Things Leaders Do

The Hybrid Leadership Dilemma: Why Your Old Management Style Isn't Working

• Colby Morris

Share episode

BREAKING: New 2025 research reveals 51% of workers would quit rather than return to traditional management styles. Is your hybrid leadership approach driving away top talent?

If your best performer just quit with an exit interview citing "micromanagement" and "lack of trust," you're experiencing the hybrid leadership dilemma that's costing organizations their most valuable people. The hybrid workplace has exposed a critical flaw in how most leaders manage remote teams, virtual employees, and distributed workforces.

Host Colby Morris shares eye-opening coaching stories from his leadership experience, including the director whose team engagement scores jumped 30% in six months after making one crucial shift: leading individuals instead of managing activities. You'll discover why video call anxiety is sabotaging your team meetings, how proximity bias is destroying trust, and the exact framework successful leaders use to thrive in hybrid environments.

In this episode:

  • Real client transformation: from 45% turnover to zero in 12 months
  • The ADAPT framework that's changing how leaders manage virtual teams
  • Why your introvert employees dread those "quick video calls"
  • A simple weekly audit to catch yourself micromanaging
  • The difference between empowering and monitoring remote workers

Perfect for managers, directors, and executives leading distributed teams who want to build trust, improve retention, and boost productivity without constant oversight.

Ready to transform your leadership approach? Listen now and discover why focusing on outcomes instead of activities is the key to hybrid team success.


This Episode Answers:

How do I know my remote employees are actually working?
 Why do my hybrid team members seem disengaged during virtual meetings?
 What's the best way to give recognition to remote workers?
 Should I require cameras on for all video calls?
 How can I build trust with team members I rarely see in person?
 What communication style works best for managing virtual teams?
 How do I stop micromanaging without losing control?


Featured: The ADAPT Framework for Hybrid Leadership

A proven system for leading distributed teams that gets results without micromanagement.


Subscribe to Things Leaders Do wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a 5-star review to help other leaders discover people-first strategies that actually work.


Work with Colby Morris

Struggling with hybrid team leadership? Colby delivers keynote presentations, executive coaching, and team training that transform workplace culture and drive measurable results.

Book a consultation: nxtstepadvisors.com
Connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/colbymorris
Email: Colby@nxtstepadvisors.com


About the Show

Things Leaders Do delivers practical, people-first leadership strategies for managers who want real results without corporate fluff. Host Colby Morris, founder of NXT Step Advisors, shares insights from his executive coaching practice to help you build stronger teams, improve retention, and create workplace cultures where people actually want to work.

New episodes every Monday. Subscribe now and never miss the latest in leadership development and team management strategies.


Speaker 1:

People First. Leadership, actionable strategies, real results this is Things Leaders Do with Colby Morris.

Speaker 2:

All right. So picture this scenario for me. You've got your best performer. Let's call her Sarah. She's been with the company three years, consistently crushes her targets. Kn knows the business inside and out. She's working hybrid two days in the office, three at home but here's what happens. You keep finding yourself saying things like hey, I need to see you in the office more. Or hey, can you hop on a quick video call? And, honestly, you're not totally sure she's really working when you can't actually see her. Last month, sarah gave her two weeks notice and in her exit interview, she said I felt like I was being micromanaged, I didn't feel trusted to do my job, and you're sitting there thinking but I thought I was being a good manager. Well, here's the thing you probably were being a good manager in 2019, but it's 2025 and the game has completely changed and if you don't change with it, you're going to keep losing your best people. Hey, leaders, this is Colby Morris and this is Things Leaders Do. We're talking about why your old management style is probably driving away your best people and what you need to do instead. And, trust me, this one's going to hit different.

Speaker 2:

Let me tell you about a coaching conversation I had a few years back that has completely changed how I think about hybrid leadership. I was working with a director and let's call him Mike. Mike was so flustered and lost because his team seemed disengaged during his Zoom meetings with him. He'd ask questions and literally just get crickets in response. He'd try to celebrate wins with the team and people would just awkwardly nod and that was it Nothing. No emotion, no celebrations, just nothing. Mike, as a leader, was doing what he'd always done managing the room, trying to read body language, and he made sure to do shout-outs by name for recognition, classic extrovert leadership moves that had served him well for 15 years. But what Mike didn't realize is he had a team of introverts who were absolutely mortified when he called them out with something like hey, jennifer, great job on the Smith account, and he made sure he did it in front of everyone. On the video call, jennifer would smile and sort of say thanks, but inside she was dying of embarrassment. She just wanted to curl up in the fetal position in the dark for a while to decompress. And then there was David who had what we now call severe video call anxiety. And listen, we didn't even have a name for this stuff in 2019, right, david was stressed for literally hours before each video meeting. He'd worry about his lighting, his background, whether his kids would come barging in. So when Mike insisted on video for better connection, david was spending more energy managing his anxiety than actually contributing anything meaningful.

Speaker 2:

Mike wasn't a bad leader. Okay, he was using a management style that worked perfectly when everyone was crammed into the same conference room, but in a hybrid world, he was accidentally creating the exact opposite of what he wanted. Here's a pretty harsh truth. Most of us learn to manage through what I would call proximity. In other words, we manage by walking around, by reading the room, by stopping by someone's desk or in the hallway, and we had actual conversations. We equated presence with productivity and FaceTime with engagement.

Speaker 2:

Here's a study that will floor you, though. This study in 2025 shows us something you probably may not expect. It showed us that 51% of workers would quit if faced with a non-negotiable return to office mandate. Did you hear that? Don't miss this. More than half of your workforce, half of your team, would rather find a new job than go back to being managed the old way, and it's not just about where they want to work. It's about trust.

Speaker 2:

The old management style was built on this assumption that if you can see someone working well, they're working. If you can't see them, well they may not be. They might be, I don't know, watching Netflix or doing laundry or whatever, but here's what we now know the most productive hybrid teams. They're led by managers who focus on what people accomplish, not on how many hours are glued to their desk or how often their little green dot is showing as active in Slack. And here's where the generational piece gets really interesting your Gen Z employees. They've never worked in a world where their worth was measured by how often their manager could physically eyeball them. To them, managing by proximity feels ancient, like insisting everyone use a fax machine when everyone else has moved on to email. Insisting everyone use a fax machine when everyone else has moved on to email. But listen to me on this this isn't really about generational preferences. This is about individual human preferences that got completely masked when we forced everyone into the same physical space for eight hours a day, five days a week.

Speaker 2:

So remember that story about Mike. Here's what changed everything for him, and I mean everything. Instead of trying to manage his team like they were all the same person, he started managing them as actual individuals Revolutionary concept right. He had one-on-one conversations, real conversations with each team member about how they preferred to communicate, how they like to receive recognition, what their ideal work environment actually looked like. It turns out Jennifer the one who hated public praise. She absolutely loved detailed written feedback and preferred Slack messages over video calls any day of the week. David with video anxiety. He was most creative and productive during those quiet, asynchronous work sessions and he contributed his absolute best ideas through shared documents where he could think and process without being put on the spot. So Mike stopped assuming that what worked for him all that extroverted, high energy group interaction stuff worked for everyone. He started asking instead of assuming. And you know what happened Team engagement scores went up 30% in six months. Retention went to almost 100% and Mike told me and I'll never forget this he said it was actually easier to manage this way because he wasn't constantly fighting against people's natural working styles anymore.

Speaker 2:

All right, let me give you a framework that I call ADAPT for hybrid leadership. The A in ADAPT stands for assess individual needs. Stop managing everyone like they're little versions of you. Have actual conversations about how each person works best. Ask them the D ditch proximity bias. You find yourself questioning whether someone's really working because you can't physically see them. You need to check yourself. Are they hitting their goals? Are they contributing? That's what actually matters. Then, the A adjust your communication style. Some people absolutely thrive on video calls they do. Others would rather have a phone call or use Slack or just send an email. Meet people where they are, not where you think they should be. The P prioritize outcomes over activities. Stop tracking when someone logs in and start tracking what they actually accomplish. Who cares if they started at 8 am or 10 am, if they're crushing their deliverables? And then T trust first. This is a big one people. Your default assumption should be that people want to do good work, not that they're trying to pull a fast one on you.

Speaker 2:

Let me tell you about two leaders I worked with recently. Same company, same level, managing similar size teams, but man, their approaches were very different. Leader A let's call her Jessica insisted on daily video check-ins. She required cameras on for every single meeting and she expected people to respond to Slack messages within 15 minutes during business hours. She measured success by how quickly people responded and how often they were showing as online. Leader B we'll call him Marcus. He set clear expectations for when it needed to get done and when. He held weekly one-on-ones just to check in on progress and figure out what barriers he could remove. And he let people choose how they wanted to communicate with him. He measured success by whether projects got finished, the quality of the work and whether his team was actually happy.

Speaker 2:

After one year, just one year Jessica's team had 45% turnover. 45%. Three of her best performers left for competitors who were offering more flexible work arrangements. Her remaining team members they told HR they felt micromanaged and didn't trust their boss. Trusted them. Marks' team zero turnover. Yes, you heard me, zero turnover. They exceeded their annual goals by 15% and their employee satisfaction scores were among the highest in the entire company. Same company, same resources, same talent pool. The only difference the leadership approach. Now I promised you some tactical stuff, so here's what this actually looks like day to day.

Speaker 2:

For recognition ask people how they like to be recognized. Some people want the public shout outs, others would rather get private feedback. Some love the Slack celebrations, others they just want a face-to-face conversation. But ask them For meetings. Start by asking this question Does this actually need to be a video call If you're just sharing information, maybe just send an email. If you're brainstorming, maybe video helps people bounce ideas off each other. If it's a difficult conversation, ideas off each other. If it's a difficult conversation, maybe a phone call feels less confrontational.

Speaker 2:

For check-ins, instead of how was your day, try something like what's one thing I can help remove as a barrier for you this week. Focus on enabling your people, not monitoring them. And then for deadlines, instead of I need this by 5 pm, try. This needs to be done by Thursday. What time works best for you to deliver it? You're still getting what you need, but you're working with their natural rhythm instead of against it. See the difference. You're not being a pushover here. You're still getting results. You're just working with people instead of trying to control them. Here's what I need you to understand.

Speaker 2:

The biggest barrier to successful hybrid leadership isn't technology, it's not policy, it's not even training. It's your own discomfort with not being in control of exactly how work gets done. Man, my toes hurt, somebody else's toes hurt. I stepped on some toes. I know I stepped on some toes. I'm going to say that one again. It's your own discomfort with not being in control of exactly how the work gets done. Listen, I get it. I really do. For those of us who came up in the butt in the seat era, it feels weird to not know exactly what someone's doing at 2.30 pm on a Tuesday, but that discomfort is costing you talent, real talent. The leaders who are absolutely crushing it in this hybrid world have learned to be comfortable with not controlling the how, as long as they're crystal clear about the what and the when.

Speaker 2:

All right, here's your assignment for this week. Now I want you to actually do this. Okay, audit yourself for proximity bias. I want you to write down every single time you feel the urge to check on someone because you can't see them working. Every time you think I wonder what Sarah is doing right now. Or I should call Jim, make sure he's staying focused. Then ask yourself this question If Sarah or Jim were sitting 20 feet away from me in this office right now, would I be having this thought? If the answer is no, congratulations. You just caught yourself in proximity bias Instead of acting on that urge to check up on them.

Speaker 2:

Check their recent work output. Are they hitting deadlines? Is their work quality good? Are they responsive when you actually need them? If yes, then trust them. If no, then have a real conversation about expectations and support, not about monitoring and micromanaging. Look, I know this is hard. We're literally rewiring decades of management conditioning here. But here's the reality. Your people are telling you exactly what they need to do their best work, and if 51% of them are willing to quit their jobs rather than go back to the old way of doing things, that should probably tell you something you can dig in your heels. Okay, you can insist that your management style shouldn't have to change, but if you do that, you're going to lose your best people to leaders who figured out how to adapt.

Speaker 2:

The future of leadership isn't about managing where people work or how they work. It's about helping them do their absolute best work period. It's about treating them like the individuals they actually are, not like interchangeable parts in some productivity machine. And when you do that, when you focus on empowering instead of monitoring, when you lead with trust instead of control, when you adapt your style to fit their needs instead of demanding they adapt to yours, that's when you create the kind of workplace culture that attracts and keeps the best talent Leaders.

Speaker 2:

If your organization is struggling with this hybrid leadership transition, I'd love to help. I work with leaders and teams through keynote speaking, executive coaching, leadership training to build people first cultures that actually get results. And you know you can reach me at nextstepadvisorscom there's no e in next, just nxt nextstepadvisorscom. And please reach out to me on LinkedIn. Okay, those are in the show notes, both links, but I meet most of you on LinkedIn and we have great conversations where I can help you. So, leaders, remember, keep leading individuals. We don't manage people, we lead them. And instead of managing crowds, focus on outcomes, instead of activities, trusting your people to do great work. And you know why? Because those are the things that leaders do.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to Things Leaders Do. If you're looking for more tips on how to be a better leader, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and listen to next week's episode. Until next time, keep working on being a better leader by doing the things that leaders do.