Telework presents leadership challenges

  • Published
  • By Daryl Mayer, AFLCMC Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio (AFLCMC) – The sudden shift to distributed operations, or telework, presented challenges to traditional ways of doing business across the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center. 
 
Many teams looked for innovative ways to connect, share ideas and stay apprised of progress – often using technology like MS Teams and Zoom.  Now as the public health crisis ebbs, the workforce will shift again not back to the old normal, but to some hybrid version that includes more direct contact intermixed with telework.  The ability to connect and lead remotely will continue to be important skills for leaders.    
 
Alexis Gerst is an active duty first lieutenant and acquisition program manager for the Munitions Sustainment Division at Hill AFB, Utah.  She is also author of the book, “Leading Remote Teams: Embrace the Future of Remote Work Culture.” 
 
“All of us kind of had to go to telework when we went to into the pandemic and had to start adapting and learning how to transition all of our processes and what we do and how we operate to a remote environment, get used to not being able to go into an office and work together with each other,” she said.  “In that process. I started transitioning my own team’s activities and learned a lot of lessons along the way and started observing how other team leads were also adapting or maybe not so well.” 
 
The drive to learn and share better ways to lead remotely became a passion that led to writing her book. 
 
“I think the emotion around human connection and being able to work together was really one of the challenges that we faced right at the beginning because many of us were so used to seeing each other face to face, and being able to talk and have those nonverbal communications and kind of get into that richness and connection that we weren't really sure what to do when it went all digital. Many people are really uncomfortable with that,” she said.
 
She noted that communications in the digital environment became very transactional in that someone would call, ask a question and then hang up.  Contrast that with an office encounter where you might chat about the weather or ask about a ball game along with asking a question. 
 
“So I think it's really important to take some time whether you're having like a team meeting or whether you're just talking to somebody, one on one, to ask them how their day is going, ask them what they've been up to, and take some time to connect on a personal level,” she said.  “Just kind of go back to establishing those personal relationships and being more intentional and making that effort to do that because otherwise, we can get really lost in the transaction of work and forget that we're all people and we kind of miss that human connection when we're not able to go into the office and meet up with our friends.”    
 
To hear the full conversation, you can watch Leadership Log on YouTube at https://youtu.be/WaWmpJ9KdSA.  You can also listen by searching “Leadership Log” on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, Overcast, Radio Public or Breaker.