I have recently taken up bird watching. I don’t tell you that so you think I’m cool, (It wouldn’t work. No cool person has ever said, “I’m a birder.”) But it has me thinking about birds. And evolution. And, on a particular Sunday afternoon, about the evolving workplace. Stick with me on this, there’s a business point to be made.
Bird watching is more than simply looking for a bird in a tree. You have to identify it very carefully. Now, if it’s a bald eagle, that is pretty simple. But smaller birds come in all kinds of species and types, and differentiating between them can be difficult. For example, there are seven different kinds of chickadees in the US. At least 3 different types visit my back yard here in Las Vegas. Why would there be so many types? A chickadee is a chickadee and frankly it looks a lot like a gnat-catcher. Who cares?
The answer is, that while there may have been one type of chickadee at one time, each has adapted to its particular circumstances. Brown-capped Chickadees live in low bushes close to the ground. They blend in with the dirt. The Mountain Chickadee is almost the same except for a white stripe under its eyes, which helps it blend into the sunnier environment up in the trees.
WAKE UP! HERE’S THE BUSINESS POINT!
Just as birds have evolved in very niche ways to help succeed in their environments, your team has likely evolved in subtle ways. It may look the same, and even officially be the same, as every other team in your company but it is likely different in subtle but important ways. Take hybrid or flexible work as an example.
On paper, you and your cohorts might all look the same. But you have an experienced team, and people like a little flexibility in their schedules. Theoretically, you’re an in-office group, but reality and good judgement give them more flexibility than the chickadees - I mean team - down the hall.
Bob’s team is relatively new. They don’t know each other well, and they have several new hires who are still learning the culture and how things are done there. More remote work might not be the best thing for that team at this time.
Teams evolve. As a leader, you need to evolve along with them. You might be more comfortable with remote work, but if that’s not the kind of chickadees you’ve got, you might be doing them (and yourself) a disservice.
Here’s the good news for managers. Evolution takes a lot of time and trial-and-error to find the right combination of traits. People are different from chickadees. We can spot changes in our environments and change behaviors without actually evolving physically.
An over-reliance on being in the office might mean you lose valuable people who chafe at going in every day. Or you might think you have an in-office team and thus fall victim to proximity bias and favor part of your team over another.
If you don’t learn how to coach people as effectively at a distance as you did when you could catch them at the coffee machine, your team members might not achieve the goals you have for them.
There are many ways to become a more flexible and adaptive leader. It starts with being aware of your environment. What’s the same as it always was? What has changed (or is changing) that might limit your team’s success? What new predators lurk and how can you deal with them before something awful happens?
Now I have to go. There’s a Collared Grosbeak on my window sill.
