How the Insignia of Power Evaporates in the Online World Home office has become as familiar to us as brushing our teeth. Over the past six months, we have learned not to lounge on the couch, to send the kids outside, and to spoon our pea soup in the kitchen instead of at the desk. We have exchanged the rumbling microphone for high-tech devices, replaced file folders with control panels and flat screens - in short, our setup almost resembles a movie or television studio. Seriously though, as we have painfully learned, home office has significant effects on communication and leadership, especially as we navigate through hundreds of virtual team meetings, client calls, presentations, and employee gatherings. After about half a year, it is time to take stock: How has home office and virtual meetings changed our leadership behavior? The answer is brief and to the point: Traditional leadership collapses in the virtual world just as the traditional symbols of power, such as hierarchies or personal charisma, do.
IN THE NET, EVERYONE IS EQUAL - GOODBYE LEADERSHIP!
In virtual conferences (Zoom and others), the classic "status symbols" of leadership disappear on their own: The boss or department head shrinks into a small image just like the janitor who may have also dialed in. No reception area, no secretary, no opportunity to sit at the head of the conference table and assert one's dominance status. No one to bring you coffee, no BMW 7 series commanding respect from parking spot number 1. In the online world, everyone is equal. Leadership authority and competence must now be legitimized differently than before, as charisma and power evaporate as quickly as a drop of water on a hot plate when you see the boss sitting at home between two withered palm fronds. Home office kills any assumption of competence, especially when the boss can't get the right camera angle or operate the audio panel, and his voice gets lost in the garbled mess of a wrong microphone selection. He can't even use his strong resonant voice, as it is automatically muted by the "online director" or clever algorithms. The classic leadership authority with all the symbols of old power simply falls by the wayside. He can't even show off his expensive Rolex because his arm is usually not captured by the webcam.
HOW DO I REBUILD LEADERSHIP?
So how do I rebuild leadership in the age of online meetings? How do I, as a leader, maintain control in a medium where any passerby with a temporary contract can spread out and vent? Where the order of speaking, meticulously hierarchical in many years of meetings, erupts like lava during a volcanic eruption? I could reassure myself as the boss with the thought that leadership is an outdated concept anyway. The problem is, we are generally not capable of that. So we must look for other things to help us rebuild our status like a sandcastle after a destructive flood. As the boss, everyone will surely listen to me when I announce short-time work, the elimination of maybe 5,000 positions, or even bankruptcy. I can then mute the horrified faces or crying colleagues - if I am technically able to. I can take control, mute disagreeable comments, present myself visually prominently, tweet around like a U.S. president... no, we know the solution must look different.
IN HOME OFFICE, I LEAD THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
Apparently, the digitally well-equipped home office itself becomes a status symbol. After six months, anyone still tangled in their connections is quickly stamped as a loser and doesn't need to speak up anymore. As a boss who is technologically well set up, who ensures that voice, sound, lighting, background, seating position, clothing, and coffee cup are state of the art, people will listen to you. I may lead through values as a superior, but in the home office, I lead through technology. And I am not overwhelmed when a client asks if the next call can be done using avatars in the Oculus Quest. Observe yourself: Even recognized authorities, big names, shrink with their messages to pea size when visually perceived on the screen as small spirits, dwindling behind their desk or in the confines of a camera angle. So, create not only technical perfection but also create space, create presence, create stature. Space creates authority. Stand while everyone else sits. Dress above the norm - tasteful, home-office-appropriate, but not as if you were heading to the golf course.
THE NEW STATUS SYMBOL: PERFECTLY AT HOME
If we already suspected that we can no longer lead our companies like our ancestors, we are now painfully learning that the casual remark from executives "I don't understand this technical stuff" is by no means a sign of a sovereign distance from the narrow-minded IT geeks on the lower floors, but that leadership and communication today - neither in the home office nor in the mobile-virtual world - no longer function without perfect technology. The home office becomes the new status symbol, while the old symbols of power are undoubtedly doomed to decline. Many have not realized this yet.
