Hybrid management: 10 keys to success

What are the secrets of hybrid management? This question has been on everyone's lips since the Covid crisis gave a powerful boost to the transformation of working methods. How to manage teams that alternate between face-to-face and remote work? How do you maintain team spirit and instill positive energy so that cooperation is as effective as possible?

Let's see together the 10 keys to hybrid management.

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Management in hybrid mode: definition

The hybrid manager must become aware of a real change in the “mindset”. He will have to think about evolving on four main areas:

- From the concept of change to the concept of sustainable transformation.

- From the certain to the uncertain. How to move forward and decide without having all the cards in hand?

- From control to trust. No more presenteeism, make way for a culture of results.

- From expertise to lifelong learning.

To help you, we invite you to discover 10 landmarks to work well with your team as a hybrid manager.

10 keys to managing well in hybrid mode

Key No. 1 of hybrid management: clarity of intentions

We all know that the goals that were set at the beginning will change. We know that there will be changes and even transformations. As a manager, one of my main goals should be to constantly ask myself if the teams know what we are doing and why. It is important to share regularly about the course chosen so that the teams understand the overall desire of the company. The objective: to remove taboos and avoid the unsaid.

It's this culture of clear intent that will really help the collective grow.

Key n° 2 of hybrid management: culture of results.

The hybrid manager is able to establish a true culture of results and co-responsibility where everyone is not simply there to achieve their individual goals alone. Everyone must constantly ask themselves the question of how their individual performance will positively impact collective performance.
The manager in hybrid mode ensures that everyone knows their own goals and manages them in a fine manner. But also that everyone can report to the team where they are in terms of their goals and how they contribute to the team's success.

This culture of results already existed before the crisis but today it is all the more important because we are no longer in a culture of presenteeism at all. We have entered a culture where people are committed to results to be achieved, goals in relation to themselves but also to others. Hence the importance of systematizing feedback in order to make continuous progress.

Key No. 3 of hybrid management: a defined cooperation framework

To move from the individual to co-responsibility and to enter an era of trust, it is useful to set up rules for operating as a team. Questions to ask yourself:

- How are we going to work together in this hybrid system between face-to-face and remote?

- How to manage the various communication flows: instant messaging, emails, video calls, etc...?

- How to make remote meetings work moments but also convivial breaks?

- How to reorganize face-to-face meetings to make them as effective as possible?...

Each team is going to have their own truths. As a “hybrid” manager, the objective is to set a framework and to look, as a team, at what works well within this framework, what works less well and what are the ideas to improve things.

Key No. 4 of hybrid management: positive confrontation

We are evolving in a period of uncertainty where business models are constantly being revisited, where we have to work in a different way.

As a “hybrid” manager, do I give my teams full scope to give their opinion, give their point of view, present ideas so that we can build the future together?
Positive confrontation means accepting that you are not always right, opening your viewpoints and not confusing disagreement with conflict. In short, create a culture of positive and constructive disagreement!

Download our webinar: conflict management

Key n° 5 of hybrid management: challenge the postures of each person and of oneself.

What is “ok” or “no ok”?

As seen in point 3, in “hybrid” mode, it is all the more necessary to set up a framework in which to cooperate. Within this framework, the team establishes new rules of the game, sets goals and each member is committed to the others.
The role of the manager in “hybrid” mode is to set the framework and to ensure that it is respected.

In the current period, the team needs more and more equity. Speaking of remote working days, do the same people always take Fridays? Are the same people always arriving at 11 am...?

In business, and this is all the more true in “hybrid” mode, everyone observes each other, people talk to each other. It is up to the manager to check that there is as much equity as possible, to bring out frictions or frustrations if they exist.

Key No. 6 of hybrid management: lifelong learning

Establishing a culture of lifelong learning means recognizing and accepting the idea that the skills we need to develop this year will not necessarily be the same next year. Not the year after and the following...
We are constantly learning and it has become a real necessity since the start of the crisis.

We have learned to use digital tools to facilitate remote meetings, for example. We have learned new ways of working, etc...

Establishing this culture of continuous learning within your teams means regularly telling each other what we do well together, but also making regular diagnoses and drawing up action plans. Highlight areas for improvement in order to find solutions to perform on a daily basis.

Key No. 7 of hybrid management: managing priorities

A “hybrid” manager must be the champion of organization and priority management. For himself and for his team.
New modes of cooperation, between presence in the office and work, are changing interactions within teams. People who do not work together all the time in the same place can have differences in prioritization, differences in pace, etc... The important thing is to give each member of the team reflexes concerning the good management of priorities, the ability to distinguish the urgent from the important and to identify the time-consuming ones that block the team's performance.

It is not the number of hours spent at work that counts but the results that are achieved.

Key 8 of hybrid management: the effectiveness of meetings.

How to facilitate effective team meetings, remotely or in person? Of course, we have all learned to use the main tools to collaborate remotely, but do we really know how to host virtual meetings in a slightly more original way? This often makes it easier for new ideas to emerge.

Do you know tools like Mural, Miro, or Colibri Post-it?

As a “hybrid” manager, we encourage you to remain in a position of continuous learning, to train yourself regularly in new types of meetings, etc...

Let's not forget that these meetings should give everyone the opportunity to express themselves, while respecting the rules of listening and caring.

Key No. 9 of hybrid management: informal team rituals.

Maintain and maintain breathing times with your team called informal rituals. Relaxing moments, preferably where we are all together. A lot of businesses today are establishing a half-day or a day where everyone is there, where meetings are removed so that team members can actually reconnect.

Informal times are not only after-work drinks but also moments where we can discuss new projects, new ideas, etc...

The main thing is to preserve the kind of “bubbles” where you are not always with your head in the handlebars.

Key No. 10 of hybrid management: good access to information

In a hybrid mode of operation, people are one day in person, the other remotely. The question to ask yourself is: are they all very easy to find information where it is found?

Does everyone have access to the corporate network from their workstation? Are employees all equipped with a complete workstation allowing them to work in the best conditions?

After each meeting, where can I find the minutes? Is there a replay of remote meetings? Etc...

We are all learning every day about what hybrid management is. Nobody has the perfect knowledge, no one has all the answers.

If you reread this article in 6 months, there will probably be other keys to share and that's what's interesting!

But we already recommend that you start with these 10 points of reference, discuss them with your team and map out the path for the coming months by regularly reviewing what is working and what is not working.

Good luck! It's not easy, but it's very interesting. These are new ways of orienting yourself, as a manager, as a “learning” manager.

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