Woven between larger discussions of remote work, emerging technologies, and upcoming IPOs — it’s fascinating to see publications highlight CEO after CEO in engaging discussions about leadership, growing a business, and maintaining employee happiness. While the trials and successes of these leaders often offer an “inside look” at how they achieved success, too often we just get a glimpse of the  good — but not the bad and the ugly.

Admittedly, I am not a CEO. However, I have served in the past as CEO, not to mention just about every other “Chief” role imaginable, for a variety of companies ranging in size, focus, industry, and success. My personal leadership journey has had its ups and downs and fair share of the bad and the ugly — but truly transformed after I implemented Objectives and Key Results, or in short OKRs.

OKRs led me to recognize, and commit to, three tenets towards becoming a better leader myself that I hope will also help you to limit leadership wrong turns and lead by example to expertly scale your organization.

Inspire

I’m sure you already know that a key to successful leadership is inspiring your teams to undertake great work and support your company’s initiatives. It turns out that the OKRs framework is perfect for this. Objectives are designed to tie directly to strategic direction and should be expressed in aspirational form. When used correctly, OKRs offer a baked-in opportunity to inspire employees by delivering inspiration connected to corporate mission.

I’d argue that it’s even more motivating when leaders ‘walk the walk’ in addition to ‘talking the talk.’ Most companies today ask employees to outline specific execution steps in order to contribute to their corporate mission (broadly speaking, these steps map to the Key Results element of OKRs).

When leaders engage in these activities for themselves, it delivers a ‘lead by example’ effect, showing that they are equally as committed to successful outcomes as anyone on the front lines of the business. This is why my personal OKRs (and my progress — or lack thereof — in achievement) are visible to every single person at my company. Conversely, it’s why I appreciate that theirs are available to me.

Take my current CEO for example — last year when we were seeking investors for a Series A round, he set an Objective of obtaining a Series A and two of his Key Results were: pitch 50 venture capital investors and secure three term sheets. Each day, I (and everyone else) could review whether he was progressing toward those goals or struggling… which is a powerful lesson for an entire company: everyone struggles.

Of course, we were all that much more engaged, and thrilled, once the Objective was met. As employees we all knew and, almost more importantly, felt that we were part of this accomplishment, because we were along for the entire ride.

Connect

Naturally, strong leadership is more than delivering transparency and inspiration. Here’s another truism; you also need to know your workforce to be a good leader. It’s important to connect with your teams on two separate levels: the one they see and the one they know you see.

What do we mean by this? The first level of connection is fairly obvious — active face-to-face time to make meaningful connections with the people you lead (this can also be achieved via video if you can’t meet in person). It’s worth remembering that people need to see you are directly invested in them, their time, goals, and accomplishments. Naturally, this helps maintain engagement, as there is a visceral understanding that commitment to the company is reciprocated.

The second level of connection addresses what most junior staff think that c-suite leaders care about most — numbers. By using data-driven OKRs that are tied to analytics, you can review a visual dashboard that surfaces how well your people, teams, and departments are performing in terms of Key Results achievement. However, this isn’t just a progress metric.

Sure, these dashboards rely on the analytical use of numbers and percentages of Objectives met so far, but more importantly this form of connection can alert you to problems that your employees might not feel comfortable actively communicating to you. By using the data flow, you can identify problem areas and actively connect with employees to support them in the midst of the problem, rather than retrospectively at the end of a quarter.

Measure

The problem with humans is, well, we’re human beings. We forget things; we get busy with new priorities; we fall ill; we get bored… and most of all, we seek to report positive results and are averse to reporting negative results.

As a leader, it’s terribly frustrating to reach the end of a quarter and discover that your projections and goals are simply off track and unmet. This is one of the primary reasons why I use OKRs to measure the progress of my people (and myself) everyday. It’s also precisely why we integrate our OKRs with existing data software (e.g., Asana, Jira) and communication and workplace tools (e.g., Slack, Hubspot CRM, Google Sheets) we already use on a daily basis.

This way I free my employees from the ‘make work’ of updating their progress, yet I still benefit from the analytics and precise measurement of execution progress. Win win.

While every business leader knows the importance of revenue, profits, and cash flows, a true leader understands that overall performance depends on great performance across the board. A great leader recognizes that outstanding performance includes, and indeed starts with, their own actions. Leading through inspiration underpins action, which drives measurement, and so on. Embracing these characteristics is essential to growing yourself as a leader and encouraging your organization’s budding leaders to do the same.

As leaders, we all have periods when we feel that it’s necessary to focus on one critical item: working on the big picture, selling to key accounts, recruiting A list talent, etc. These (and other elements) are all key items at one point or another. Nonetheless, our holistic activities should rest upon a focus of those soft, foundational areas of leadership which are often overlooked but now can be quantified through new uses of OKRs.

How many ‘office days’ a week are enough? You shouldn’t need to ask

COVID-19 has fundamentally changed our relationship with the office. After the enforced experiment of lockdowns pushing about 40% of the labor force into working from home, few of us want to return to the pre-pandemic status quo.

Yes, we miss the sociability of the workplace, but surveys show at least three-quarters of us want the option to spend a few days working at home and a few days in the office.

But what exactly is the right balance?

The experience of working from home has helped break down many of the prejudices that limited work flexibility prior to 2020. But there remain discernible differences in attitudes between workers and managers on this question. As Australia’s Productivity Commission notes in a September 2021 research paper :

That last point is of particular concern. A pre-pandemic study found fully remote workers, despite being 13% more productive, were only half as likely to be promoted as their colleagues who spent their time in the office.

The reasons for this are likely complex – a combination of explicit attitudes and subconscious biases. Their persistence spells danger for post-COVID organizations. In particular, they could disadvantage those with carer responsibilities, who are more likely to want greater flexibility.

So how many days a week in the office is enough? How do we balance the desire of managers to bring people together with employees’ desire for greater flexibility?

Legacy management

Some organizations are adamant that going back to the office all or most of the time is essential. Take, for example, Google.

The Silicon Valley giant has won awards for its open corporate culture . Its products have facilitated as much as any company in the teleworking revolution. But in September Google said it would reduce the pay of its US employees choosing to work from home permanently.

A company spokesperson justified this on the grounds Google had always paid employees according to “the local market based on where an employee works from”. But given the company’s long antipathy to remote work it’s hard to see this as anything other than a stick to pull workers back to the office. Choosing to work from home could reportedly cost some employees up to 25% of their salary.

If this is the attitude at Google, just imagine what prevails in more conservative managerial cultures. Indeed it is largely managerial fears that have stymied the potential for greater work flexibility since technology made “teleworking” a possibility in the 1970s.

For decades concerns about innovation and productivity have been cited as reasons workers must be in the office most of the time, despite research indicating there’s no reason we need to be in the office every day to maximize the benefits of collaboration. The lived experience of the pandemic has helped mitigate these concerns , but not completely.

These attitudes are arguably associated with a “legacy” model of management – a model in which attitudes have failed to change along with the facts. Bundy clocks and other explicit forms of command and control may have been abandoned but there are still often unwritten expectations about such things as not leaving before the boss and putting in unpaid overtime being prerequisites to pay rises and promotions.

The real question

So the big question isn’t really about what’s the optimal mix of days in the office and at home. Experts agree there is no one-size-fits-all model for hybrid work. It should really depend on the context and individuals. Maybe it’s four days a week in the office, maybe it’s one.

The question is why managerial attitudes are taking so long to catch up to reality.

There is now extensive research showing that employees are more effective and satisfied in their jobs when they have the flexibility to customize their work. This flexibility encompasses not just whether we work from home or the office a certain number of days, but also when we work, who we work with and what we are working on.

After a career of doing things only one way, it seems many managers simply don’t know how to manage differently.

Our organizations are not made up of one type of person and one type of job, something our management structures and organizational initiatives often ignore. Success in the post-COVID world will depend on thinking differently and creating a culture that embraces the opportunities this new model of work brings.

That’s the conversation we need to have – wherever we are.

Article by Libby (Elizabeth) Sander , Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Bond Business School, Bond University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here .

5 lessons from the pandemic I hope to remember as a CEO

With the end of the pandemic (hopefully) in sight, most of us are eagerly waiting to go “back to normal,” but there are some things that maybe might never go back to the way they were before. It’s interesting to think about what habits of pandemic life could or should remain with us after things have returned to normal.

Will we continue to enjoy the calming power of frequent walks around the neighborhood? Will Takeout Tuesday still be a thing? How about weekly Zoom calls with distant family members?

Why not? Many of the perspectives we’ve gained and rituals we’ve embraced during the pandemic could be beneficial in post-pandemic life, and I suspect we’ll find they’re worth holding onto.

It’s the same in business. As a startup founder and CEO, I know that COVID-19 has driven home several lessons that will endure in how our company is run well into the future.

Here are the five biggest ones I want to retain once we get back to normal, and I think you should embrace them too.

1. Prioritizing employee mental health was long overdue

Companies want their workers to be healthy, but pre-pandemic, the emphasis was typically placed on physical health and wellness.

While many employees have had access to at least some mental health services through their company medical plans, open conversations about mental health and well-being were uncommon. From standing desks and healthy office snacks to activities like step-counting contests, the focus generally was on the physical.

No more. Though mental health already should have been a prime concern in a digital age that is exerting heavier, ever-changing professional demands and threatening work-life balance, pandemic-related stress has finally put mental health on equal (or even higher) footing with physical health in corporate life.

Like many other companies, ours expanded our wellness benefit in 2020 to not only include, for instance, a gym membership but anything that promotes emotional well-being. We’ve also sought to remove any stigma around an employee taking a mental health day.

Fortunately, I don’t think this is toothpaste that can be put back in the tube. Companies would be foolish to ever retreat from this increased attention to mental health. Supporting employee mental health is not only the right thing to do, it’s good for business.

2. The future of work is ‘remote plus’

My company already was all remote before COVID-19, believing that the increased employee productivity, ability to hire the best talent regardless of location, and elimination of office-related costs are irresistibly huge benefits. But I’ve learned something in the last year: even in an all-remote model, it’s critical for teammates to have some in-person quality time.

You can’t expect people to build connectedness and trust when they see each other exclusively as squares on a Zoom screen. Being physically together, even if it’s just two to four times a year, is necessary to foster a collaborative company culture.

Nothing seems quite the same when employees exist in a 100% virtual world – not even the company holiday party. I went all out in December to try to make ours shine. During the four-hour online event, I scheduled a beer tasting (with brews shipped ahead of time to partygoers), a performance by a magician, and a Bingo contest.

Everyone said they had a lot of fun… but that it just wasn’t as good as being together.

The pandemic may have accelerated the trend toward remote work, but I think a lasting lesson is the value of a “remote plus” approach in which employees work wherever they want most of the time but still come together on occasion.

3. Business travel is often unnecessary

There have been times in my career I spent 50 to 75% of every month on the road to meeting with customers, connecting with employees, pitching investors, and attending trade shows. Even after COVID-19 is in the rear-view mirror, I doubt that number will ever again exceed 30%.

The pandemic has shown that so much can be accomplished in a simple Zoom meeting. I suppose we knew that before the pandemic, but it was more customary to get on a plane and interact in person.

The last year has proven that was often a silly waste of time (not to mention CO2 emissions). In-person meetings have their time and place, but my road warrior days are over.

4. Stretching a dollar is good

As in the Great Depression and other hard times throughout history, I think the pandemic has made thriftiness a virtue.

During a global crisis, you inevitably evaluate expenditures more stringently. So while I may have sprung for an elaborate online holiday party to bolster employee morale, I also have been putting our capital expenditures for things like software tools under a microscope.

I think COVID-19 has reminded everyone that carefully examining every expenditure for ROI is always smart.

5. A good leader knows how to trust

I think back to a previous company I founded and led, one that had physical offices. I was a hands-on CEO by nature and I’d often roll up my sleeves and work closely with people on a project or task.

But with my new company and its all-remote model, it would be hard to micromanage even if I wanted to. When everyone is at home, you just have to trust that people are getting their jobs done well. Which, of course, they nearly always do, without the CEO looking over their shoulder.

I suspect that many executives have become more trusting during the pandemic and that many will remain so.

I’m reluctant to call any of these five lessons silver linings, since it’s hard to find good in a pandemic that has killed 2.4 million worldwide as of this writing, battered the global economy, and disrupted life for everyone. But we can’t ignore that we learn from hardships.

Business leaders, just like anyone else, should cherish the perspectives that the last year has revealed or reinforced. In many cases, they can only make themselves and their companies better.