The world of work has changed. Today, a lot of companies are going to a hybrid space, which means some of the team will work from home, and some will be working in the office. This is, of course, flexible and has a host of benefits, but just like all good things, it has challenges, too. Notably, maintaining teams at their best performance is a challenge. In this setup, how do you make sure that these top-performing teams continue to excel? Performance coaching is the answer.

Contents

  1. What is Performance Coaching?
  2. The Unique Challenges of Hybrid Teams
  3. Why High-Performing Teams Need Coaching
  4. Key Components of Performance Coaching for Hybrid Teams
  5. The Role of Technology in Performance Coaching
  6. How To Overcome Common Challenges with Performance Coaching
  7. Final Thoughts

What is Performance Coaching?

Performance coaching is like having a personal trainer, but instead of building muscle, it trains your work. The work of coaches is to help people identify what they are good at, what they can handle, and what is their best potential. For high-performing teams, it can be a way to elevate already good skills to the next level.

In a hybrid workplace, performance coaching is even more important. It speeds up productivity, improves communication, and even makes team members feel they belong together even though they may be thousands of miles apart.

The Unique Challenges of Hybrid Teams

Let's face it: Hybrid work is a little like juggling plates. Since you have in-office employees as well as remote employees, you need to balance everything. Here are some challenges hybrid teams often face:

Communication Gaps: When some people are present in the office whilst others are remote, communication can give a feel of playing the game of telephone where the message gets lost or misunderstood.

Feeling Isolated: Not being able to see what other people on their team are working on can make remote workers feel disconnected from the rest of the team, which might actually hurt motivation and engagement.

Uneven Workloads: Sometimes, remote workers get more tasks because they seem more “available,” whereas in-office employees may have other responsibilities.

Why High-Performing Teams Need Coaching

It's easy to assume that if high-performing teams aren't already being coached, they don't need it as they're already performing so well, right? Wrong! The best teams can hit roadblocks or fall into the trap of complacency. They are like a well-oiled machine. It may work well, but without proper upkeep, it might start slowing down.

Performance coaching improves teams through continuous growth, better collaboration, and preventing burnout. The International Coach Federation has studied companies that have conducted performance coaching, and reported that businesses actually see a return of 7x!  That's a 7 for 1, or 7 dollars for every dollar spent!

Key Components of Performance Coaching for Hybrid Teams

That being said, let's dig deeper into the aspects of coaching in hybrid environments that are most essential.

1. Setting Clear Goals

“Without a goal, you can't score,” is how the saying goes. Any successful team starts with clear, measurable goals. Performance coaching allows team members to sit and get on the same page — whether in the office or remotely.

2. Continuous Feedback

A hybrid work environment can only be successful if there is continuous feedback. Giving feedback at the annual performance review is like waiting to repair a leak until the house is flooded. Regular feedback will be useful when your team members are focused and productive and will contribute to ensuring that they're on track, celebrating achievements, and helping prevent small problems from becoming big ones.

3. Fostering Collaboration

While members of the team may be in various different locations, performance coaching stresses the distinct need to cooperate. For us, it's all about getting your teammates to use the strengths of the people around them, like when the basketball team passes the ball to its best player. Coaches promote these tools in order to bridge the gap between people who collaborate remotely and people who collaborate in the office.

4. Building Trust and Accountability

Trust is what keeps hybrid teams together. If team members can't trust each other, it's like building a house without a foundation. It's going to fall apart. By promoting accountability, performance coaches build trust as they help team members to own their tasks and support each other.

5. Addressing Work-Life Balance

Working remotely makes it easy to blur the line between work and life. Outsourcing the role of a performance coach raises the bar for how tasks are managed and prioritized, as well as for having and sticking to boundaries of time. With this, team members remain motivated and focused, and burnout is prevented.

The Role of Technology in Performance Coaching

Technology acts as the backbone of successful performance coaching in hybrid environments where team members work across different locations. Here are some key technologies that make performance coaching for hybrid teams much more effective.

1. 360-Degree Feedback Tools

Performance reviews should no longer be just from the top down. That's where the 360-degree feedback tools come in. These platforms enable team members to hear from different sources (peers, managers, even themselves) and then give and get feedback. The idea is to provide a more well-rounded and less judgemental view of a person's performance. Tools such as 360-degree feedback provide an additional glimpse into how well an employee can collaborate as well as communicate with others, and contribute to a team beyond what a manager may be able to see with the applicable employee.

2.Task Management Software

Managing tasks, deadlines, and who's responsible for what gets tough when teams are hybrid. Task management software like Asana, Trello, or Monday.com are further useful in this. They help teams stay organized, track their progress, and meet their deadlines no matter where they are.

The task management software isn't just about checking off boxes. It's also about transparency and accountability. McKinsey shows that using task management software can improve productivity by approximately 20% to 25%.

3. Performance Analytics Platforms

Data is a coach's best friend when you have a high-performing team. Coaches in performance analytics platforms like Lattice, 15Five, and BambooHR have the data they need to know how teams are performing and how to make improvements. In fact, they monitor certain performance metrics like productivity, employee engagement, attainment of goals, etc.

The research from PwC also shows that companies that employ performance analytics and use it to inform their coaching have a 9% increase in their employee performance. This is because data-driven insights remove the guesswork from coaching and help teams concentrate on what actually matters.

These technologies are integrated so that even remote workers receive the same level of coaching and support as their in-office counterparts.

How To Overcome Common Challenges with Performance Coaching

The best part about hybrid teams is that you are combining the best of both worlds — flexibility from collaborating remotely and the energy from working in the office together. Yet this model has some specific challenges of its own. The good news? As teams consider where to work from, performance coaching is the game-changer that approaches these issues head-on, ensuring that everyone is kept on track and motivated — no matter their location.

Now, we will see a handful of the most common hybrid team pitfalls and how performance coaching can transform those roadblocks into stepping stones to success.

1. Challenge: Communication Gaps

Clear and effective communication amongst hybrid teams is one of the biggest challenges. When some employees are in the office, and others are working from home, there is easy room for information to get misread or lost. Communication breakdowns take place with misunderstandings, delayed responses, and lack of face-to-face interaction.

Solution: Clear communication channels are encouraged by performance coaching. Tools such as Slack or Microsoft Teams can be suggested to coaches to help keep communication moving smoothly and for team members to know when and how to contact one another. Additionally, coaches can establish just how often teams should check in with each other — not necessarily daily standups, weekly team meetings, or random one-on-ones, but according to their schedule. The point is about establishing a rhythm of communication that allows everyone to stay aligned, no matter where they are.

2. Challenge: Remote Work Isolation

One of the downsides of working remotely is that employees are not part of a team. Remote workers will likely miss the water cooler conversations and casual lunch breaks that made forming those connections easier in the office. Isolation can contribute to disengagement and then have an impact on performance.

Solution: Virtual team-building exercises or one-on-one check-ins can work. Something as simple as a virtual coffee chat or an online game can go a long way toward keeping remote workers feeling like a part of a team. Even if the video calls aren't about work, doing them on a regular basis lets remote employees connect with their coworkers and that can make them feel like they are part of the team.

3. Challenge: Accountability Issues

Finding accountability for a team when team members are spread across different locations can be challenging. Some people may not function well without the company of coworkers or supervisors in the same room. When accountability isn't clear, it can cause frustration and resentment within your team.

Solution: Performance coaching is about setting clear goals for individuals and a team with regular feedback loops held to create accountability. Coaches can create responsibilities, goals, and deadlines with their team members to see how they are in defining roles, setting goals, and deciding the dates. When it comes to task management tools, Trello or Monday.com can be huge here, to help coaches and team members do the right thing and check in to make sure that everyone's pitching in.

4. Challenge: Performance Visibility

A lot of things are easy to notice in the traditional office and how someone performs just based on the activities on a daily basis. In a hybrid work model, however, visibility for managers and coaches can be more of an issue when it comes to knowing what each team member does. What remote workers fear is that their contributions are being overlooked because they aren't physically present.

Solution: You can use performance analytics platforms to understand the progress. What this means for coaches is that they can trust data from tools like 15Five or Lattice to track performance in real time. These tools give insights into team and individual productivity, so performance reviews are not subjective. In addition, coaches can catch potential issues before they become problems and provide targeted feedback based on performance data they regularly review.

Final Thoughts

The solution to creating a high-performing, happy, and engaged team could lie in performance coaching. What is your biggest challenge in leading a hybrid team? Leave a comment below, and we can discuss this! For more on performance coaching or great team management in general, see the other articles we've got on effective team management.