DEEP DIVE: Managers need support, stat!

Seven writers, thinkers, podcasters who are focused on supporting managers, not just executives.

A few weeks ago I was listening to an episode of the NYT podcast, The Daily, provocatively entitled, The Hybrid Worker Malaise. The episode featured a lot of unsurprising information about what is awesome and not-so-awesome about working remotely, and about working in-office. I won’t belabor the points here. I didn’t feel I was learning much, but it was certainly a thorough review of the perspectives, and it felt accurate to me.

But oh my, did they ever bury the lede. About five minutes from the end, they were discussing how both remote work enthusiasts and return-to-office die-hards cited various surveys and studies to justify their positions on the subject of where to work. The reporter, Emma Goldberg, then shared this nugget about whether studies actually indicated that hybrid work increased or decreased productivity:

When it’s managed well, productivity increases. When it’s not managed well, productivity decreases.

I mean. Yes. Thank you. Hard agree. This statement didn’t feel especially surprising either, but it felt like it’s the part that hasn’t been said out loud often enough.

The reference to “it” (meaning a hybrid workforce) being “managed” is doing a lot of heavy lifting, and is leaving a lot unsaid about HOW to actually manage “it” well.

So, who’s consistently talking about how to lead through this sea change in the workplace…not at the highest leadership level, but a few steps down the hierarchy, where the teams being managed span a range of experience levels, maturity, and aside from that, working and learning styles?

My experience is that many workplaces don’t do a great job at helping managers manage well to begin with, and that has only become more burdensome in the current fraught environment.

Case in point: Many years ago, I did a training for every manager in my company who was going to have to give a performance review. The training basically outlined what constituted constructive, actionable critique, and what didn’t. What constitutes an appropriate objective or goal, and what doesn’t.

Afterwards I was approached by a director-level employee who had certainly worked at much larger companies than ours who told me they had never been given that kind of specific and useful guidance before. I was a little shocked. And yet not surprised, if that makes sense. Executive leadership may have access to executive coaching and other support, but many middle managers are often left to their own devices.

In today’s workplace, your middle managers are probably the ones who are least OK. Truth is, exceptions and allowances are still often made for leaders at the highest level. And with data showing that top performers are not going to go back to pre-2020 workstyles, it’s a recipe for inequity. Which increase frustration, burnout, even depression. And churn is often the result.

It’s all well and good to say we cannot go back to 2019 (as I confess I do say), and that the hybrid workforce is here to stay, and many companies may agree and decide to keep hybrid work the norm, but how does that change management of real teams of real people?

For this month’s Deep Dive I’m doing an old-fashioned “signpost” newsletter, reviewing the landscape and pointing you to people who are offering practical, actionable advice on how exactly to support managers who want to be the kind of manager that increases productivity in a hybrid work environment.

Because, by the way, that’s going to be a very marketable skill for #TheNowOfWork!

Here are some thinkers to read, listen to and allow to influence your thinking:

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1.     Erica Keswin, author. Latest book: The Retention Revolution

Erica is the author of what she calls her “Human Workplace Trilogy,” consisting of the books Bring Your Human to Work: 10 Sure-Fire Ways to Design a Workplace That’s Good for People, Great for Business, and Just Might Change the World (2018), Rituals Roadmap: The Human Way to Transform Everyday Routines Into Workplace Magic (2021), and The Retention Revolution: 7 Surprising (and Very Human!) Ways to Keep Employees Connected to Your Company, (2023). The latter book, particularly, was written well into the COVID lockdown and recovery. I listened to The Retention Revolution while doing my daily walks, and while Jory and I were cooking up Optionality. I hope I didn’t startle too many passers by in my neighborhood with occasional vigorous nodding and exclamations of “Yes!” I think Erica hits the right balance by acknowledging the values inherent in different modes of working from fully remote to IRL. To that end, and before The Retention Revolution even came out, Erica coined a phrase that I frequently use when giving advice. Check out her article for Harvard Business Review, On-sites Are the New Off-sites. Start there and work your way through her oeuvre. Erica also has a new workshop she has rolled out that is specifically designed for middle managers. Erica has got your managerial back is what I’m saying.

2.     Gary Bolles, author, latest book: The Next Rules of Work and Chair for Singularity University’s Future of Work curriculum

Gary is a content powerhouse, regularly publishing smart perspective on all things work. His latest book, The Next Rules of Work references the “Mindset, Skillset, and Toolset” needed to lead in this new world of work, and I think that is a brilliant way to organize the very large job of being a great manager. I especially appreciate that one of these “-sets” is actually external. What are the right tools to help every manager adapt to the now of work? It can be pretty hard to evolve one’s mindset if one isn’t provided with the tools to do so. I think back to how terrible conference calls were at a former company when I was remote but most of the other folks weren’t. Using an iPhone speaker phone to “dial me in” didn’t do the trick and left me feeling isolated and alienated. Most of the time it is systems that need fixing as much, if not more, than people. Gary delivers a smart combination of trend-spotting high-level thinking and practical how-to guidance to adapt to those trends.

3.     Rachael Lowell Ellison, creator of The SHIFT Framework for managers and The Breadwinners podcast

Where should managers start if they indeed want to up their mindset or skillset managerial game? Rachael has codified them into the SHIFT Framework. SHIFT represents five different areas of strength a manager may have, Security, Horizon, Impact, Fluidity, Ties. I went ahead and took the SHIFT assessment, I often get annoyed by such exercises, because I hate being pinned down to saying I have a standard way I’d always respond in different scenarios. I’m sure that gives you a clue to my personality right there. The report I got back from the SHIFT assessment was interesting because it focused on how to leverage my greatest strength(s) to manage in the other strengths areas (and how to improve or develop in those other areas). The intent is to build from your most solid foundation and therefore start from a place of confidence and skill. Rachael recently recorded a series of podcast episodes to dig into the framework and strength areas more deeply, and it’s a great way to learn more in an accessible format.

Our latest Conversationality: Jory and Elisa discuss how to build a bridge between those who are threatened by AI and those who are gung-ho. More to come on AI. We’re scheduling a community “show & tell” of AI tools we’re using for April 12th. Look for the event info in the #events channel in the Premium Slack.

4.     PrismWork and its HEARTI Quotient

Speaking of frameworks, check out PrismWork and its HEARTI Quotient by taking or having your managers take this assessment. PrismWork was founded by author Lisen Stromberg and Corey Jones has taken the baton to keep moving forward in helping today’s managers and leaders leverage their power with intention (the title of the book Lisen and Corey co-authored is appropriately called Intentional Power). HEARTI is another acronym, standing for Humility, Empathy, Accountability, Resiliency, Transparency, and Inclusivity. The research behind the HEARTI quotient identifies these six areas as core competencies for leading in today’s workplace, and if you’ve been in the workplace for longer than a decade it’s likely that most of these competencies weren’t in the management lexicon when you started your career and certainly weren’t measured, tracked, and rewarded. In this case the philosophy behind self-assessment is also based on putting on your own oxygen mask first, i.e. you can’t recognize all of these competencies in your team if you don’t recognize them in yourself.

5.     Laurie Ruettimann and the PunkRock HR podcast

Laurie did her time in traditional HR work, but she’s been a voice for a new approach to recruiting, hiring, and managing for years now…definitely ahead of her time and our workplaces. Laurie is willing to be unconventional, even provocative, in her discussions, and she brings guests from all corners of the workplace discussion. As an independent she is also able to speak far outside the formal corporate HR lexicon, let’s call it “real talk.”  As one example PunkRock HR did a whole series called The Corporate Drinker and explored the role, impact, and risks at the intersection of alcohol and the workplace. I really haven’t seen that covered in depth before, and it was fascinating. But back to supporting middle management, Laurie addresses the reality that is today’s workplace, where social issues, employee identity, and politics are making appearances on the regular, often leaving managers wondering how they can do the right thing and the moral thing.

6.     Coaching Real Leaders podcast from Muriel Wilkins and Harvard Business Review

This podcast is described as being specifically for people who have gotten to a certain level of leadership and feel stuck when it comes to getting to the next level. What I enjoy about the topics Muriel covers in this podcast is that they’re relatively narrow, specific, and very relatable. How to balance your own career goals with your company’s needs, how to build an effective stakeholder argument, how to manage it when you get negative feedback from your team, even should you keep climbing that career ladder in the first place? A lot of newsletters and podcasts talk about leadership at the executive level, but far fewer tackle specific middle management scenarios and spin it out for you. This one is both super relevant and super digestible.

7. Chris Brogan, Zero Formula Newsletter

Chris’s newsletters are similar to Muriel’s podcast in that it explores very specific scenarios in each issue. In his case, however, these are scenarios arising in his work as Chief of Staff to a CEO of a software company. Chief of Staff is a role that can often act as the great translator, triage-er, and connector between employees at every level and leadership. It’s also a role that ends up seeing it all. What makes Chris’s content great is that being Chief of Staff was a new role for him, so he provides a regular lesson on how he keeps growing and developing his managerial skill while coaching his colleagues to grow at their levels. Chris brings a blogger-level vulnerability and authenticity to his storytelling too…you feel like you’re right there with him facing the managerial challenge of the week.

I hope these seven thinkers are a lucky number for you, as you manage in today’s work environment, or as you support your managers in doing the same. Who else would you recommend?

Final note: For my fellow data wonks, here are two data resources to check out. We are in a time of transition, and the results of recent research from both Harris Poll and Gallup show that in stark relief. Things are changing; data seems contradictory, and much as we’d like to think “this is the way,” it seems like there are many ways. But, yes, if nothing else the hybrid approach is the way and is here to stay for a large percentage of the workforce and for a lot of managers. Here’s to navigating it together!

Gallup Survey: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/401576/dont-confuse-office-culture.aspx

Harris Poll/employment topic: https://theharrispoll.com/topic/employment/