communication between the leadership team and employees.
   • I host long Q&A sessions in my weekly town hall meeting, and I host special Q&A sessions based on the feedback I received in previous town halls to show that I listen and that I care, and I want to continue the discussion.
   • I proactively ask for feedback, and I act upon it.
   • I make information accessible to every employee, in a way that makes it easy for employees to find where the information is.
   • I foster a culture of authenticity to build trust in a hybrid work environment.
   • I understand that authentic leaders who communicate often to all employees build more trust and transparency in the organization and set the tone for what type of relationships they want to see in their organizations.
   • I measure employee engagement in order to adjust the communication channels.

Pillar III: Overcommunicate Through All Channels

1. Assess your communication channels
   • I survey employee engagement by sending a monthly pulse survey focusing on communication. I make sure that this survey is anonymous so that employees feel safe to voice their concerns and ideas in a secure environment. I also analyse results based on the employee working style: the responses from fully remote employees might differ from the responses of the fully office-based employees, which might also differ from the hybrid employees.

     

   • I host focus groups to discuss communication channels. I take the time to collect qualitative feedback to understand the real challenges and opportunities related to communication in hybrid work.
   • I study performance data from communication tools and technologies, including performance data from the monthly internal newsletter, intranet usage, instant messaging app, monthly all-hands Zoom call, or any other internal communication channel.
   • I pay attention to employee turnover, and I hold exit interviews and spend time with employees leaving to understand their reasons for leaving.
2. Schedule strategic regular meetings
   • I choose the right meeting cadence for my team to decide whether we should hold quarterly meetings, monthly meetings, weekly meetings, or daily meetings, based on their feedback and need.
   • I ask my team how often they wish to meet.
   • I set up some cadence meetings with my direct reports.
   • I ensure that I don’t cancel one-to-one meetings without rescheduling because it will be more difficult to build trust, inclusion, and belonging in a hybrid work setting if I frequently cancel important cadence meetings.
   • I set up cadence meetings with the team because I understand that teams really come together when they meet.
   • I pay attention to the time allocated versus the time actually spent in team meetings.
   • I focus on team morale and engagement at work because this is a great indicator of the effectiveness of my team meetings.
   • I frequently ask myself if the people in the meeting are the right meeting participants and if some of them should be in separate meetings, and I do an audit of my meeting agenda.
3. Cultivate empathy and appreciation in communication
   • I acknowledge and compliment employees' work when necessary, especially remote workers and hybrid workers who could often feel that their hard work is not being recognized as much as their office-based counterparts.
   • I understand that people working in positive environments where praising is common practice are more likely to praise their co-workers' work, which in turn, creates a virtuous cycle of praise, appreciation, and empathy.
   • I encourage managers to show their appreciation of their hybrid team by offering rewards.
   • I often ask for feedback about work, workload, and progress, as well as about work-life balance, any need or help, or anything else that the employee feels is important.
   • I take time to build trust and rapport with each and every one of my colleagues before asking for feedback.
   • I build rapport with my colleagues every day by checking in often, asking open questions, and practising active listening.
   • I leverage technology to collect feedback by sending monthly employee pulse surveys to gather quantitative feedback.
   • I support flexible work by becoming a vocal advocate of flexible work.
   • I often talk about my support for flexible work during team meetings, one-to-one check-ins, and any company all-hands meetings.
   • I often ask my team members and co-workers how they feel about their current working environment, and I listen to their requests.
   • I always seek to find out if any of my team members are going through a challenging time and might need special working arrangements to demonstrate empathy and to nurture a culture of camaraderie and support, which is fundamental in a hybrid workplace.
4. Co-create a new communication framework
   • I identify and articulate new engagement rules in hybrid work because I understand that communication is more asynchronous than in an office setting, that employee distractions from work are more frequent (family members, kids, pets, deliveries, etc.), and that it is more challenging to achieve a sense of familiarity between employees organically.
   • I ask my colleagues how they want to engage with each other, what channels they prefer to use for each project, and how they want to share information in a way that is productive and mindful of everyone's work preferences.
   • I do not assume that my own personal preferences are the same as my team members' and ask my team how and when they want to collaborate.
   • Once I have identified how my team likes to collaborate, I write down these rules of engagement, and I share them with the wider organization and make them accessible to everyone.
   • I revisit our rules of engagement regularly as new team members join the team and as new needs and trends arise, to refresh them and keep them current.
   • I document processes and technology to improve collaboration, especially for new starters who are not familiar with the systems and the team.
   • I discuss with my team members what they would like to document in relation to communication guidelines.
   • I write a handbook for my team on how to communicate in a hybrid work setting and share this handbook with new starters and the wider organization.
   • I organize office working days by allowing employees to decide how often they want to meet in-person, where they want to meet in-person, and what format they prefer for a face-to-face gathering.
   • I ask colleagues what works for them and how I can facilitate in-person meetings, I invite all employees to contribute to the discussion, and I listen to what is being said.
   • I involve people in organizing in-person office working days to build a more participative approach to communication in my team.
   • I schedule time for frequent improvements for my team's communication framework.
   • I discuss with my team members how often we should revisit our communication framework.
   • I often ask my colleagues when they would like to refresh the team's communication guidelines and tools to adjust to their changing needs.
5. Communicate with equity and inclusion in mind
   • I make a point to over communicate with all employees in order to make everyone feel included and part of the team.
   • I replicate informal office interactions.
   • I send weekly emails to my team, I host informal chats with remote employees, I encourage pre- and post-meeting socializing, I hold company-wide meetings to sync up, and I highlight my team's success internally.
   • I refresh my internal communication channels and also help create more inclusion and equity between remote employees and office employees.
   • I describe explicitly which channels should be used for various types of communications (email, chat apps, meetings, etc.).
   • I encourage more inclusive practices such as choosing to use group email threads where project discussions are visible to everyone rather than one-to-one emails.
   • I ensure equitable practices by reviewing workplace practices and policies, as they might hold hidden bias towards in-person workers, giving them an unfair advantage.
   • I focus on results-based performance rather than office-presence evaluations to ensure that remote workers are assessed fairly.
   • I am intentionally transparent about the principles used to determine who gets promoted, who gets recognition, who gets new projects, who gets new assignments, etc.
   • I hold people accountable to create a culture where a sense of fairness is pervasive.
   • I monitor feedback closely to recognize the needs of remote workers.
   • I talk openly with my team, acknowledging the issues that hybrid work can bring and hosting team meetings to discuss hybrid work.
   • I organize team-building activities such as a group walk ‘n' talk.
   • I start a unique conversation by creating a list of unique questions for my team.

Pillar IV: Unify Cross-Cultural Hybrid Teams Through Cultural Awareness

1. Promote psychological safety and inclusion
   • I set the tone and lead the way because I understand that, in a virtual-first work environment, employees look up to their team leader, managers, and leadership team more than in a traditional office setting for direction on how to behave.

     

   • I am willing to be vulnerable and model that it is acceptable to make mistakes, in order to build psychological safety.
   • I frequently say thank you to people sharing opinions and using a direct and respectful style of communication.
   • I challenge assumptions, and I commit fully once decisions are made and respond positively to challenges.
   • I share positive examples of successful organizations that have achieved amazing success based on their focus on psychological safety, to help convince my team that they should try it.
   • I help people connect by facilitating conversations that are focused on building connections, rapport, and camaraderie between team members.
   • I host meetings to discuss everyone's hobbies, favourite holiday destinations, and interests outside of work. I create Slack channels for my team to discuss personal news and hobbies. I start an Employee Resource Group about common interests in my team.
   • I create a space for my team members to share their personal interests and to help them connect and create more psychological safety in my hybrid team.
   • I am vigilant, and I watch out for harmful comments.
   • I pay extra attention to seemingly harmless comments from team members such as, ‘you should already know this, we already talked about it last week', ‘you should be familiar with that process since you have been here six months', or ‘we already discussed that and decided what to do so there is no need to debate it anymore'.
2. Create a cross-cultural awareness programme
   • I plan for success before I start implementing any cross-cultural awareness programme, and I consider how much my team is already going through.
   • I find ways to get my team excited about a cross-cultural awareness programme so that they are interested and fully embrace it.
   • I ask my team what they would like to learn about each other's cultures.
   • I share examples of successful teams that have embraced cultural diversity awareness and that have become twice as productive as a result.
   • I explain why I believe that cultural awareness in our team will help everyone better understand each other and communicate in a hybrid work environment.
   • I leverage existing channels and regular meetings to facilitate this cultural awareness programme.
   • I use storytelling as a way to communicate about cultural awareness because stories are universal, and they transcend cultures and individual backgrounds.
   • I share anecdotes about cultural awareness to help increase employee engagement, because people respond to people and get inspired by other people they can connect with.
   • I encourage employees to share their stories related to cultural awareness, without forcing them to do so.
   • I prioritize culturally aware communication within my team.
   • I become more aware of local colloquialisms and expressions, and I replace these informal ways of speaking with more standard ways of speaking to improve communication.
   • I raise awareness about differences in communication styles by sharing examples.
   • I understand that learning is a journey.
   • I understand that we all have unconscious biases and we all communicate differently based on the culture we were raised in.
   • I set the expectations with my team members that understanding cultural differences is a journey, not a destination.
   • I set the tone that we are all in this together and are all here to learn and attract more interest and engagement from cultural awareness training.
3. Consider language fluency and national communication norms
   • I take into consideration language training for my team.
   • I understand that some of my employees might not understand all the idioms, expressions, and ways of saying things that are used by my native English speaking team members.
   • I explain to my team that language training can improve understanding from all the non-native English speakers in our team.
   • I use simple language, and I repeat myself often to establish the rule implicitly that others should do the same.
   • I avoid using jargon, idioms, or complicated vocabulary when it's not necessary.
   • I share the message that simplicity in language is key, especially when my team is hybrid, international, and distributed over different countries.
   • I also use visuals that are universally understood in my presentations to convey my message clearly, such as infographics, charts, and pictures.
   • I discuss cultural differences, and I show respect for other cultures.
   • I talk about famous cultural holidays in the countries where my team members are from, to educate my team about different norms and traditions.
   • I celebrate all the national holidays of the countries that my employees come from to create the opportunity for my team to spend some time together whilst learning about a colleague's country history and culture.
   • I remind my team to show respect for other cultures and languages.
   • I do not tolerate jokes about language skills, and I act as a role model for the rest of the team to create a more united environment.
4. Address conflict immediately
   • When conflict arises in my team, I document the conflict and gather the facts.
   • If there is a conflict, I contact each team member involved and have a conversation individually to gather information about the issue.
   • I also explain to my team members what I have observed about the situation, and I ask open questions.
   • When conflict or tension arises in my team, I acknowledge it and discuss it openly.
   • I understand that in a hybrid work setting, many conflicts happen because long-standing issues have been unresolved due to managers not noticing them and/or not addressing them.
   • I use existing regular team meetings to discuss any issue that needs to be addressed.
   • Once I have acknowledged and discussed existing tensions in the team, I make a point to also celebrate team success to set the tone and encourage teamwork and collaboration.
   • I sometimes also discuss team conflicts online on a Slack channel if many of the team members work remotely and in a different time zone, so that I can discuss the issue more quickly than waiting to arrange a meeting.
   • I set some ground rules and act as a role model in conflict resolution.
   • I treat all my co-workers with respect and fairness. I listen to my colleagues' views, including if they are different from mine; when my view differs from my colleagues, I say so, and explain why.
   • When I do or say something wrong, I apologize, and I encourage my team to do the same.
   • I participate in open and constructive dialogue.
   • I make a point to model the ground rules I set, to reinforce them and to send the message that I walk the walk.
   • I track productivity, and I pay attention to small details because I understand that workplace conflicts cause stress, disruption, damage relationships, and affect employee morale and customer service.
   • I pay attention to who remains quiet in meetings the entire time, and I notice if someone who used to come to the office often suddenly avoids the office and works from home all the time, because by paying attention to my team interactions, I am able to prevent conflicts before they arise or to address them as soon as they arise, avoiding escalations.
5. Encourage team-building activities and build rapport
   • I hold regular non-work-related chats with my hybrid team because I understand that social interaction between colleagues, especially in a non-work-related context, significantly improves employees' well-being, engagement, and sense of belonging.
   • I host a Friday ‘weekend plans' Zoom call to talk about my team members' plans for the weekend. If possible, I make it more inviting by sending each of my team members a voucher to order their lunch at their desk so that people can share a virtual lunch together and talk about their hobbies, families, or interests outside of work.
   • I host annual trips to exciting locations to foster very strong relationships in my team that would not otherwise be possible.
   • During that annual team retreat, I schedule some team bonding activities and some free time for people to plan their own schedules as well.
   • I incorporate cultural awareness in my team-building plan to increase the level of cultural awareness and to help my international team come together as ‘one team'.
   • I celebrate traditional holidays, national days, and food from the countries where some of my team members are from.
   • I ask each team member to share a presentation on the norms, cultural standards, and habits of the country they are from, and how they differ from the country your company is headquartered to bring an element of cultural awareness into my team-building activities.

This checklist should serve as a practical guide for what to do to build, nurture, and retain a team in a hybrid work environment. Feel free to revisit that checklist as often as you wish to, and to score yourself for each item. You might notice that over time, your scores improve in some areas, which is a sign that you are becoming better at building inclusion in your hybrid team. Feel free to share that checklist with your colleagues, peers, and the rest of your organization. The more your colleagues will embrace that checklist, the more successful your team will become.