The construction industry has been slow to adapt to change and adopt new ways of doing things. But in a post-covid world, our digital construction talent expects hybrid working and needs strong leaders who are skilled at managing teams remotely. How do you do it?
This winter, harsh weather and a climate of industrial action has made it difficult for many people to get to their normal workplace, causing disruption and lost productivity for teams that can’t work effectively from remote locations. Some construction traditionalists maintain that a physical presence on site is essential to maintaining relationships and keeping a close eye on projects on the ground. However, for digital construction professionals working with virtual spaces and cloud-based data, this argument is wearing thin.
In the most competitive market for BIM talent we’ve ever seen, paying heed to research on employee expectations will set good digital employers apart from the rest in 2023. Statistics vary by source but all demonstrate a clear trend with between 70% to 97% of people wanting to work from home full time or choose when to come into the office. And good employers will be able to manage this, even in UK Construction.
Success factors for remote leadership
Every leader will have their own approach and the best ones will tailor this to every individual team they work with. Transitioning to a remote version of this can be challenging for even the most experienced and effective leaders. So, we’ve highlighted the most important skills for leading remote digital construction teams:
01 Agile experimentation means being prepared to allow rapid changes to be made. Leaders must have the confidence and mandate to take risks and demonstrate progress quickly. “Fail fast” is a mantra for learning that digital-first cultures can embrace where traditional construction cannot. Encouraging your people to make suggestions for improvement and experimenting with these promotes team growth.
02 Building resilience helps your team embrace the ever-changing demands of the digital construction landscape. Being both optimistic and realistic about what can be achieved is vital in reducing work-based stress and increasing productivity. Great remote leaders take the time to discover what their employees need in terms of individual support and then trust them to use it. They demonstrate clear boundaries whilst respecting different ways of working and understand the importance of active rest.
03 Communication is the number one requirement of good remote leadership, yet 91% of employees say their manager lacks this skill. Maintaining effective contact without physical presence, relying predominantly on the written word, makes empathy and emotional intelligence even more important. Taking the time to ensure communications with your team are considered and congruent pays off. Just one bad experience can undermine months of good ones, unless it is quickly and genuinely acknowledged and rectified – an opportunity to build trust and learning across the team.
04 Authenticity means not being afraid to be yourself and reveal your flaws. We all have professional personas, which serve a purpose, but people need to know who their leader really is, so finding ways to show your personality remotely is important. As is the courage to be vulnerable – mistakes are inevitable and admitting them demonstrates humanity and improves approachability. It can also help elicits feelings of safety within the team, freeing people to be themselves and do their best.
05 Vision and purpose show your team where they’re heading and make them more likely to stay the course. Communicating this clearly and consistently is all the more important as a remote team. Keeping people connected with the core ambition of the business and their role in delivering this is empowering, even more so if they can identify their own ways of making progress to the end goal, whatever their level of skill or experience. People may bring surprising value beyond the scope of their substantive role if they’re encouraged to think creatively about their own contribution.
06 Tech savvy leaders get the best out of their remote teams by having a broad and deep knowledge of the tools required to work effectively at a distance. Using shared virtual workplaces, communication channels like Slack, or exchanging threadit videos during asynchronous working are all commonplace in successful remote teams. It’s essential to be active in managing these channels and role-modelling behaviours to ensure they’re being used effectively by everyone and that they work for your team.
07 Comfort with disagreement doesn’t come naturally and it’s something that good remote leaders have to develop personally before teams will be able to solve problems through healthy conflict. Questioning assumptions is vital for evolution but that can only be done if the culture allows it, which requires leaders actively to thank their teams for doing so. Working remotely may permit difficult issues to fester and inhibit productivity, so encouraging discussion and prompting effective feedback sharing can bring these out and help people come up with diverse solutions.
08 Virtual team building recognises the importance of the social interactions between colleagues, beyond working together on tasks. Working remotely enables more time with family and friends but engendering supportive relationships within the team is still vital. So structuring intentional downtime and agenda-free space to listen to people and engage in virtual sharing is not wasted time, it’s an investment in building cohesion and strong bonds within the team.
09 Trust is tested more in remote working arrangements but it’s a quality that can be cultivated with the right leadership. Paradoxically, leaders who assume trust from the outset, rather than expecting people to earn it, are rewarded with higher engagement, enthusiasm and productivity. Autonomy drives responsibility and personal accountability. So, as long as the vision and purpose is clear, freedom to choose how this is delivered can empower people to achieve things in the way that’s best for them. Exploring barriers to trust involves a good deal of self-reflection for strong leaders.
10 Drive results by providing detailed briefs and clear expectations, rather than monitoring activity. Micromanagement is proven time and again to inhibit performance and create resentment, whereas focusing on reward for delivery is inherently motivating, when it’s achievable. Good remote leaders facilitate their teams with milestones and targets and encourage with stretch goals. But they also strike a balance between a focus on results and healthy culture, celebrating people’s successes and offering support where there are struggles.
11 Leverage diversity within the team as its greatest asset. Great leadership eschews hierarchy, tribes and favourites and explores unconscious bias, genuinely valuing everyone’s contributions to a collective intelligence. Creativity and innovation are fostered in collaborative teams that are encouraged to be curious about each other’s perspectives and consider the whole range of viewpoints and experiences each new person brings. Recruiting decisions in digital construction should disregard institutional fit, in favour of change and growth, whilst paying attention to diverse needs to ensure inclusivity.
12 Motivating remote teams is a key skill that involves understanding what drives people on an individual level and how to gain their buy-in. When work and personal priorities clash, a charismatic and empathic leader understands that accommodating needs can be an investment in future loyalty and trust. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are equally important, so it’s crucial to visibly acknowledge great and small contributions, as well as ensuring people are doing things they enjoy and are good at. Providing platforms and equipping people to celebrate and thank each other remotely will help identify additional value for recognition.
13 Visibility and access are crucial for remote leadership. Curating a well-known personal brand identity helps people understand what they can expect from a leader and how they can interact with them. Clarity around priorities and consistency of approach will alleviate anxiety and help people understand how to belong within the team. Four traits essential to good leadership remain vital when working remotely: trust, compassion, stability and hope. However, being available and present to embody these is more of a challenge outside a traditional environment and requires more effort. Being seen or connecting regularly and frequently across all channels and inviting interaction is essential.
14 Role model behaviours to show people what’s expected. Effective remote leaders have heightened consciousness of what they do, what they say, and what they think, because attitudes carry more influence. They also demonstrate the implicit rules of engagement in virtual interactions, that may not be familiar to everyone. Under remote leadership, role-modelling needs to be more proactive and overt, rather than relying on reactivity and micro-behaviours more common in office-based scenarios.