Welcome to Hacking Your Leadership. I'm Chris and I'm Lorenzo. And Lorenzo on
this episode, I want to talk about an article that I saw on LinkedIn
that that kind of triggered me just a little bit. And it's got a
little bit of a clickbaity title, but I think the information in it is
relevant, very relevant right now. Actually, the title of the LinkedIn article
says, want a promotion, don't work from home, very very very clickbaity,
very very very clickbaity, and very like the There's a half of my
brain read that and thought those are fighting words right there, and the other
half of my brain read that and went, yeah, there's probably some truth
to that, you know. So it's a both like there's a there's this
like kind of duality of parts of me that fight against each other because of
I see so much in terms of the benefits of both of both situations that
I think there's a lot of benefit to working in office. I think there's
a lot of benefit to working from home. And and these are decisions that
companies make all the time in terms of forcing their employees or you know,
you know, removing options and their companies where employees get to make these decisions
on their own. And you know, in the context of this article really
focuses around the situations where where employees can kind of make decisions not just within
their organization, but in terms of what job to take all together, what
organization to work for, and so the there's a lot of data in this
I and I like that it's data driven. It's not just one person's opinion
that you could say, well, they just want their employees to come to
work or they just want to be work from home. It's backed by data,
and I like that aspect of it. But it's it's got some compelling
reasons why if you are in an organization and you have the opportunity to work
from home, but your organization as a whole isn't typically work from home,
that you may want to consider what the what the implications are of that decision
before you take it. Yeah, there's two things that kind of stuck out
to me right away, and you know, just the evolution of the workforce
and so right now, according to this article, it says nearly twenty percent
of all employees with a college degree or higher worked fully remotely as of December,
So like literally as of like a month ago, twenty percent of employees
with a college degree or higher. That that's I mean, that's tremendous like
that, that seems like a really big number compared to what it used to
be. And then it also says the pandemic absolutely right. And then it
also says people who work in office every day aren't promoted any more frequently than
hybrid workers. So this really, this all of its context is like work
from home one hundred percent, Like it's not. The comparison here isn't like
hybrid working and in those that are always in the office, it's like,
based upon this data, it's like, no, no, you are one
hundred percent work from home. And according to this, the data says that
you're you know, workers are getting promoted thirty thirty one percent less frequently than
people who work in the office at least part time. So again it's like,
that's what the data is showing up here. But I think it's something
for us to definitely unpack because it appears is that the workforce is continuing to
increase that number from a work from home standpoint, And now to your point
earlier, we're getting to the point where this is becoming you know more than
just maybe you know individual contributor jobs or jobs where where there isn't like career
pathing or promotional opportunities. To have more people working from home means that you
need to have more layers of leadership to be able to help to lead those
people that are working from home. So there's going to be more jobs that
way. But also the size of the organization, the percentage of people working
from home versus in office, These become really big factors when it comes to
the opportunities that would exist in maintaining career growth while only working from home.
Right, right. So I'll start by saying that you know my personal opinion
only and based on what works for me. I love the idea of a
hybrid work environment. I think there's a lot of work that in my personal
life that I could do that doesn't need to be done in an office.
I get so much value out of the in person interactions with people that the
idea of being wholly in office or wholly at home, it leaves things on
the table that I think I would I want to have in my life.
So I like the idea of hybrid environments. What this article is talking about
is not those people, obviously, and it's also not talking about the people
who are work from home in organizations where everybody works from home, Like there
are organizations out there that don't have a home office, they don't have a
location, like the job is a work from home job. There are outside
salespeople. There are you know, over the phone customer service reps where you
sit a home office and you know your your house is quiet, you put
on headphones and you take calls all day, like where there isn't a place
to go to if you wanted to. That's not what this is talking about.
What this is saying is that if you if you work in an organization
where where there is a home office, there is a location to go to,
and you have the option of being fully remote, you want to be
that. There's some trade offs when it comes to the likelihood of you getting
promoted, and it really it comes down to a numbers thing. If there
are a certain number of promotions that happen per year, and ten percent of
your company works from home and ninety percent of your company works from the office,
then it stands to reason that ninety percent of the promotions will happen from
people who work in the office and ten percent of the promotions will get be
given to people who work from home, and that means that your competition is
less people, but it's also probably fiercer because the number of opportunities is lower
as well, And so that's something you have to consider if you are in
a work from home, you know, work from home role as opposed to
one that can be done in the office. The other thing to consider is
proximity bias is something it's a real thing. It's something that's been talked about
for a while, and it just means that the people that are close to
us are the ones that we create relationships with, that's all it means.
And the people that you have relationships with are the ones that are more likely
to be advocates for you in the doors and windows that open it for you
in your career versus people who you have transactional relationships every once in a while
over a zoom call. Yeah, I think that's such an important part of
it, because again I think there's you know, there's there's ways that you
have to look at it when you're thinking about career, career advancement and promotional
opportunities, and like step one in that is like you have to have the
outcomes of whatever job you have now, Like you have to have outcomes that
are measured in a way that show that you're ready for the next job that
you are, Like you're you're, you know, kind of a quality candidate
for a promotion because you're doing the job that you currently have at a certain
level or higher. Then you get into the space where, okay, well,
now what happens if I've got five people that all are doing that level
of work. Now I have to start to make a decision as a leader,
and like what's the difference is like, what are what are the skills
that are needed? What's the you know, what's what's the relationships that they
have with their peer group? What have I been able to see and witness
in regards to their leadership, how they inspire people, how they mentor people?
You know, what does it looks like when they work in under pressure?
Like these are things that now if everybody is all coming to the table
and are all producing the outcomes that are needed for a promotion, now we
start to get into some of these other types of filters that require observation,
that require relationships that require you know, the ability for a leader to assess
their talent, their potential via seeing how they do the work. And to
your point, you know that typically in many organizations, is easier to do
when you're around people, when things happen, when you're in meetings, when
you're having informal conversations, when you're seeing how they do different things throughout an
officer with a team. It's not that you can't see that in work from
home or the virtual world. It just requires a different level of intention,
a different level of focus, a different way to observe those same types of
behaviors, you know, the same way that that person can, you know,
have a conversation with a peer around helping them to get better. I
can sit at the table and listen to that. I can be five feet
away and see what's going on, or I can log into the virtual meeting
and see how they do Like there are ways for many of these things to
be done, both in person and virtually. But there is also reality when
we're looking in this comparison that as a leader, if that leader is spending
their time either hybrid or in an office, they're going to have more time
with those individuals. If the leader is one hundred percent also work from home,
or they spend time leading a fully work from home team. Then it
really becomes on the leader to make sure that they are assessing those things in
a way that allows them to understand and see the potential and capabilities of each
of the individual people. And so I think it's important that you know you
said this earlier there. If a company is ninety percent in office hybrid and
ten percent work from home, that means that if there are promotions and career
progress, a much smaller percentage of that's going to happen in the work from
home team. If that's ten percent. If you're work from home, you
want to stay at work from home, your potential for promotion is much smaller
if you're a smaller percentage of the whole. If you're in an office or
hybrid and you have ninety percent of the employee base there, those opportunities for
promotions will be a lot higher. There'll be a lot more of them based
on the numbers and data alone, And you have to understand that if again,
if work from home works for you, those types of jobs will probably
be fewer and far between, and the competition will be much heavier because it's
only the people that are working from home, right right. I think about
my time working in corporate HR for Best Buy from two thousand and nine through
twenty eleven, and you know, I wanted to live in southern California,
and so I stayed living in southern California, and I would fly to Minneapolis
about one one or two weeks a month for over the span of two years.
And so I was up there probably a total of maybe you know,
thirty or forty weeks total over the course of two years. There was this
kind of like main kind of quad or hub area where these four buildings kind
of came together and you had to kind of walk through it almost like a
high school quad, you know, where people walk from one building to another
to go to meetings and stuff like that. And I tended to want to
sit at a table in that kind of hub area. Whenever I wasn't actively
in the meeting or meeting with somebody, like I was just getting work done,
I'd want to be in that area. And the reason why I wanted
to is because the number of people that walked by who I saw and struck
up conversations with was was very high. Now in the total time that I
did that, there were probably half a dozen projects that came onto my plate
that I was able to do good work as a part of because of just
happening to be sitting there when someone walked by and we struck up a conversation
about what they were working on, and I said what I was working on,
and then we talked about where the those two roads can intersect and we
can help each other out and we end up doing good work together. And
that became a relationship, and it became a project, and it became something
else to put on my resume, so to speak of, you know,
a personal work experience. Now, of all of the hours spent in that
place, if that only happened, you know, five or six times,
you could say that the average was really low. But it happens zero times
during the weeks that I was at home right zero times. And so the
idea of what doors open simply because you happen to be somewhere when something happens
versus not being there when it's happening, I don't think that can be undercut.
You know, we think about, you know, a person in the
office and all of a sudden there's a fire, not a real fire,
a figurative fire, a project that comes a deadline that's all of a sudden
do something to change and they're working hard at it. If you happen to
be walking by their office when this is happening and you see that they're kind
of in a in a little bit of a tizzy, being able to jump
in and say what can I do? Help? Can I can I help
you get through this for the moment, if you're working from home, you
won't know that's happening until it's already solved by whoever is there to help that
person to solve it. Now. Is that is that okay? Sure?
But there's a toll that that takes over the long term in terms of the
relationships that you were able to create just by being there when things happen,
and I've gotten I've gotten personal a lot of value over those just happen stance
opportunities that come that you don't know if it's going to lead to anything,
but eventually something does. Because everything is about relationships and everything is about what
people you have kind of in your bullpen who will go to bat for you
to say, Hey, I want Chris on this project. I want Lorenzo
on this project. We did great work to other last year on this thing,
and I want him on this again. I think Lorenzo should be promoted.
I don't think Chris should be laid off in the next round of layoffs
because of the work that was done on this project and that project and that
project. All of these things batter in the context of your name coming up
in the room when you're not there, and we talk about it in a
lot of episodes. We said some of the biggest decisions around your career are
made when you're not even in the room. That's what when we talk about
relationships mattering. Yeah, And what we got to be careful of though as
well, is like it's not a matter of trying to convince or talk through
why you shouldn't work from home, right rights, These are these are real
examples of things that you've you know, kind of experienced yourself, things that
we can see. But the reality is that there's also a piece of this
that I think is just the way that some organizations and some leaders even view
work from home as something that's new and like, let's be honest with it,
like there's data here from I think Nick Bloom from Stanford Professor had popped
into here to share some data around just how leaders, managers, and non
managers think about the culture impact of something like work from home, And the
funny part is about sixty percent all say it's about the same. The difference
as far as like what they believe the culture will be in the future,
it would be about the same, you know, with the work from home.
The difference is that with leaders and managers there is a much higher percentage
that says they think that the work from home piece will have a more of
a negative impact on culture than those that are non managers, right, And
that's interesting to see that because I think that to your point, while there
can be a lot of things that for a fact, can be helpful in
building the relationships that can help to move your career along, there's also this
piece of it that if people consistently look at it that way, your leaders
look at it that way as like, well, this is something that's not
good for us or not good for our culture, then that even whether it's
unconscious, conscious or explicit bias is going to happen in some of the decision
making that's going to be out there. And so like if you've chosen to
work from home and that works best for you and that's what you want to
do. These are some things that you really can't control to a degree,
but you can have an influence on the relationships and the work that you do
to build that career. So I think that's also important to call out because
I think that this is something that from a workforce and from a leadership evolution
standpoint, that that that leaders are working on and working through right now,
and and I think over time, these these numbers will start to more align
with themselves in regards to the negative or positive look when it comes to like
work from home at hybrid working right. And let's be clear, there are
a lot of really bad reasons why why managers and leaders want people to work
in office. And if you have the option of working from home and your
leader or manager can't articulate why it's better to work in office, then and
it's just because you know, they want to be able to, you know,
keep their eye on you, or they want to be able to they
feel like they have a harder time leading someone who is remote, so they
want that person in the office. That's that's the wrong reason to work from
office. You know that that that that's really way into your decision of whether
or not you're in the right job as opposed to your working for the right
person, whether or not or instead of you know, just decision to work
from home or not. And so again this isn't This is all about just
trade offs and as long as you go into it with your eyes open and
you're making a decision in terms of what's best for you short term, long
term, your goals, in terms of your career, your family life,
the balance that you have. It's not about trying to change what that is.
It's about making sure that you feel like you are armed with the information
and that you have the right to make that decision for yourself in a way
that works best for you, knowing that it's really difficult to have something that
lets you have the best of everything. Everything in life is a trade off.
The trade offs that are important to you are the ones you have to
decide on your own, and no one should be deciding that for you.
Absolutely, And with that it brings us to this episodes one minute hack.
But first, if you works from our sponsors all right, for this episode
is one minute hack. If you're a work from home employee and you have
the opportunity to do either. So your job is such that you have peers
that work in off or hybrid and you have peers that work from home,
and kind of the option is yours to make. There are some very strategic
things you can do to kind of make sure that you are setting yourself up
for success when it comes to doors being opened for you in the future when
compared with people who are working in all types of roles, both in office
and hybrid as well. The first one is around proactive visibility. Make sure
that you are scheduling check ins with your manager. The next one is around
making sure that your impact can be quantified. So track your metrics, track
your performance, whatever that looks like, being able to speak to it in
a moment's notice so that you can quantify what your value add to your organization
is. Building relationships. We've talked about this before. This is huge.
Engage in the activities that you do. If it's a virtual meeting, don't
be the one that just sits there with the camera off and you know,
being quiet and taking all the information in, especially if you're in a zoom
meeting with people who are all in a room together, and you're the one
who's not in that room, be the one speaking up and can contributing and
making sure that your a valuable impact on whatever that meeting is, even if
you are virtual, and then continuously learning, always be learning about more about
the organization, more about the ways you can contribute in ways that make step
outside of your role or that help people who don't work in the same roles
that you work. Anything that you can do to make sure that you are
visible, contributing and creating relationships are things that will help you in the long
run. If you want to make sure that you continue to be able to
work from home but not have as many doors closed for you in terms of
promotability. Yeah, and I think that's what's important. Again, there's so
many factors here in regards to the potential based upon the organization and opportunities that
happen there. But I think that, you know, if there's one big
takeaway that I would say is continuing to build your relationships across the board,
continuing to be proactive with how you're sharing your work, how you're making sure
that your outcomes are not just you know, kind of at expectation but are
really like in a space where you're showing the potential to be promoted to the
next role, and you know, pushing yourself from a from a learning standpoint.
You know, I think these things are important to see because I think
when when leaders are making decisions for opportunities, you know, it's not just
a matter of Okay, you've done this job, well, now if I
give you this next job, like, can you do it? Like?
The idea is like I've seen the behaviors I've observed and understood, you know,
how you were finding success in your current role, and I believe that
you can apply those same behaviors and skills into the next role, because then
that will allow you to be successful there, which then can promote you to
the next role. So a lot of this is making sure that you know
you're getting time with the decision makers and sometimes that is your direct boss.
Sometimes there's others people that are involved, and so you know, proactively engaging
with them outside of an interview process or when a job is open. It
is critical to making sure that people are very familiar with not just your body
of work, but where you want to go, how you want to grow,
and the work that you're able to do, you know, driven by
the behavior and the skills that you have. Right. I think the last
thing I want to say on this is that because of the emotions around a
lot of these decisions, because they involve people making decisions that inherently involve trade
offs in terms of how they're able to engage with their spouses and partners and
kids and personal life and work life and their promotability. These are all things
that are emotional because they are very personal to the individuals making these decisions.
Because of that, it can be easy to look at the title of the
article that is being cited here by LinkedIn, which the title of the article
directly says new data shows remote workers are losing out on promotions. Don't make
the mistake of reading that and thinking that it says remote workers should be losing
out on promotions. Look at the data and look at ways that you can
make it so these things don't impact you as much, and don't fall into
the trap of trying to make a values or culture argument on it. The
chips are going to fall where they may, and every organization is going to
be different. What you can do that will help you out is what you
need you to help you out, and these are the strategies that we talked
about in this episode to make sure that you can continue making decisions that are
the best support the spirit of how you want to engage with your work and
your personal life. Absolutely and what that brings us to the end of this
episode, this is hacking your leadership. I'm Lorenzo and I'm Chris, and
we'll talk to you all next time.