Hybrid isn’t new. That is, it’s not new, but it’s the new normal.

The hybrid work movement accelerated during the pandemic, but in many organizations, we’ve been doing it all along. This is especially true at enterprise companies, where you may have had team members in different locations, sometimes in different areas across the world, going back well before 2020.

The real adjustment was having to be fully remote while working from home. We were all shook up initially and then realized that hey, we can make this work. The lesson is that it’s not really where you work, but in fact how you work—the methods and practices that you put into place—that makes all the difference.

An important insight we’ve gained is that for women, being in a more flexible work environment has given them the ability to take on roles that they may not have before.

And they want to take on even more. In fact, McKinsey & Company’s “Women in the Workplace 2023” study found that after the pandemic, roughly 80% of women expressed a desire to be promoted to the next level, compared with 70% before the pandemic.

This is even more true for women of color—88% expressed ambition for promotion, showing that the pandemic (and increased flexibility) didn’t dampen women’s career aspirations.

That’s something that has proven true for me, but it has also meant that I’ve needed to adjust the way I engage with and lead my teams.

SOLVING FOR GROWTH AND CONNECTION
Distributed work isn’t all upside, however. Something that I think really affects everyone, from a community perspective, is the disappearance of the “coffee chat” or water-cooler-style conversations that help form relationships, especially early in your career.
I’ve seen younger people, who are still trying to figure out their networks, mostly impacted by this. And I think it’s on companies and the organizations within those companies to help identify other ways that we can create those moments for people. (Think: getting team members who live in the same area together on a regular basis, forming interest-based groups or channels, and even holding team or company offsite get-togethers.)

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