Things Leaders Do

The Hybrid Leadership Playbook: 3 Systems That Actually Work

• Colby Morris

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This deep-dive follow-up delivers exactly what you asked for: three specific, actionable systems that successful hybrid leaders use to build trust, measure performance, and manage remote teams without losing their minds.

Host Colby Morris shares a real transformation story about Lisa, a marketing director whose team was crushing goals but sending deliverables at 2:00 AM - creating massive anxiety about "when" her people were working. Discover how implementing SMART goal-aligned KPIs eliminated her monitoring stress and improved team performance.

Featured Systems:

  • The Trust Scorecard: Five indicators to measure and build trust with remote team members, with specific examples of how different trust profiles require different leadership approaches
  • SMART KPIs for Hybrid Teams: Move from activity-based to outcome-based metrics that actually matter (Quality Score, Deadline Performance, Team Collaboration)
  • Performance Management Without Proximity: Create predictable rhythms for one-on-ones, goal reviews, and development conversations that spot patterns before they become problems

Real transformation results: Marketing director eliminated "when are they working" anxiety, team productivity increased, retention hit 100% - all by measuring what actually matters instead of monitoring activities.

Key insight: Stop controlling HOW work gets done. Start focusing on WHAT gets accomplished. Your people will do their best work when they know how they're measured, feel trusted, and get regular feedback and support.

Perfect for: Managers, directors, and executives leading distributed teams, remote workers, or hybrid workforces who want practical systems for building trust, measuring performance, and developing people without micromanaging.


This Episode Answers These Critical Questions:

  • How do I measure trust with remote team members I rarely see?
  •  What KPIs actually matter for hybrid teams versus meaningless activity metrics?
  •  How can I know if remote employees are performing well without monitoring them?
  •  What's the difference between accountability and micromanaging in virtual teams?
  •  How do I set SMART goals for distributed workforces?
  •  What performance management rhythm works for hybrid leadership?
  •  How do I spot performance issues early with remote workers?
  •  What should I focus on in one-on-ones with hybrid team members?
  •  How can I build individual trust profiles for different team members?
  •  What systems eliminate the anxiety of managing people I can't see?


Related Episodes

Must-listen first: Episode 103 - "The Hybrid Leadership Dilemma: Why Your Old Management Style Isn't Working"

Deep dive: "The One-on-One Series" - Complete framework for effective weekly check-ins


Subscribe to Things Leaders Do wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a 5-star review to help other leaders discover systems that eliminate micromanaging while improving team performance.


Connect with Colby Morris

Book keynote speaking, executive coaching, or team training: nxtstepadvisors.com
Join the conversation on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/colbymorris - where we have great discussions about leadership challenges like this
Email: Colby@nxtstepadvisors.com


About the Show

Things Leaders Do delivers practical, people-first leadership strategies for managers who want real results w


SPEAKER_00:

People first leadership. Actionable strategies, real results. This is Things Leaders Do with Colby Morris.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, last week's episode on hybrid leadership kind of hit a nerve, I guess. I got more messages, comments, and DMs about that episode and than I have in a long time. Really, the most common response was, okay, Colby, I get it. I need to stop managing by proximity and start focusing on outcomes. But how? What does that actually look like day to day? You know what? That's a fair question. Because knowing you need to change and actually knowing how to change, yeah, those are two completely different things. Hey leaders, this is Colby Morris, and this is Things Leaders Do. Today, I'm going to dive deep into the practical stuff. Three specific systems that successful hybrid leaders use to build trust, to measure performance, to manage their teams, all without losing their minds. And listen, if you haven't heard last week's episode, hey, just pause this one, go listen to that one first. This one builds directly on those concepts, and you'll probably get more value if you understand the foundation. All right. Let's start with trust. Because here's what I know you can't measure what you can't measure. No? That's not right. Try that again. You can't manage what you can't measure. And most leaders, well, they have no clue how to actually measure trust with their remote team members. So let me give you a simple framework I call the trust scorecard. It has five indicators, and you can assess each team member on a scale of one to five for each one. Okay, the first indicator is response reliability. When you need something from them, do they respond when they say they will? Look, not immediately. That's not what we're measuring here. But if they say, I'll get back to you by Thursday, do they actually get back to you by Thursday? Or do you find yourself on Friday morning thinking, where the heck is that response? The second one is proactive communication. Are they telling you about potential problems before they become actual problems? Are they giving you a heads up when deadlines might be tight? Or do you only hear from them when something's already gone wrong? And the third is quality consistency. Is their work quality? You know, the same whether you're watching or whether you're not. Because some people, their work quality totally drops when they know the boss isn't looking over their shoulder. Others maintain the same standard no matter what. The fourth one is initiative taking. Do they solve problems on their own? Or do they wait for you to tell them what to do about everything? And if you've listened to any of my previous podcasts, you know this is a big one for me. This one's huge for remote work because you can't be there to give constant direction. And then the fifth is transparency. When they hit roadblocks or they make mistakes, do they tell you about it or do they do you just find out through other channels? Here's how this works in practice. Let's say you've got Sharon on your team. You rate her a five on response reliability. She always does exactly what she says she'll do, but she's a two on proactive communication. You only hear from her when you reach out first. Now you know exactly where to focus your trust building efforts with Sharon. So what do you actually do with that information? Well, with Sharon, you'd start by having a conversation about communication preferences. You'd say something like, Hey Sharon, I've noticed I usually reach out to you first when we need to connect. Help me understand, do you do you prefer that I check in with you regularly? Or would you rather have the freedom to reach out when you need something? You might discover she's an introvert who doesn't want to bother you unless it's really important. I mean, really important. Or maybe she's unsure about when it's appropriate to communicate proactively. Either way, now you can work together to create a communication rhythm that works for both of you. Now, compare that to Mike on your team. Yeah, I know I use the name Mike a lot, but go with me. Everybody knows of Mike. Mike scores a five on proactive communication. He's always giving you a hands up about the potential issues, right? But he's a three on quality consistency. Sometimes his work is fantastic. Sometimes it needs significant revision. With Mike, you're not worried about communication. You're focused on understanding what conditions help him produce his best work consistently. Maybe you discover that Mike does his best work when he has clear examples to reference. So you start providing more detailed briefs and examples up front. Or maybe you find out that he rushes when he feels time pressure, so you build in buffer time for his deliverables. The key is you're not trying to get everyone to a perfect five on everything. You're not going to get there. You're trying to understand each person's trust profile so you can lead them accordingly. Sharon needs communication structure. Mike needs quality support. Different people, different leadership approaches, but both based on actual data instead of guesswork. Now, let's talk about the big one. KPIs, key performance indicators. And this is where most leaders are really struggling. Let me tell you about a director of marketing I worked with a couple years ago. Let's call her Lisa. Lisa had a hybrid marketing team, and they were they were crushing it. I mean, absolutely crushing it. They were hitting all their goals, work quality was excellent, clients were happy, deadlines were being met. But Lisa was losing her mind. Why? Because her team kept sending her final deliverables at like 2 a.m. or 11 30 p.m. or 6 a.m. She came to me and said, Colby, I don't think my team is really working. I I think they're just procrastinating all day and then scrambling at the last minute to get stuff done. So I asked her. Lisa, are you are you happy with the work they're producing? Well, yeah, it's great work. Are they meeting deadlines? Well yeah, always. Okay. So are the clients satisfied? Absolutely. So what's the actual problem? She paused and she said, Well, I just don't know when they're working. Ah. There it is. Classic case of managing by proximity. Even when proximity doesn't exist, right? Here's what we did. We threw out all her old metrics. I mean all of them. Things like logged in hours and response time to emails. And we replaced them with three KPIs that actually mattered. And these weren't just like random metrics. They followed SMART goal framework, which again, if you've listened to any of my podcasts, you know I'm huge on SMART goals. If you're unfamiliar with SMART goals, SMART is an abbreviation for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. KPI number one was a quality score. Client feedback ratings and revision rounds. Measurable. And no more than one revision per round per project. Achievable? Well, based on historical performance. Was it relevant? Quality directly impacts client retention. And then time bound. We measured monthly. If the work consistently hits these quality standards, it doesn't matter if it was created at 2 p.m. or 2 AM. KPI number two, deadline performance. The specific, again the S percentage of projects delivered on or before the agreed deadline. The measurable, 95% on time delivery rate. Is that achievable? They were already hitting 90%. Was it relevant? Well, client satisfaction depends on reliability. And time bound. We tracked weekly, reported monthly. This removes all the anxiety about when someone's working and focuses on whether they're dependable. And then KPI number three was team collaboration. The specific responsiveness during core collaboration hours and project communication. Okay, the measurable respond to team requests within four hours during core hours. And in this instance, we define those core hours as 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Okay. And then provide weekly project status updates. The achievable, it was based on current team capacity. Was it relevant? Well, team projects require coordination. And then the time bound. It's measured weekly because yes, you need to be available for your team, but no, you don't need to be glued to your desk for eight straight hours. Six months later, I feel like I should do that weird Spongebob thing there. Six months later, Lisa told me it was the best thing she'd ever done as a leader. Her anxiety about when people were working, that was completely gone. Her team's productivity actually went up because they could work during their most productive hours. And her retention skyrocketed because people felt trusted instead of monitored. So what's the lesson? Stop measuring activities. Start measuring accomplishments. Did you hear that? Stop measuring activity and start measuring accomplishments. All right. Let's talk a little bit about performance management, because this is where a lot of hybrid leaders just freeze up. I mean, how do you manage performance when you can't see the day-to-day work? The answer is that you create a rhythm, a predictable, consistent rhythm that takes away all the guesswork. Here's how the system works. First, your weekly one-on-ones. Look, this is a non-negotiable, same time every week. Now, I do have an entire series on one-on-ones, okay? Those episodes that dive deep into the structure, the questions, the common mistakes leaders make. If you haven't listened to those yet, make sure you go back and do that. Check out the series, the one-on-one series. I have spent years developing that framework, and it is absolutely critical to get this part right. But for our purposes today, here's the key. Your one-on-ones become your primary performance management tool for hybrid teams. Okay. They're where you spot patterns. It's where you, as the leader, remove the obstacles. You ensure alignment. Okay. Don't try to wing these things. They are too important. And then monthly goal reviews. This is where you look at the bigger picture. Okay. Are we on track for quarterly goals? Do we need to adjust anything? What support do you need to be successful? And then third, quarterly development conversations. This is not about performance problems. This is about growth. It's about career development, skill building. Okay. How can I help you get better at what you do? Now, here's the key. In each of these conversations, you're looking for patterns, not just individual incidents. If someone misses one deadline, that's an incident. If they miss three deadlines in a month, that's a pattern, and that needs to be addressed. If someone seems stressed in one weekly check-in, that's an incident. If they seem overwhelmed for three weeks in a row, that's a pattern. Let me give you an example. Let's say you have Tom on your team. In your weekly 101s, you start noticing a pattern. He's always behind on his deliverables, and he keeps mentioning feeling overwhelmed. The old management approach would go something like this. Tom needs to manage his time better. Maybe he's not working hard enough. But the new approach is talking to Tom. Hey Tom, I've noticed you've been feeling overwhelmed for the past few weeks. You want to help me understand what's driving that? I mean, is it is it your workload? Are there skills gaps? Are there any obstacles that can help remove? You see the difference? You're you're actually diagnosing the root cause instead of assuming the problem. And here's the accountability piece. When you set clear expectations that have regular check-ins, there are no surprises. Okay, if someone's not meeting expectations, they know it long before any kind of formal performance conversation happens. The difference between accountability and micromanaging, accountability is about outcomes and support. Micromanaging is just about control and monitoring, really. Now, here's the beautiful thing about these three systems. They work together. Your trust scorecard tells you how to tailor your leadership approach for each person individually. Okay. Your KPIs tell you whether your team is actually performing well. And your performance management rhythm ensures that everyone knows where they stand and how to improve. When you combine all three, you can lead a hybrid team with complete confidence. You know who you can trust with what level autonomy. You know whether your team is hitting the metrics that actually matter. And you have a system for developing people and addressing issues before they become problems. All right. Here's your assignment for this week. And I want you to pick just one of these, okay, one system to start with. Don't try to do all three at once. You'll just overwhelm yourself and probably not do any of them at all. At least not well. If trust is your biggest issue, start with the trust scorecard. Rate each of your team members on those five indicators and identify where you need to focus your trust building efforts. If you're anxious about performance and productivity, well, start with the KPIs. Identify three metrics that actually measure what matters for your team success and stop tracking everything else. If you feel like you're flying blind on performance management, start with the rhythm. Schedule weekly one-on-ones with everyone on your team and stick to that question format. But pick one. Implement it this week. Master it before you move on to the next one. Look, hybrid leadership isn't about having perfect systems. It's about having clear systems, systems that take away the guesswork for both you and your team. When your people know how they're being measured, when they know they're trusted, and when they know they'll get regular feedback and support, they do their best work. And when they do their best work, guess what? You sleep better at night. The old way of managing, constantly checking in, monitoring activities, measuring hours, that's exhausting for everyone involved. But these systems, they actually make leadership easier because they're built on clarity instead of control. Leaders, if your organization is struggling with hybrid leadership, I'd love to help. I work with leaders and teams through keynote speaking, executive coaching, leadership training, and build systems that actually work. You can reach me at next stepadvisors.com. There's no E in next, just NXT next steppadvisors.com or connect with me on LinkedIn, like many of you do did last week. That's where we tend to have some really great conversations about leadership, you know, and different challenges like this. Remember, leading individuals. We don't lead activities, we lead people. Okay, focusing on outcomes instead of oversight and building systems that create clarity for everyone. And you know why? Because those are the things that leaders do.

SPEAKER_00:

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.