Overcoming Remote Leadership Challenges: Lessons Learned from Covid-19

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine how leaders are overcoming remote work and team management challenges while navigating the pandemic context that we are now facing. The relevance of this research is based on the approach to leadership theory, articulating them with the remote work and teams management theories. To formulate the research problem, we considered two analytical dimensions, remote leadership and the competencies anchored, which help to understand how nowadays leaders adapt to remote-work throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. A qualitative method was applied, and interviews by questionnaire were conducted to obtain 40 responses. As teams suddenly were pushed into remote work settings, valuable opportunities have arisen to learn more about: (1) which are the most used and intuitive digital tools, (2) which are the main challenges faced by leaders, (3) what their teams expect from them when facing a crisis. The results show that remote leadership is crucial while moving forward to Society 5.0 as technology becomes more and more present in our lives (Fukuda, 2020), the existence of three dimensions that need work while promoting work-life balance, and developing the right soft skills to help teams. The main goal of this study is centered on the research of relevant leadership competencies, practices, and techniques that can contribute to overcoming the challenges that may arise in remote team settings and contribute to the body of knowledge on the subject of Covid-19. The findings point out the belief or disbelieve of remote work efficacy, the new role of managers and the continuous use of technology for the development of their daily work, and the renovation of skills to have better performance.