Skillfully Lead Your Remote Team Without The Burnout Baggage

By Kahl Orr, the founder of Rise, a digital marketing agency that builds high-performing websites for some of the fastest-growing brands.

The golden age of office work is steadfastly in our collective rearview.

Many desk workers feel that this long-awaited social experiment is paying off in terms of better work-life balance and higher productivity. However, it’s management feeling the pinch in an endless purgatorial loop of hand-me-down fretting over output and pushback from employees who no longer see the value of returning to the way things were.

A recent Future Forum survey (download required) conducted in August 2022 found that burnout rose to 40% globally in the last quarter, with middle managers at enterprise-level companies citing the highest stress and anxiety levels. Team leaders are likely to be drained from managing dispersed forces in a shifting landscape and yearning to return to the office, despite the growth trajectory of remote and hybrid work.

For those who lead, those days are likely gone, but your mental health doesn’t have to be affected by this. If you constantly question your efficacy in managing remote teams and feel markedly less tethered to your sanity than you were three years ago, there is hope.

As an agency that was remote long before the global pandemic, Rise built a team environment that can exist and flourish in these working conditions. If the last few years have been a flutter of chaos shifting into the new workscape, rest assured: It is possible to stay productive as a remote team and stay sane in the process.

Flex Your Remote Managing Muscles

When Covid-19 hit, most leaders had to shift quickly into an unfamiliar work dynamic without prior training. It’s no wonder burnout rates have risen. Remote management is a skill like anything else. To excel, it’s essential to practice.

2020 was a good year for us. We were prepared because we were fully remote years before the pandemic. This is how we’ve worked since our inception, and we’ve only seen extraordinary growth and opportunities at every turn. We’ve embraced the idea that remote work can be a company’s “good bones” rather than an inconvenient necessity forced upon us in post-pandemic life.

That’s not to say it’s easy; nothing worth doing is. However, struggle can lead to magic. You must apply the same mindset you bring into the gym: The obstacle is the way. No one is getting that ripped summer body without the grind. The same applies to our work. The ability to make yourself do hard things, no matter how vile the task, will ultimately strengthen your skills. Eventually, whatever is problematic will become part of the journey, and you’ll no longer have that anxious reaction to chaos.

As Ryan Holiday said in The Obstacle Is The Way, “It’s okay to be discouraged. It’s not okay to quit. To know you want to quit but to plant your feet and keep inching closer until you take the impenetrable fortress you’ve decided to lay siege to in your own life—that’s persistence.”

Release The Old-Guard View

Another important find from the Future Forum survey is that 60% of executives design their workforce policies with little to no direct input from employees. Further still, 38% of executives prefer to work in the office three to four days per week. However, that’s not the experience for many desk workers. The survey found that individual contributors have seen gains in several areas, including an 11% year-over-year gain in work-life balance, a 12% increase in job satisfaction and, astoundingly, 25% less stress and anxiety.

This says to me that leaders are building policies based on outdated ideas that no longer serve them in a virtual business world while gathering no feedback from those impacted most. There’s still this strong culture among leadership at many companies that idolizes the traditional office format that isn’t jiving with the evolution of work.

At Rise, we’ve never functioned like a traditional corporate structure. That’s what makes us unique. We aren’t bound by a 9-to-5 ideology. Retaining this flexible foundation has enabled us to be a more progressive, inclusive workplace and provided an adaptable framework for the company to grow without typical restrictions.

With the remote work revolution well in hand and the perpetual battle to acquire and retain talent raging, it’s essential to adapt. Let go of these stale mores of how a company should operate and invite your employees into the discussion about establishing new policies that work for all.

Build Your Culture With Engagement

Gallup data suggests that employees who feel connected at work because they’ve nurtured relationships with their colleagues perform better. This is especially true for isolated WFH employees. As productive as remote workers are, there are still risks associated with this lifestyle that leaders can help alleviate through relationship-building. Having work friends can facilitate a sense of belonging, helping them to feel more invested and purposeful in their duties.

According to Gallup’s data, “having a best friend at work is strongly linked to business outcomes, including profitability, safety, inventory control and retention.”

We strategically design opportunities to build community. Since we’ve never had an office space to encourage that natural exchange, we’re hypervigilant about structuring times to facilitate connection. Like we do, consider holding quarterly outings, check-ins and ice-breakers on calls and Slack channels to encourage engagement. You can also hire an HR manager to implement communication initiatives.

Additionally, it’s just as important to take care of yourself as it is to take care of your employees. You can’t just build the culture for the sake of the bottom line. You have to participate in it to reap the benefits, too.

Conclusion

Burnout seems to be prevalent in an evolving workspace as companies attempt to face the new normal. The skills that once served us in a typical office setting should now evolve, too. Employees can make great strides working from home. However, managers should release what has historically worked for them and embrace these new challenges.

Remote leadership demands intentionality. It’s a mindset game and requires grit. That mindset involves passion and perseverance for long-term and meaningful goals. Being open to flexibility and leading with emotional intelligence will enable you to overcome the fatigue of managing your team from afar.