#40: Remote (& hybrid) teams fail without this element

As of March 2020, many of you started working remotely full time. At first, it was great having no traffic jams and more time to spend with your kids, partner, or yourself. But we are living in interesting and tumultuous times. In marketing, things have changed a lot in the last few years, with COVID adding an extra layer of uncertainty and challenges on top of it. That’s why so many remote teams are struggling to keep up with the threats and challenges posed by the pandemic. Because many companies have decided to keep working remotely, it is essential for you and your team to know the one element that will make your team more impactful, while working less.

What element?

Empowerment (rhyme intended 😊 ).

In these times, if you don’t have an empowered remote team, all the issues that you could compensate in the past by being present will now be aggravated. You may ask yourself: why is more important than ever to have an empowered remote team? I will give you three reasons to inspire you to take a step towards change and more empowerment for you and your team.

1- Pace of change

The pace of change in the world is enormous. Especially with the COVID-pandemic going on, new systems and developments are made every day. And a lot of change comes with a lot of uncertainty. What seemed to work yesterday, doesn’t seem to work anymore today. In the past, decisions were centralized so that organizations could benefit from economies of scale. But with these fast-changing times, by the time a decision reaches the management team or the boss and comes back to the rest of the organization, things have already changed again. So what you want, is to have an agile organization that is capable of adapting itself swiftly through all these changes.

2- Remote teams

The second reason why empowerment has become so important is because many people are working remotely. And when you have to make decisions through a long line of hierarchy, through virtual meetings, it takes A LOT of time. In fact, many people are stuck so long in meetings, discussing decisions, that they barely have any time to do their own tasks or work. And because of the immense pace of change, making decisions fast is all the more important.

3- Increase in engagement and motivation

The last reason why I believe we should increase empowerment is that research shows that it increases engagement and motivation. People don’t want to rely on other people. They want to be recognized for the great job they are doing and prioritizing the things they find most important. If these people cannot do that, when they do not have this autonomy, when they are not empowered, they get demotivated.

Now you know the three reasons why having empowered teams is absolutely essential nowadays: it helps make the organization agile, it helps to deal with the challenges that come with working remotely and it raises engagement and motivation!
We have developed two things to help you increase empowerment, especially in remote teams. The first thing is a short empowerment quiz. By answering a couple of questions, you get an empowerment score ad personalized lessons that come with it. If you are really planning on doing the quiz, ask everyone in your team to take it.

On top of this quiz, we will also offer a free masterclass to share three secrets to inspire, engage and empower your remote teams in fast-changing digital and uncertain times (both links below).

If you enjoyed this podcast, feel free to subscribe and leave a review. It would help a lot to attract other leaders to the podcast and inspire them to build more meaningful lives and organizations. See you!