ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at how to lead hybrid teams during times of significant organisational transition and change. It discusses techniques for reducing team member anxiety by meeting their needs for status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness. Leaders can activate brain reward responses rather than threat responses by ensuring psychological safety. The chapter promotes leading by example, open communication, adaptability and team motivation, taking lessons from explorer Ernest Shackleton. It emphasises the importance of fully accepting our authority as leaders. The chapter discusses how stories can foster a culture of well-being and how techniques such as ‘brainwriting’ can create diverse thinking. The concept of ‘leader as healer’ is introduced, shifting focus from purely business metrics to purpose and emotional needs. Leaders should heal divisions by inspiring rather than controlling, by fostering connections and by demonstrating vulnerability. The chapter argues that traditional transactional leadership models are reaching their limits as constant change becomes the new normal. Leaders who develop presence and reintegrate fragmented parts of themselves and their organisations will be best equipped to guide hybrid teams going forward.
