Because my doctoral dissertation focused on leadership competencies, I am often asked: What are the new competencies/skills that leaders need in this new hybrid environment? I’ve actually been pondering a twist on this question.
What if it’s not a new set of leadership competencies that are needed for effective hybrid leadership, but rather, a new set of leadership structures?
I’m becoming increasingly more convinced that skills for hybrid leadership are the same as co-located leadership: Casting vision, building and driving strategy, relationship-building, creating interpersonal connections, developing others, cultivating psychological safety, communicating effectively across a variety of audiences and environments, etc. etc. … but the geographic scattering of our teams has amplified the demand on leaders to be everything to everyone (which we are already not great at being!), and everywhere. It’s simply not tenable and is resulting in a massive wave of leader burnout.
This is where I think Gartner’s research on Connector Managers and Complementary Leadership structures (otherwise known as Shared Leadership or Distributed Leadership) are taking on increasing relevance.
What would it look like to create a highly-effective Leadership Team, structured according to balanced strengths (balanced being a KEY to ensure there aren’t functional leadership/management gaps!) with each leader executing leadership responsibilities only in their area of focus in concert with the other leaders, in order to lead a highly-effective and high performing organization?
In other words, rather than hybrid leadership skills, I propose we need hybrid leadership teams.
What might a hybrid leadership team look like in your organization?