The talent shortage we carried into the pandemic, and the shifting contract of how we work, are combining to be a major challenge in our businesses. This two-headed threat has turned the equation of work design inside out and has put our teams into very unfamiliar territory.
One tangible data point from this is the number of “fit to role” discussions I’m having. Leaders are stepping back and asking themselves just how well their core instincts and skills are aligned with what they are being asked to do in their jobs. In the past, members of an organization would have endured a significant mismatch by compensating outside of work with rest, exercise, or other distractions. When our homes became our workplaces, and our family our work partners, those offsetting activities became unworkable.
Now that we are in an opportunity-rich environment, the team members are resolving these tensions by moving on – in many cases, to better compensation and better alignment. The business impact? Talent is moving in unprecedented volumes.
From the firm’s viewpoint, the pre-pandemic tools and playbooks are not working to adequately expose and resolve these tensions. There is no amount of employee surveys that can spot this and take meaningful action to move forward.
The good news, is that by moving to higher ground, we can see the larger forces in play and take that action that will allow working on the real versus perceived issue.
How We Got Here
Many of the firms I work with were functioning at a very high level pre-pandemic. They had done the work to meaningfully move beyond what we call “hopeful work” (see this post and the figure below).
But when the pandemic took hold, firms stepped to the left – and this pushed our teams’ effectiveness lower. In other words, in a fully virtual environment, we all had to work harder and longer to achieve our goals. Internal teamwork was harder, marketing and sales were harder, logistics and supply chain were harder – and it took a big toll. I’ve talked with more than 40 firms at this point, and they all self-identify at least one step to the left.
And Then, Expectations Went Up
Then the second shoe dropped. Remote work turned out to be a forced rapid evolution of the integration of work-life balance. We all suddenly needed to work out our business and personal lives as they were forcibly commingling in our homes. This had a huge acceleration effect on interpersonal relationships, and correspondingly, our human needs and satisfaction level. A tolerable mismatch (unfortunately many of our co-workers were there), became untenable in the crucible of colocated home and work life.
Cue the “Reopening”
So, when the economy rebooted, and talent was (still) short, everyone started listening to those voice messages from recruiters and responding to those LinkedIn messages. The effect of this has been tagged the “Great Resignation” and in the right light, is a quite healthy flight to better quality alignment between work and home life.
Savvy teams that do the work on workplace alignment, win. I’ve spoken with business leaders who have increased their teams by 50% during the pandemic – in many cases not having had a face-to-face meeting with them while doing it.
How do We Get on the Right Side of This?
First, quality work is the starting point. Great team members will put up with a lot if they have a line of sight to meaningful (client-serving) work that is aligned with their core giftedness and values.
Second, rather than searching for people to fit in our org legacy chart, we need to build our org chart to better fit the roles and contributions we are asking for (to get a starting point on this, see this article on how to build an effective team).
The best time to move your business forward on the effectiveness journey is today. I’ve worked out a diagnostic path that allows you to assess where you are on this spectrum and point specifically to the acceleration work that needs to be done.
The good news is that taking the first step of diagnosis will immediately signal to your group that you are investing to close the effectiveness + expectations gap.
Next Actions
If this has resonated with you, and you’d like to talk about how to be a leader that’s closing this gap, please use this link to set up a 20-minute call with me. In the meantime, you might enjoy the related articles shown at the bottom of this post on scottpropp.com
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