Managers need better training to thrive in hybrid workplaces
According to Coursera’s latest research.
Why You Should Care
Hybrid work is posing huge challenges for managers and people leaders.
They are stressed, and are struggling to keep their teams productive and motivated, according to research from Coursera.
Here's why leadership training is the solution.
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Hybrid work is here to stay. And it is challenging managers.
Research by Coursera found that 34% of people managers think hybrid work changed leadership for the worse. They are struggling with their own work-life balance, keeping team morale up and communicating effectively; this is according to the survey of 1,000 people managers across the world.
Credit: Coursera’s The Making of a Modern Leader report.
Coursera’s vice-president for EMEA Hadi Moussa tells UNLEASH: “This should come as no surprise.
“Creating and managing successful teams is hard enough when employees are face-to-face, but with distributed teams, when colleagues come from different locations, backgrounds and cultures, enabling effective communication and cooperation can be challenging, as can fostering trust.”
Managers are caught in the middle between employees (and their growing expectations around wellbeing, career development and purpose) and senior leadership’s demands around business bottom lines.
Even though managers know what they need to prioritize – leading by example, setting clear goals, encouraging team work and empowering their teams – they are struggling to take action in these areas.
They are more stressed, more unproductive and more dissatisfied (46%) than senior leadership – and this is a concern for employee productivity, but also organizations’ attrition rates.
Learning leaders are key
Unfortunately, these leadership challenges are only being exacerbated by continuing uncertainty – notably a looming recession and a cost of living crisis.
In this context, employers, and particularly HR teams, need to focus on better supporting their people managers – according to Coursera, the best way to do this is through better leadership training.
This training needs to focus on the new, modern features of leadership for this hybrid world of work – having empathy, compassion and patience (29%) – this rises to 32% in the UK and 31% in Germany – being visible and having open dialogue with employees (26%) and mastering change management (25%). Change management was a particular focus of French managers.
However, Coursera is very clear that organizations must not just make leadership training available to existing managers. It needs to be available to everyone so that all employees can thrive in this new collaborative working environment, and grow in their careers.
People managers need to become learning leaders and set a good example to their direct reports around learning. 19% of respondents said that leading by example and letting others see that you are learning new skills was the best way to inspire learning at work.
Mentoring is also key as it shows employees their leadership potential and gives them more confidence in their working lives.
Moussa concludes: “It is clear that in today’s distributed world, effective leadership is business-critical, and yet more complex than ever.
“There is a growing sense of urgency amongst businesses that are recognizing the immediate need to provide high-quality leadership training.
“Organizations must prioritize a skills-first approach to training, empowering employees to provide the business and themselves with a competitive edge, while reducing talent attrition and allowing leaders to be agile in navigating the changing needs of their teams across countries and cultures.”
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