HR trends and what they mean: Remote leaders

While the pandemic may be in the rearview of our collective consciousness, the era of remote or hybrid work remains an open debate — with some of the latest commentary from the Harvard Business Review finding that remote leadership may even be more effective for organizations than in-person management. 

And the sentiment amongst leaders themselves is palpable. In fact, one survey found that 68% of leaders would prefer remote work to continue — compared to only 48% of employees who felt the same. But is the desire to lead remote teams equal to the ability to lead them effectively?

Many leaders may be getting in over their heads when it comes to managing remote teams. In conversation with CNBC, Molly Johnson-Jones, CEO and Co-Founder of Flexa Careers, explains: 

“How managers want to work as individuals could be different from how they want to work with their direct reports because managing a distributed team is really challenging…It’s a new, constantly evolving landscape that few managers have training in.” 

As Mira Magecha, Founder of play for change, explained in her Personio Masterclass on leadership: 

“Successful leadership requires building trust and authenticity. Leadership itself isn’t all that complicated, but it does demand curiosity and more than technical mastery alone…Ultimately, leaders need to build trust, manage interpersonal relationships empathetically, support employee development and promote an inclusive workplace.”

For HR professionals, the rise of remote leadership presents both challenges and opportunities. To effectively support remote leaders and their teams, consider the following strategies:

• Design virtual “connection points”: HR teams can help remote leaders design and deliver “connection points” that boost team effectiveness. Consider things like scheduling 15-minute coffee chats between team members who don't regularly collaborate, dedicated channels for non-work topics, or virtual team-building sessions with interactive components.

• Implement clear outcome-based metrics: Replace activity monitoring with specific deliverable targets. For example, instead of tracking hours logged, encourage leaders to measure completed projects, customer satisfaction scores, or response time metrics. Document these KPIs in shared dashboards that teams can reference during weekly check-ins.

• Create a consistent feedback calendar: Establish a predictable rhythm of feedback — weekly 20-minute one-on-ones for immediate performance discussions, monthly team retrospectives to evaluate collaboration, and quarterly in-depth performance conversations. Provide your leaders with standardized feedback templates that focus on impact rather than visibility.

• Personio Masterclass: Building a high-performing leadership pipeline with Mira Magecha 

• This strategy is key to developing leaders

• A guide to people leadership development at Personio

That's all for this week's edition of Personio Pulse: This Week in HR. Check back next week as we continue to dissect the latest trends impacting the ways we work. 

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