Today's Work is Hybrid: Empowering our people to do their best work in today's environment

Setting boundaries, showing up as whole humans, and working better together just got easier.

By Nicole Diehl, Sr. Consultant @ Thoughtium
Published February 2023

If boundary setting sounds somewhat ambiguous and feels like newer territory for you, you are not alone. The concept of boundary setting, also referred to as personal limits, learned preferences, or simply boundaries, has more recently gained greater attention and recognition in areas of self-care, well-being, and work-life balance as a result of the pandemic. For many of us, myself included, learning to set boundaries was not a hot topic in school. Rather, we’ve been conditioned to meet and even exceed the expectations of others with little regard for our own preferences, which I know really strikes a chord for my fellow people pleasers, perfectionists, and high performers alike.

With the rise of hybrid work environments, it is crucial to examine our current ways of working, determine what methods are most effective, and have open communication with one another to establish clear boundaries and ensure we can perform at our best.

Why should boundaries matter to leaders? 

• Boosts productivity as team members can better manage their time and priorities

• Promotes better mental health and helps prevent burnout

• Improves communication and collaboration across your team

• Builds trust and enhances company culture when leaders set and respect boundaries

• Fosters a structured work environment that supports informed decision making and reduces confusion and mistakes

Leaders can set a positive example by modeling healthy boundary setting and creating a supportive work environment that values the well-being and personal lives of employees. Re-thinking your expectations for working hours, encouraging breaks, and prioritizing self-care are just a few ways to help people show up their best at work. 

The expectation that “you’re always on” at Thoughtium is nonexistent. I’ve never heard either of my co-founders verbalize this directly, but they’ve never had to. When one of them is out the door by 5pm for a group meditation or fitness session and the other one is gone for an afternoon walk, you know they’re disconnecting and prioritizing their well-being. Even across our team, finding “focused time” on each other’s calendar is not uncommon even for my fellow extroverts. By rethinking expectations as leaders and setting clear boundaries as team members, we create a foundation for a more efficient, productive hybrid working environment that allows us to optimize our preferred working styles. 

Understanding our working styles provides valuable insight into how we approach tasks, interact with one another, and manage our time and energy. In a hybrid work environment, it’s harder to recognize and thus consider one another’s working style.

When we can accommodate different working styles, we can work in a way that suits our strengths, avoids conflict, and enhances our productivity all at the same time. When my team members and I are given similar requests like designing a workshop, the way we approach our deadline is different and the output we deliver is different, both are expected. Take a visionary who prefers working in short sprints out of her family home in India and compare her to me, a process-oriented, ‘get lost in the details’ type of person working in Chicago - our hybrid way of working looks and feels a bit different from one another, for good reason. 

Our team at Thoughtium continually invests in deepening our understanding of one another and particularly our working styles. TypeCoach is a communication system that we utilize internally and also bring to our clients. Because of TypeCoach, I am more aware and capable of showing up differently and more effectively, depending on who I’m working with. 

With our once sacred water cooler chats becoming less common and social media being a primary mode of communication, building personal connections has become challenging and even furthermore in the hybrid work environment. 

Why should leaders care about personal connection? 

• Strengthens company culture

• Leads to stronger, more productive teams

• Builds trust among team members

• Increases employee retention and reduces turnover

From my first interview with our Chief of Staff, I knew this human-centric focus was the real thing at Thoughtium. I knew her core values (authenticity, efficiency, and service), what roles she held outside of her position at Thoughtium (recently married, expecting mother, community service leader), and then some. I never felt more comfortable being myself during an interview, which was a win-win because that was her objective all along, getting to know me as a person, not how well I could articulate my resume as an L&D professional. The natural barrier so commonly felt in a virtual meeting room was absent that day and has rarely been felt since. 

Thoughtium’s focus on personal connection doesn’t stop at the interview process. When our team comes together every few months, sure we connect on business, but we also incorporate up-skilling activities such as how to use storytelling to enhance our facilitation skills and engagement activities like playing Team Jeopardy as we rent a boat down the Chicago River. Leaders can create the space for more personal connection by finding opportunities for team members to leverage their skill sets and personal interests at work and by being more intentional with the time spent together as a team.

Working in a hybrid environment poses new challenges and risks especially when it comes to effective communication and understanding individual differences. To mitigate these risks and optimize collaboration, it is important to embrace our “whole self” at work by having open and honest conversations about our preferences, working styles, and other personal factors that can impact our work. The toolkit associated with this article provides guidance on how to have these conversations and put these ideas (and more) into action. By taking this more holistic approach, we can create a more inclusive work environment in this rapidly changing world that we now call hybrid.