Name: Smart Work
Rating: 4.4 (86 reviews)
Author: Jo Owen

What’s in it for me? An introduction to the new world of work.

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we work. For Jo Owen, those changes amount to the greatest shake-up of the way companies are managed and led in over 200 years.

The old industrial “command-and-control” model is finished, for starters. The leaders of the future won’t be bossy office micromanagers – they’ll be experts in facilitating the work of highly skilled, autonomous professionals who’ve embraced remote work.

All of that adds up to a paradigm shift. What’s needed now is a parallel shift in attitudes. If leaders are to meet the challenges of the future, they have to rethink what it means to lead.

And that’s what we’ll be exploring in this Blink.

Along the way, you’ll learn:

Why offices will still play an important role in the future;
How to delegate effectively; and
Why you should hire for values, not skills.

The future of work is hybrid.

The world of work is changing. It has been for a while now, too. Since the internet became commonplace some 25 years ago, change has been a constant feature of the workplace.

New ideas, attitudes, and technologies have transformed everything from whom we do business with around the globe to how we sit – or stand – at our desks. For lots of companies, keeping up with rapid change is the challenge of the twenty-first century. And that’s when the pandemic hit.

Covid-19 showed us what fast really looks like. Overnight, entire industries had to change their entire operational models as remote work became the new normal.

The suddenness of that sweeping change shouldn’t obscure an important point, though. Remote work was already on its way – the pandemic turbo-charged existing trends. At some point in the near future, companies would have had to make the transition anyway. If there’s one silver lining to the pandemic, it’s the fact that it forced companies to start thinking seriously about the future of work. That, in a nutshell, is the view of the author, Jo Owen. And that’s why he wrote Smart Work – to help companies navigate the challenges and opportunities of the future.

So what does that future look like? As we emerge from the pandemic, there’s a temptation to turn the clock back and restore the pre-Covid status quo. That, Owen thinks, would be a mistake. We can’t just uninstall Zoom and get everyone back into the office. Lots of professionals don’t want to do that, for one – they appreciate the autonomy working from home gives them. Just as importantly, remote work has distinct advantages. Some tasks, it turns out, can be better completed outside the office. That’s especially true of “thinking” work, like reading and writing reports.

But offices also have their unique advantages. They’re wonderful machines for building trust. Teams are often forged in chance meetings by the water cooler, and problems are often best solved during informal chats over lunch or coffee. It’s also in the office that new hires learn about a company’s values and leaders can best help team members grow and develop.

So there are good reasons to keep both the office and working from home. This combination of models is called hybrid work. That, Owen argues, is the future of work.

Adapting to this hybrid model is a challenge, though – especially for leaders. Thing is, leadership is much easier in the office. Everyone’s in the same place at the same time, so you can always see who’s struggling and who’s coasting. If there’s an issue, it’ll jump out. Usually, the solution can be worked out on the spot. Remote work, by contrast, doesn’t give leaders the same oversight. Zoom calls don't even tell you what people are wearing below the waist, let alone if someone is slacking, struggling, or striving. You can’t “accidentally” bump into people in the hallway to discuss a problem, either. And the people you need to influence aren’t sitting a few desks away – they’re on the other side of a city, country, or continent. Leading remote teams, in short, is a challenge.

But it’s a worthy challenge. Adapting to the hybrid workplace, Owens argues, has the potential to make you a better leader.

Hiring for values, not skills, will help you build a robust team.

Teamwork is about dependency. If no one depends on anyone else, it’s not a team – it’s a bunch of individuals who happen to share the same boss. But you can’t depend on people you don’t trust.

Trust, then, makes the difference. Like glue, it holds everything together.

Delegating real work builds trust and motivation.

Delegating can be tricky, and it often makes leaders anxious. Do it too well, the worry goes, and you’ll delegate yourself out of a job. That’s not quite right, but we’ll come back to that.

First, though, let’s ask a simple question: why is it so important to delegate work in the first place? We can start answering that question by looking at it from the perspective of a team.

Kernaussagen in Smart Work

Worum geht es in Smart Work?

Smart Work (2022) is a handbook for leaders navigating the post-pandemic transition into a world of remote and hybrid work. These are challenging times for managers, argues author Jo Owen. What worked in the office won’t necessarily work in remote teams. But if there’s one thing Covid-19 showed us, it’s that we can adapt – fast. And change is a good thing, he insists. Why? Well, mastering these challenges isn’t just about future-proofing your job – it’ll also make you a better leader.