50 Telltale Signs, for a CEO, that your Hybrid Working is not Working!

"A tribe is a group of people, connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea." Seth Godin

But what happens when your people are not connected to one another and connected to you as a leader and your over-riding why?

The 50 telltale signs listed below are a shining the spotlight on an issue that you simply cannot ignore. It is time to start proactively adapting, rather than reacting to the changing working environment.

My guess? You are missing a solution that helps balance the 'flexible working' demands from your people whilst also maintaining a healthy level of productivity.

1. I am unhappy and stressed out by our ineffective meeting culture!

2. The meetings are killing me rather than helping me connect, communicate and collaborate with my colleagues.

3. Why can't we have a 20-minute meeting rather than a 1-hour meeting?

4. There is a huge gap between what c-suite are thinking and what is actually happening on the front line.

5. I have no time in the week to play a round of golf with my buddies

6. Struggling to ‘turn off’ from work to work pressures and so many meetings after hours!

7. I no longer have any passions in my life...there must be more to life than this start up?

8. I feel like I cannot go on holiday any more. AM I running the business or is the business running me? I just want a holiday!

9. My wife thinks I love the company more than I love her and my kids are growing up so fast...I am not spending any time with them

10. My business feels like a rebellious teenager - just can’t get it under control and everyone is grumpy.

11. I am getting continued pressure from investors to sort this out...feel like no way forward.

12. My employee turnover rate is over 5%

13. I do not know when I should be working and not working whilst working from home?

14. I am struggling to understand who is not pulling their weight. These bad vibes are leading to lack of motivation and trust.

15. I am never clear on whether the meeting is mandatory or not?

16. I hate remote meetings - we never get shit done and I miss the personal contact we used to have during in-person meetings!

17. We do not spend enough time sharing and evaluating ideas and tend to run with the first one that is shared!

18. I am never prepared for a meeting as I simply do not have time to prepare.

19. How can we tell whether this meeting will help us meet our objectives?

20. I lose the notes from my meetings

21. Very rarely do I know what type of meeting this meeting is?

22. I cannot remember what we discussed during our last meeting?

23. It always seems to be the same person (me) chairing the meeting? We never have any clearly defined roles.

24. I cannot help getting distracted by emails during our meetings.

25. We never follow a set structure for our meetings.

26. My meetings always overrun longer than intended?

27. I never know if people are listening and engaging during our meetings?

28. Why are people always so negative during the meeting?

29. Did other people in this meeting think this meeting was a success or a complete waste of time?

30. I get tired of all the emails and slack notifications that follow a meeting...I do not get time to work done and end up working many more hours.

31. We have no way to easily vote on a decision made in a meeting!

32. Our ‘social’ team-building meetings seem to be really lackluster. I suspect many would rather spend time with family and friends (outside of work).

33. Why are my teammates not buying into the conclusion of the meeting?

34. Many of our meetings have too many people present - hence not everyone gets to have a say.

35. Team leads just moaning at people and problems...without offering any possible solutions to encourage engagement and empathy.

36. We lack diversity in our team. We are all great starters but we have no finishers!

37. I am keen for everyone to return to the office for meetings but many employees want to still work from home!

38. We always lack emotion and engagement in our meetings?

39. How can we onboard new team members when we never see them?

40. I have employees complaining that we are trying to track every movement they make whilst working from home.

41. No time between meetings to go to the toilet / grab a coffee / prepare for the next meeting.

42. Our culture we had when we first started is not being embraced as we scale.

43. Why does the development team seem to have really effective meetings and yet the marketing team meetings suck?

44. People always talk about back in the good old days….why cannot those days be now?

45. We always seem to ‘firefighting’ and never coming up with ideas to help reform the business!

46. Our meetings are never fun and positive!

47. We always go off-topic during our meetings?

48. We seem to talk about stuff in our meetings that seem quite superficial - never really understanding the core problem!

49. No one is ever prepared during the meeting and we spend half the time recapping what we discussed in our last meeting and preparing for this meeting?

50. Meetings never finish with clear Action Points!

“Sometimes you don’t need a solution; you just needs clarity.” Ben Horrowitz

Rather than fearing of going in to a state of insanity by doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results...Why not check out www.getfocused.team to understand how we might be able to support your company to implementing a system that helps you, and your team, remain focused on what matters!?

Plesae feel free to comment on any more pain points you are experiencing whilst aiming to transition to a permanent hybrid working model.