5 Keys to Being an Effective Hybrid Manager (Wise Decision Maker Guide 96)

Greetings Decision maker,

A Future Forum survey shows that 43% of middle managers report burnout, more than any other group of workers. The particularly large burden on middle managers stems, in large part, from the burden of implementing company policies on hybrid work and the return to office. What happens typically, from my experience of helping 21 companies transition to hybrid work, is that executives decide on policies and leave it up to middle managers to implement them.

That approach works well with clear, straightforward policies that managers know how to implement well based on prior experience. But managers have no experience with making the transition to hybrid work and then managing hybrid teams. Naturally, they try to shoehorn what they know – office-centric management methodologies – into hybrid-centric work. Then, they feel burned out when the results don’t measure up to expectations.

To learn more, check out this blog.

What's Up With Me

We got our first truly abundant strawberry harvest this year. My wife (and business partner) Agnes Vishnevkin and I have been working on our strawberry patch for several years. We started it in a small area of two by two feet, enjoyed the results, and then decided to expand it four years ago. By now, it’s four by eight feet. For the past few years the strawberries weren’t producing much - and whatever they produced were eaten by chipmunks and slugs. This year, we finally had enough for the chipmunks, slugs, and us. We gathered a huge container of strawberries, eight cups. It was a real feast!

It reminded me of a difference between myself and a close friend. He is an impatient gardener and doesn’t plant perennials: he likes to plant things he can harvest that same year, like tomatoes and peppers. While I also plant tomatoes and peppers, I also invest into long-term garden projects. My orientation is toward the five-year time horizon, and even longer in certain cases. As a result, I can look back and thank my past self from four years ago, who invested into planting and taking care of the strawberries that I’m enjoying now. And the ability to thank my past self helps inspire me to invest into the welfare of my future self many years from now, even though doing so feels completely unintuitive.

What can you thank your past self from several years ago for? And where can you use that gratitude to motivate yourself to invest into the long term?