Leadership Styles in Modern Work

Today I was talking with a former executive colleague, a seasoned leader who proudly told me that he had brought back more than 5,000 employees to the office. When I asked him why, his answer was blunt: “Because at home I don’t know if they’re working or not.” I pushed further and asked whether he didn’t have performance indicators to measure his people. His reply was even sharper: “Indicators exist, but they don’t give me certainty.” That response struck me—because the real issue isn’t remote work itself, but the weakness of the management system and the indicators being used. The irony? He was criticizing home office while speaking to me from the beach. What this conversation reveals is a management mindset anchored in control rather than trust. Companies like Microsoft and GitLab have shown that distributed workforces can be not only productive but also innovative when equipped with robust performance metrics and transparent collaboration tools. For instance, GitLab scaled to more than 2,000 employees across 60+ countries as an entirely remote company, proving that accountability and alignment are possible without physical presence. Similarly, Atlassian leverages a hybrid model that prioritizes measurable outputs and team health over attendance, demonstrating that the future of work is less about where people are and more about how results are defined and tracked. Global trends confirm that organizations capable of moving beyond presenteeism toward outcome-based management are those thriving in today’s digital economy. The lesson is clear: bringing employees back to the office because of a lack of trust or poor indicators only masks deeper leadership challenges. Companies like Salesforce and Spotify have embraced flexible work models while maintaining strong cultures of performance, showing that innovation does not emerge from office walls but from clarity, empowerment, and effective measurement. In short, the home office is not the problem—outdated management practices are.

"Goldman Sachs has been in-person five days a week since 2021" This may describe the policy (for some, not all) since 2021. But compliance? Not even close. "Bosses have maintained that in-office work is more efficient and productive than remote work." Yes, some have. However, volumes of evidence including from Nick Bloom's wfhresearch.com, Mark Ma, John Hopkins, PhD, Global Workplace Analytics, and Future Forum show that for millions of people enabling distributed work with flexibility produces better results. Managers focus on achieving team results, not locations. Investors focus on achieving corporate results, not locations. Are executives out of sync? Is line-of-sight the key to transform business operations and meet customers' shifting demands during a ongoing period of tech-driven change? How do fixed policy and mindsets help employees flex for evolving business needs? Managing distributed teams has been an increasing trend since corporations ramped up expansion, opening multiple offices nationally and internationally and business travel increased, starting in the 1980s. Select CEOs now appear to be increasing the number of mandated days working in the office hoping for more realized days in the office (not likely believing they will get close to 100% compliance). They are missing the point. Workplace flexibility is a mindset first, policy second. Compliance starts with trust. Performance is enabled by autonomy and flexibility. Help your managers lead distributed teams, listen to employees' needs and adapt to achieve effective individual and team performance. Team protocols will morph as projects change and teams collaborate in different configurations. It's 2025, modern work is based on: LEARNING - upskilling, reskilling, experimenting, implementing. INTENTION - proactive self-management, greater autonomy. FLEXIBILITY - mindsets, operations, distributed project work. EMPATHY - human-centric approaches, trusting relationships. Your company culture and policies need to work with, not against, these L.I.F.E. principles. Assess where your leadership stands on each of these. How can you evolve in each area to better adapt to modern work (aka the Future of Work) and make it easier to improve business results? https://lnkd.in/d4BP2M63

"It's a white page. What are you marketing?" This was what my Dad asked me when I joined Google in 2005. Hired by Lorraine Twohill (now Google’s CMO), twenty years later, the lessons I learned from her and the other early female leaders at Google still influence everything I do as an investor, operator, and board member. Yahoo Finance just published my reflections on how the senior female leaders in this male dominated tech field help build my sense of leadership and belonging. Here are the core lessons that changed everything: → Representation fundamentally expands what you believe is possible. Starting my career surrounded by senior female leaders at Google wasn't just professionally advantageous - it was transformational. There's truth in "You can't be what you can't see." Seeing women like Lorraine Twohill, Eileen Mannion, and Yonca Dervisoglu in leadership roles fundamentally expanded what I believed was possible for my own trajectory. → Leadership isn't about having all the answers - it's about bringing people along. Lorraine taught me that strategic preparation means engaging every stakeholder, gathering input, and addressing concerns before the big meeting. Most people think they're prepared because they've done the work. But they haven't brought others along. She would arrive almost knowing approval was guaranteed because she'd already done the collaborative work. → Great leaders create space for others to shine through guided independence. My manager, Eileen gave me space to navigate my own path whilst removing roadblocks when needed. She didn't micromanage - she let me thrive on my own capacity. That balance of support and autonomy is how great leaders create other leaders, not followers. These weren't just career lessons. They were foundational principles that shaped how I led my team to scale Pharmacy2U and how I work with founders today. The tech industry was even more male-dominated 20 years ago. Being surrounded by powerful female leaders from day one built my sense of belonging. I never felt like the odd one out, and that impacted my entire career in tech. What leadership lesson has shaped your approach the most? Thanks to Rod Gilmour and Yahoo Finance for interviewing me. Here’s the link to the full article: https://lnkd.in/eGJ3b8qn ♻️ Found this helpful? Repost to share with your network.  ⚡ Want more content like this? Hit follow Maya Moufarek.

Tuesday's with Intention: My last 3 phenomenal female leaders changed my life! Leaders have the ability to make a huge impact, here's how these 3 did for me 👇🏼 Stephanie White, now Chief People Officer at Fenergo, was my leader for 3 different roles at eBay. Stephanie is the master of getting stuff done, and not just little things, I'm talking about massive transformations and global complex initiatives. She gave me the tools and capabilities to lead through these projects and pushed me hard to accomplish big things, things I didn't even think I was capable of doing. Anita Grantham, now Head of HR at BambooHR, was my leader at Pluralsight. Anita hired me to run Global Talent Acquisition and then later expanded my role to also lead Global People Operations. Anita had this unwavering trust in the work I was doing, and she has this way of making you feel like the value you bring is crucial to the organization, and it wasn't just to me, she made every single teammate at Pluralsight feel a sense of value no matter what your role was. She was basically like the Rockstar of the company that everyone wanted to be around. Natalie Atwood, now the Chief Human Resources Officer at bswift, was my leader at HealthEquity. Natalie hired me to run Talent Acquisition and later expanded my role to include L&OD. I'm pretty sure if you were to look up the word Culture in the dictionary you would see a picture and write up about Natalie that symbolizes what amazing culture looks like. How Natalie approached things really impacted how I thought about the work differently, making sure that it wasn't just work that would get done, but that it would have a higher purpose. Leaders have such an important stewardship and responsibility because they have such a huge impact on those around them. I'm so grateful to these 3 women and the role they played in my life and all the things I learned from them! If you've worked with any of these great leaders I'd love to hear how they've impacted your lives in the comments.

"Women control the shopping cart, not the boardroom.” I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard this dismissive statement. But here’s the thing: In the next five years, women will control over 50% of the global wealth market, with $30 trillion set to transfer into their hands. Not shopping carts. Global economies. This isn’t just a statistic, it’s the dawn of a new era. Let’s unpack what this shift means for us all: ✔️ Markets will evolve: A Boston Consulting Group (BCG) study revealed that women’s purchasing decisions prioritise sustainability, inclusivity, and authenticity. Brands aligning with these values not only capture their wallets but their loyalty. ✔️ A new blueprint for leadership: Companies with women in leadership aren’t just surviving; they’re thriving. With gender-diverse boards outperforming financially by 25% (McKinsey & Company), inclusivity is no longer a “nice-to-have” but a business imperative. ✔️ Investments fuelled by purpose: Female investors are changing the investment landscape. They lead with intentionality, fuelling sustainability and social impact over quick wins. This shift will revolutionise industries. ✔️ Driving innovation through inclusion: Harvard Business Review found that gender-diverse teams drive 19% more innovation revenue. Building products with women isn’t just smart business, it’s the only business. The bottom line? Women are no longer passive participants in the economy. They’re collaborators, co-creators, and catalysts for change. 🔑 To leaders, companies, and innovators: The question isn’t if you should adapt but how fast you’re ready to embrace this transformative opportunity: 1️⃣ Empower women as decision-makers, not just for optics but to drive meaningful change at every level. 2️⃣ Innovate with intention: Build products, services, and experiences that resonate with the causes they champion. 3️⃣ Back women-led ventures: They’re not just a wave; they’re a tsunami of innovation and impact. The future isn’t waiting. Women are rewriting the playbook for wealth, leadership, and business—and it’s time we stop watching and start co-creating. 💬 What are you doing to prepare for this seismic shift? ♻️ Repost this if you believe it’s time to put women at the center of the global stage. #womenleaders #leadership #globaleconomy #founders #investment #purposedriven #growthmindset #womeninbusiness #leaders

🔎 Control or trust? On modern management in companies In many companies, the belief still persists that without continuous monitoring, people stop putting in effort. However, employee engagement doesn't depend on control, but rather on the sense of purpose and autonomy in their work. A well-developed organizational culture provides space for independence and responsibility. In teal organizations (a concept by Frederic Laloux), hierarchy is minimal, and decisions are made in a decentralized way. Employees inspire each other because they have space to experiment and are not afraid to make mistakes under the supervision of a superior. Autonomy motivates more effectively than supervision. 💡 This is confirmed, among other things, by the PARP report "Generation Z in the labor market - attitudes, priorities, expectations," which reveals that for young people, one of the most important things is the opportunity for creative and flexible work. Trust-based companies achieve better results - for one main reason - true innovation and engagement are born where people have room to act. In business, creativity and autonomy drive innovation, distinguishing market leaders. Instead of excessive control, it’s worth building a culture of trust that fosters long-term development. What do you think, is control a necessity, or rather a relic of the past? 💬

#Leaders matter. They can provide #vision for a group and ensure that everyone understands and pulls toward the same shared #goal. Or, as can be the case for women leaders, through their very #presence, they can compel other women to “see” themselves as being capable, thereby enhancing their #performance. In an incredibly impressive randomized controlled trial, economists Loretti Isabella Dobrescu @Alberto Motta Akshay Shanker test whether #leadergender matters for #followerperformance. They do this in the context of large economics courses, in which they randomly assign groups of students to have either men or women leaders (who are other students in the course. the leaders themselves are also randomly chosen, so whatever differences in outcomes should not be due to differences in leader capability). Notably, they also randomize whether the groups are aware that their leader is a man or woman. They summarize their findings this way: “[F]emale students achieved 0.26 and 0.22 SD higher overall course #grades when the gender of the leader was revealed to be female relative to not disclosing that the leader was female and disclosing the leader was male, respectively. These treatment effects … suggest that female leadership has a considerable value in the education production function of female students.” In other words, when women are aware that there is a woman in charge, they perform better, even in a historically male-dominated field and class. Why? What appears to be happening is that knowing a woman is in charge leads women students to put in more effort (in this case, attempting more practice questions) and thereby reap the benefits. What these findings suggest is that if we want more women to be attracted to and to excel in spaces that are typically men-dominated, it truly is important that they be exposed to #womenleaders. It’s not enough to just increase the number of women entering into men-dominated spaces; we also need there to be more women leaders in those spaces if we want to increase the likelihood that those junior women succeed. Loretti Dobrescu, Alberto Motta, Akshay Shanker (2024) The Power of Knowing a Woman Is in Charge: Lessons from a Randomized Experiment. Management Science

What Happens When Women Lead in Data? We talk a lot about data, how to collect it, analyze it, and leverage it. But rarely do we ask: Who’s leading these efforts? When women lead in data science and AI, they bring more than technical skills. They bring perspective, empathy, and a drive to build systems that work for everyone. And the results are Powerful, Inclusive and Transformative. Here’s how; 1. Inclusive Design Take Femtech as an example. Alicia Chong Rodriguez, founder of Bloomer Tech, developed a smart bra that monitors women’s heart health, something sorely missing from mainstream medical tech. Why:- - Because most health data excludes women. - Women in leadership noticed this gap, and innovated around it. When women lead, blind spots get solved. 2. Tackling Bias from the Inside Dr. Joy Buolamwini founded the Algorithmic Justice League to challenge racial and gender bias in AI. Her work exposed how facial recognition systems perform worst on women with darker skin. Because the training data was biased. The system followed suit. Her leadership pushed Big Tech to reform.   Lesson: Data doesn’t lie, but it often reflects our existing biases. 3. Building Trust with Ethical Leadership Women leaders tend to drive more transparent, people-centered decision-making. This isn’t about being “soft.” It’s about building trust with users, teams, and the public. In the age of AI, where transparency is everything, this is a leadership advantage. 4. Better Representation When women lead data initiatives: Data models become more inclusive. Assumptions are challenged. Outcomes become more equitable. It’s not just a win for women, it’s a win for innovation and society at large. These wins aren’t unicorn stories. They’re evidence of what’s possible when we make space for women in data leadership. Let’s stop treating them as exceptions, and start seeing them as the standard we should all aspire to. 👉 Who’s a female data leader that inspires you? Tag her and let her know she’s making a difference. 

The Evolution of HR: Traditional vs. Modern In today’s fast-paced business world, HR is no longer just an administrative function — it's a strategic partner in growth. Here’s how the shift is taking shape: Traditional HR: Focused on admin & operations Reactive support to management Manual, local/internal recruitment Annual reviews with top-down feedback Limited, job-specific training Rule enforcement & compliance-driven Basic tools like spreadsheets Rigid office hours Promotions based on tenure Low focus on DEI Modern HR: Strategic planning & employee experience Proactive business partnership Digital, global, brand-based hiring Continuous performance tracking with 360° feedback Emphasis on upskilling & lifelong learning Culture-driven with high engagement Powered by HR tech, AI & analytics Remote & flexible work models Talent growth & succession planning DEI at the core of HR strategy HR is no longer a cost center — it's a growth enabler. Which side are you on?

Every day, leaders make decisions that shape careers, businesses, and futures. But for women, decision-making often carries an extra, invisible weight—the pressure of perception, the unspoken biases, and the high-stakes expectations that can make even routine choices feel like a proving ground. In this edition, we’re diving into why women experience decision-making differently, the unseen burdens they navigate, and how they can reclaim confidence in their choices. If you’ve ever felt the weight of a decision linger longer than it should, this is for you.