Office duty instead of flexibility? Mawave CEO Jason Modemann explains why remote work requires better leadership – and how teams stay connected.
Many companies are bringing their teams back to the office for fear of losing cohesion. Mawave CEO Jason Modemann says: This is a wrong path. He explains how true connection also works remotely and what leadership has to do with it.
More and more companies are bringing their teams completely back into the office. Or introduce fixed office quotas: three days in the office, two days remotely. For me it has nothing to do with flexibility. For me, true flexibility means that people can decide for themselves how they work best. Whoever is most concentrated at home or in a café should be allowed to do that, no matter what day of the week. If you prefer to exchange ideas in the office, the same applies.
Remote work is therefore an integral part of our culture – nothing will change. In our case, around 40 percent of the crew live more than 100 kilometers from the office and therefore work remotely.
How can remote work work?
But that is exactly what presents us with challenges. How do you create closeness when the team doesn’t share the same space every day? How do you make sure everyone feels connected, no matter where they work from?
1. Closeness doesn’t just come from presence
We also have employees who initially worry about being excluded because they are not in Munich. These thoughts are understandable. It is important to us that a feeling of closeness can also arise remotely. This doesn’t require constant presence, but rather real attention. When you take the time to ask how someone is really doing. When you consciously create space for exchange.
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That’s why we consciously make sure that our “remoties” are always taken into account – at team events, in communication, in small gestures. When we plan an activity, we ask ourselves: What will our remote colleagues get out of it? How can we create alternatives to include them too?
2. Remote forces better leadership
Many companies celebrate the office because they believe that no information is automatically lost there. That communication only works when you see each other. But let’s be honest: If your flow of information depends on someone who happens to be standing at the coffee machine and overhears information as they pass by, you have a communication problem. Then coincidences decide who learns what and when.
Remote setups force you to lead more consciously. And to create structures where one might otherwise improvise. With the exception of our people team, every team works hybrid. That’s why we continually try to optimize the setup: regular communication, clean documentation, clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
Workshop formats, for example, are always structured in two sessions: once onsite, once remotely. People who do not work from Munich always have the opportunity to travel to the workshop, but also to register for the online appointment.
3. The office remains important – but different
Of course the office still has its place. But no longer as a mandatory place, but as a space for encounters. For us, it is one tool of many to facilitate collaboration and enable connection – for workshops, joint creative sessions, customer appointments or team days.
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Because many of our team are based in Berlin, we have now also created an office option there. Because in the end there are two types of people: Some love the freedom of working remotely. The others need physical interaction. Both are completely legitimate.
My job as a manager is not to choose one camp, but to create conditions in which both can work well.
Jason Modemann is the founder and managing director of the social media agency Mawave Marketing. At 27, he manages 150 employees. Mawave’s customers include Red Bull, Nike and Lidl. He is also the author of the book “Always hungry, never greedy.”