Virtual Leadership

A bit of a personal note to start. Recently I was hired to do some project work for a colleague I knew from a previous organization. As I am new to independent consulting, this is my first "job" and I am very excited about the opportunity. My client is several states away and I am working more independently than ever. It got me thinking about the virtual work force and how management has to be different.

In today's increasingly virtual world, the remote worker is becoming the norm. The only reason to have people in offices is to appeal to our conventional sense of workplace community. For many people, the face-to-face is the best part of the job. There are plenty of times I wish I could lean over the wall to my buddy and bounce ideas around. My dogs are great listeners, but they aren't too quick with ideas.

Managers need to be taught how to manage a virtual workforce. The foundations of management: motivation, feedback, coaching, direction, setting expectations, follow-up, all still apply to the remote worker. The expectations of how work is accounted for is the difference. Managers need to change the way they look at how work gets done. The remote employee can't be managed by the time clock; instead they have to be managed by the work. There needs to be clear communication between supervisors and employees about how much work needs to be done and can be done. Feedback has to be more frequent and there needs to be trust and open dialogue. Managers need to push the limits and make sure employees are working at high capacity. If the work isn't getting done, then tough conversations need to take place.

Employees also need to be taught how to succeed in this arena. We'd all love to work from home in our pajamas, but that's not the reality. The benefit of being home to take the kids to school and help with the school play has to fit between the work or the trust is broken. Remote employees need to learn the art of self-management and personal accountability. I admit that instead of coffee breaks, I take laundry breaks. I enjoy the freedom of being able to take my kids to school and pick them up. At the same time, I put in very productive work hours between 8 pm and 11 pm when my house is relatively quiet. I also over communicate to my client and ask for feedback often to make sure that I am on track and meeting expectations.

Learning organizations can't continue to just teach management and leadership for the conventional office. Management programs need to address the fundamentals and then explore how they really happen on the shop floor, in the restaurant kitchen, between the cubicles and over the Internet. I propose that well designed management training mirrors the way management should operate. The design should be blended to include online learning, web enabled discussions, face-to-face time and communication by phone and email. Employees also need to be developed to work effectively and be encouraged to challenge themselves to continuously earn the benefit of working remotely.

A more virtual workforce can be a great thing for the environment, for families and for productivity. As usual, high performing organizations get that way by having a strong sense of purpose, solid values and managers that excel at shaping and guiding the organization. Learning professionals would be wise to embrace the trend and help leaders and workers adapt to the new age.

If you don't measure it, it doesn't matter

Josh Bersin recently reported some frightening numbers on the state of learning. It reminded me of something we made central to our leadership training in my last position: if you don't measure it, it doesn't matter. This became foundational to our management and leadership training and we encouraged managers to examine their own behavior. Managers soon discovered that their behavior and what they recognized drove the behavior of their team members.

The same is true of learning organizations. The courses and programs that get the most attention or are favored by the leadership team get grandfathered in (to use Bersin's phrase) or overlooked when programs are being cut. The real value lies in the data. As my old boss used to emphasize, "Make data driven decisions." Proper analysis goes a long way to making the case to keep programs or cut them and will help win the war at the budget table. More than simple level one or two analysis, quality program evaluation drives level three and four feedback (Kirkpatrick's model that we all know and love) and secures a place for the training department at the table in driving organizational performance.

Unfortunately, few organizations, under ten percent, are performing that level of measurement. Today's training department barely has the bandwidth to produce training to keep pace with demand. Detailed evaluation puts a strain on the available resources. Doing the analysis to make data driven decision about the existing curriculum seems too backward thinking and no one wants to look back. I would also bet that few organizations have systems that facilitate the gathering, analysis, and storage of the information required.

Measurement doesn't have to be a high tech solution, although there are some very good high tech solutions out there. Class surveys can be very effective, when well written, and can be delivered electronically or via pen and paper. Data entry is cheap in the short term. After the training, make sure to follow-up and gather data on job performance related to training impact. This is measured from participants and their peers, managers, and employees. Getting 360 data, 60 to 90 days after training, is invaluable in determining training effectiveness. Keep it up, make it a habit. You can continue to pay for labor to do data entry if necessary. Take the local Excel expert to lunch in exchange for doing some impromptu analysis. Eventually, the number of responses and the insights gained from the data will demand a high tech solution for data gathering and data mining.

When we coached managers about being careful what you measure, we often used the example of the lack of consistency among managers in the restaurant. Team members quickly learn about a manager's pet peeves, the things he or she measures, and they work very hard to avoid those things. This doesn't mean that the restaurant is achieving the organizational goals of creating great guest experiences, increasing sales, being safe or controlling costs. But it was doing a great job of avoiding punishment.

Be careful what you measure. When you measure learning and practice some effective culling, you end up with a stronger learning library and a highly productive set of tools. When you only measure participant reaction, or worse, measure the wrong behavior as part of your level three analysis, you will end up diminishing the reputation of your training department. Don't just try to avoid punishment. Design the training with the end in mind, i.e., impact on performance. Then look for ways to show how training is helping the organization achieve its goals.