Interactive flipbook – Cheat sheet on the Leadership Norms and Behaviours for the Flexible Work Environment
Cheat Sheet: Leadership Norms and Behaviours@ESDC
Cultivating success in an evolving workplace requires adaptive norms and behaviours from leaders at all levels.
Cheat Sheet: Leadership Norms and Behaviours@ESDC
Intentional Leadership
Key concepts Intentionality: thoughtful and tailored actions, clear intentions, no ambiguity, understanding the impact of words, people-centered. Communication/Clarity: clear expectations, specific requests. Unconscious presence biases: avoiding favouritism toward people you work with often or toward people who work on-site (proximity bias), being fair to everyone. Digital agility: staying current with available technological tools. In practice 5 Adapt your leadership! Experienced employees may require different levels of presence compared to those who are just starting out. Additionally, when communicating with employees through Teams, place greater emphasis on non-verbal cues. 5 A task request should answer at least all these questions: what is being requested, for what, for when, for whom. 5 Be aware of your actions and words. Ask yourself about the impact they will have on those around you before you act, and adapt them to the situations/people. 5 Communicate regularly and predictably with your team by scheduling meetings on a recurring schedule. 5 Hybrid teams benefit most from virtual meetings. This meeting format will prevent participants from feeling disadvantaged. 5 Avoid assigning tasks to employees you meet in person just because they are there. 5 Learn how to use Teams as a proximity tool. It is a window between
your office and that of your colleagues and employees. 5 Gather your team in person when possible, such as at the end of the fiscal year, to celebrate successes, important moments and to socialize as a team. 5 Use available technologies and encourage your team to do the same and innovate.
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Cheat Sheet: Leadership Norms and Behaviours@ESDC
Psychological Safety and Growth Mindset
Key concepts Psychological safety: openness to trial and error, room for innovation, safe environment conducive to self-expression. Growth mindset: culture of learning, continuous development, calculated risk-taking, “A challenge is an opportunity, a mistake is a learning experience.” In practice 5 Be vigilant during team discussions, and make sure that everyone who wants to speak is heard and respected. 5 Shut down mockery unless it’s intended as self-deprecation. 5 Accept negative criticism as an opportunity to learn and do better. 5 When possible, let your employees try new ways of working and creating new work tools. 5 Encourage employees to develop in areas of interest, within budget constraints and with reasonable justification. This approach aligns with medium/long-term talent and career management. 5 Every mistake is correctable. We all have to do our best to avoid repeating the same errors, so be conciliatory. Do not discourage initiative.
5 Conduct post-mortems or talk about past mistakes, failures, or challenges to extract lessons learned and identify strategies to avoid similar pitfalls in the future. 5 Embrace creative ideas! Encourage discussions like “In an ideal world,
how would we approach this?” By brainstorming together, you may find a way to get closer to that ideal.
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Cheat Sheet: Leadership Norms and Behaviours@ESDC
Trust Key concepts Reciprocity, relationship, collaboration, focus on results, autonomy, flexibility, respect for individual and cultural differences. Cognitive Trust: being reliable, understanding that others are dependable. Emotional trust: being attentive to and caring about others. In practice 5 Encourage the use of Teams as a means of communication and socialization to build relationships, have discussions. Do it with intention. 5 Teams is not a work attendance monitoring tool. Resist the temptation to use it as such. 5 To foster independence, focus on the desired outcome and deadline rather than the hours spent at work. Let your team members manage how they will reach the outcome. 5 Lead by example, keep your commitments! 5 Be human! Talk about your mistakes and about what you have learned from them, talk about what keeps you up at night and about your aspirations. Confiding in others encourages them to do the same. 5 Be available to your team, open the door to dialogue by reminding them that you are there when needed. Show that you have their best interests at heart.
5 Encourage your team to express different opinions, embrace cultural differences, and show respect and open-mindedness. 5 Allow your employees to collaborate with each other, without you! Allow them to call each other to exchange ideas, tap into the knowledge and expertise of their colleagues, and let them manage their time and ability to help. 5 Be prepared to take action when your team expresses concerns about work and workload. Show that you are willing to defend them and step in when necessary.
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Cheat Sheet: Leadership Norms and Behaviours@ESDC
Empathy-Based Management and Sense of Belonging
Key concepts Empathy-based management: listening, being constructive, being honest, demonstrating emotional intelligence, considering individual circumstances, everyone is unique. Sense of belonging: building relationships, defining common goals together, fostering teamwork, cultivating informal interactions. In practice 5 Take the time to talk with your team about how they work as a group and familiarize yourself with each person’s preferences, including preferred means of communication and ideal work hours. This will contribute to a healthier work-life balance. 5 Create a team charter to help with this and put all the information in one place for future reference. 5 Focus on welcoming and onboarding new employees to foster a sense of belonging. Give them all the attention they need to make them feel welcomed and comfortable in their new work environment. 5 Intentionally reach out to employees who do not work at the same workplace as you to simply check in, schedule a virtual coffee break with those employees to replicate the informal encounters you have with employees who work on-site. 5 Engage in actively listening to your colleagues and employees, seeking to understand them, rather than solely focusing on finding solutions, unless they ask for these.
5 Have compassion with concrete actions when someone asks for help or admits to being overwhelmed by the workload. Go beyond “I understand!” or “It can’t be easy!”. 5 Create opportunities for you and your team to connect and get to know each other better and discover affinities. 5 Improve your emotional intelligence by reading about it, taking training, using coaching, and putting your learnings into practice with your employees and colleagues.
See the Leadership Norms and Behaviours for the Flexible Work Environment Playbook for full details.
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