During the past several months, as the reality of the pandemic has sunk in, business organizations have accelerated their evolution of remote leadership within matrixed structures. Before the 
pandemic, many managers realized (and lamented) they had direct reports they had never “met personally.” Now, working with remote employees in the matrix that you may never meet is the new reality. There is no lamenting or complaining that you can’t do your job because of remoteness. This change has left many leaders wondering what they are supposed to do and how to do it. Clearly new skills and best practices of leading remotely in the matrix are required.
Hearing this challenge from many of our clients, we started to conduct research into what are the best practices leaders should utilize when leading through these disrupted times. Our research always focuses on three different sources, academic research and publications, focus groups and interviews, and our own observations and experiences working with large global companies.
In our research, we have discovered several interesting insights that are being integrated into our latest digital leadership simulations. In the meantime, it is my pleasure to share some of the most interesting findings as part of this blog.
There are three big buckets of capabilities
Too often, leadership training programs are overly complex and not very usable. I think understanding how to lead in the matrix can be simple and straightforward. It starts with 3 big “buckets” of capabilities. These buckets include:
Know the Business – Have the business acumen skills to understand the business so you are able to effectively navigate within the matrix and focus on the strategies and metrics that matter.
Know Yourself – Have the leadership skills to understand your own personality profile and all your strengths and limitations. By having this emotional intelligence, you can effectively navigate the matrix by adapting your style to the different people (and their needs).
Know Others – Have the leadership skills to understand others, their styles, their strengths, their limitations and adapt your style to theirs while focusing on the important elements of the business such as executing the strategy.
As part of the research, we identified 15 best practices for leading in the matrix. These best practices are evenly divided into the three primary buckets. Although the research is proprietary and being used to develop our content and simulations, I wanted to share two interesting best practices for each bucket.
Leading in the Matrix Best Practices
Know the Business
- See the business as a living thing that moves, evolves, and changes, not as an organization chart on a piece of paper.
- Be able to share a strong vision with direct reports, peers, colleagues, customers, and any other entities within the business ecosystem.
Key Takeaways: Leaders in the matrix must have very strong capabilities in understanding the business and having the people you work with understand the business. If the people you work with are myopic and siloed, it makes working with them and accomplishing your goals very difficult. The more time you spend studying the business and explaining it to other, the more effective you will be.
Know Yourself
- Have a strong internal and external leadership “brand.”
- Be capable of creating both competition and collaboration within the organization.
Key Takeaways: Leaders in the matrix must have very strong capabilities in understanding yourself, how you come across, and how you are seen by others. The “Brand of YOU” in a virtual environment is much more dependent on your social media profile and how you create the perception of you. Is your LinkedIn profile up to date? Do you have endorsements from people in your organization? Do you give recommendations and endorsements? Every little thing matters and goes into the perception of who you are.
Know Others
- Be able to manage the tensions of the business in a way that motivates and encourages collaboration
- Know how to effectively use long-term influence skills to actions and get things done through others
Key Takeaways: Leaders in the matrix must have very strong capabilities in motivating, encouraging, and influencing. Every day in the matrix is a complex jigsaw puzzle of situations and people, but if you are able to motivate and influence within the context of the overall business strategy, goals, and objectives, you will be successful.
