famPLUS cooperation partner Christian Thiele reveals: 5 good tips for "Phygital Leadership" after the lockdown!

famPLUS cooperation partner Christian Thiele reveals: 5 good tips for "phygital leadership" after the lockdown!

Christian Thiele is a coach, trainer, speaker, and author – and someone who says: "We quickly see the deficits, shortcomings, and problems in ourselves and in others." But wouldn't it be much more constructive, encouraging, stimulating, and ultimately more productive to focus more on a person's strengths, competencies, and passions? Positive leadership starts right here. And so does Christian Thiele. Through a fundamentally new attitude and methods that underscore this attitude, more success, more creativity, more meaningfulness, and more joy in and at work are to become the new reality. As if the challenges and demands of Positive Leadership weren’t already enough, during the pandemic and after one and a half years of home office, a team structure is now emerging in which individuals may not necessarily be present or can only be present irregularly. Or in other words: scattered everywhere. Can you even lead positively under these conditions and without a team on-site? And also with a strong team performance as a result? Our famPLUS cooperation partner Christian Thiele has dealt with the exciting topic of "Phygital Leadership" – and explains how it can work.

First of all, what does the term "phygital leadership" actually mean?

Phygital Leadership refers to a combination of physical and digital presence. In a professional context, this hybrid form represents a mix of in-office and remote work. In short: remote. Many companies have firmly established remote work through a sort of "forced digitalization" during the lockdown period. And now? Back to the office—but who, how often, and why at all? Leaders are facing a monumental task of organizing the new way of working together. It is clear that it cannot continue with the old, familiar structures. A new phase has begun: that of phygital leadership and collaboration.

Home Office - Yes, No, Maybe?

What is very noticeable, says Christian Thiele, is the fact that some employees are very happy working from home and would like to continue doing so. For them, the home office means better compatibility of work, family, and personal life. They find it more pleasant to work in concentrated periods. Ideally, when they are productive and not necessarily when the clock strikes nine. Avoiding commuting and traffic jams during rush hour is also not a disadvantage. Others, however, struggle with their unfamiliar self-responsibility at the home office. In many cases, there is also a lack of suitable spatial structure in their own home. They would like to return to the workplace as soon as possible. They miss the structure and contact with colleagues. Still, others can also imagine going back to the office, but only on selected days. Maybe only half a day. Just more or less according to their preference. In this situation, leaders must organize reasonable team performance, good cohesion, and information exchange—and do so as fairly as possible regarding individual needs and the needs of the team or department. As mentioned above: This can become a mammoth task. Unless you follow some effective tips on phygital leadership that can help make friends with this modern-day mammoth.

These tips can help make phygital leadership more successful:

• Discussing needs

If the most important needs are clarified, it is possible to act more purposefully. Executives should stay in touch in all directions. What does the team need? What do the customers need? What do suppliers need? And what does the company need in order to continue meeting everyone's needs? Who wants to work from home and when do they want to be in the office? Who needs to be present at what times, or what can be done to minimize presence times? Make sure to address comfort zones and thus promote willingness to cooperate on the other side.

• Try temporary solutions

Due to the massive disruptions that Corona has forced upon us in various areas of life, we have all tried and learned a great deal, becoming much more daring and flexible. Why should this phase of experimentation be over now? Keep the mindset of viewing setups, structures, and working methods as provisional tests. Stay flexible and agile. This makes it easier for you to respond to changes and make adjustments where necessary.

• Celebrating Progress

We, as humans, as a society, and also in business, have achieved enormous things since last spring. We have basically reorganized and established ourselves overnight, overcoming smaller and larger challenges, and in some areas even managed to improve conditions. Far too rarely is the focus on positive achievements. Deficits still weigh heavier than successes. In digital and hybrid contexts, progress and self-efficacy become even more diffuse. It is good when leaders draw attention to this and, in addition to focusing on shortcomings and deficits, see, emphasize, and communicate progress and success. Because in this way, the positive is more deeply internalized and, in the best case, repeated.

• Promote premium presence

Under the term "premium presence," Christian Thiele understands sensibly utilized presence times with noticeable added value. While the opposite is the old-fashioned "nine-to-five" presence, premium presence times are intended for exactly the things we miss in isolated home office settings. This includes time for workshops, creative sessions with the team, or simply a good old lunch break with colleagues at the Italian restaurant with a relaxed atmosphere and light-hearted conversations. This way, being on-site together makes sense again and the willingness to participate reaches a peak.

• Clarify channels

I emailed it to you, didn't I? Otherwise, it should be in the Teams channel—or on Slack. If not, check again in OneDrive." There are many communication tools, each with its own advantages and disadvantages depending on usage, goals, and needs. But if you also feel that all these options have resulted in an opaque mix of data, information, and storage, clarify the channels. Assign them clearly and distinctly. Establish when and where everyone should be reachable. Be sure to also define times for when the workday should end, to avoid unnecessary pressure and stress and to allow employees to have their recovery time.

Create additional relief through mental attitude

And one last tip: Thiele advises to observe the "second-order sovereignty." This sovereignty was defined by the philosopher Schulz von Thun. While the "first-order sovereignty" represents an ultimately error-free state and process, the second-order sovereignty embodies the successful human development that can accept mistakes, weaknesses, guilt, and failure without losing dignity. Not everything has to be perfect. And with this knowledge, it might be easier to approach new challenges more freely.

If you also want to lead positively in phygital times…

Do you also find the challenges of phygital leadership in our here and now difficult? Are you looking for tips and guidance on how to build structures, create communication spaces, resolve conflicts, and achieve satisfactory team performance as a leader even from a distance?

An effective immediate aid is provided by Christian Thiele's book "Positive Leadership for Dummies." It is based on scientific findings, which are described in simple, understandable words. It is full of practical tips and can be easily read in excerpts thanks to its detailed structure.

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