The unique personalities of your employees is an asset: how to deploy it

Workspaces have traditionally been perceived as places in which we should act a certain way and that sometimes means suppressing who we really are. At Space Your Place, allowing your employees to bring their “full self” to work is the secret behind the future of work. Apart from logistically needing to reconsider new hybrid work realities after the pandemic, there is more to the game of efficiency and that is putting front and center to any future strategy the human qualities that make you, you. We want leaders and executives to act smarter, not harder, when it comes to organizing their approach to work. Here we talk about how.

1. Involve your team in developing your hybrid-work approach

Everyone has a different way of working, time in the day they are productive and personality type. If your employees feel like they can express to you what works for them, then you are able not only to manage them more efficiently, but also to create a more empathetic and human culture. Give space and time to get to know your employees on a personal level, and that can mean both spending time with your team outside of work (get them to decide where they want to go) as well dedicated sessions to talk about preferences in way of work (you could send out a survey of when they prefer to work) and stop shooting in the dark on how to organize your hybrid-work approach. For example, tech company nate gives each employee the freedom to choose their own work title with the intention to remove hierarchical barriers. What would make sense for your team?

2. Giving freedom allows for a sense of control

Micro-managing is constraining. More complicated jobs require more autonomy because as studies have shown perceived control is associated with emotional wellbeing, reduction in the physiological impact of stressors and increase in their ability to deal with stress. Your employees want to do it their own way, so let them. In tasks that are straightforward autonomy matters less, but if the job is more complex employees need to be able to draw on resources such as freedom to do the job the way they want. On top of that, feeling in control of outcomes makes one more likely to solve problems for themselves, so you get a healthier workforce that is more creative in their problem-solving as well.

3. Set the tone for authenticity and emotional safety

In the Deloitte University Leadership Center for Inclusion report, Uncovering Talent, it was revealed that 61% of employees “cover” their identities in some way. Though you can’t push people to be open about gender orientations or self-expression in relation to that, think about developing protective policies that address sexual orientation. More generally, be open and intentionally reach out to check on personal wellbeing. Share that it’s ok to not be ok, and better share when you’re not ok in the appropriate context. Purposefully seek out others’ perspectives, whether creating a new product, finding vendors or developing your hybrid strategy.

4. We all have a life outside of work, but we don’t think it should be separated

Space Your Place has a vision to transform the workplace experience entirely. That has to start by being able to share mental health journeys, stories about a difficult illnesses we are dealing with, the challenges we have raising an autistic son, the fact that your mother has Dementia. The role of a manager or leader is to a) model what it looks like to be open 2) create moments where we can share openly 3) allow employees more flexibility intentionally 4) support the unique and specific needs of their team. If we want to have a future where work and life that move seamlessly together rather than siloed off, we need to be able to first talk about the realities that make up being a human.

If you are an executive and you are interested in support with managing workspace optimization at your organization, please get in touch. Space Your Place offers highly customized consultation services and programs designed to fast-track integration of wellbeing, connection, productivity and efficiency in both virtual and physical spaces.