M: Mindset

Mindset Determines the Approach
Remote and hybrid leadership requires a different mindset, not just new tools and new processes. When something isn’t working, many leaders instinctively respond by adding:

• More structure

• More oversight

• More control

The challenge for leaders is to know when the situation requires this approach. That’s why Mindset is a pillar of the REMOTE Leadership Framework. The way leaders think about a problem shapes the way they respond to it.

Before asking, How do I fix this?, strong leaders ask: What does this situation actually require?

Not Every Problem Has a Clear Answer
Some leadership challenges are technical, i.e., the problem is understood, the solution is reasonably clear, and the leader can respond with a better process, clearer expectations, additional training, or a new tool. Other challenges are adaptive; there isn’t an obvious answer. Those situations may require:

• Experimentation

• Adjustment

• New perspectives

• Letting go of “how we’ve always done it”

These challenges are especially common in remote and hybrid environments, where leaders are navigating ways of working that continue to evolve. It’s these environments where mindset matters most. A leader with an expert mindset assumes every problem has a known solution will keep searching for the right answer. A leader with a learner mindset is willing to ask whether the answer has to be discovered.

Expert Mindset or Learner Mindset?
Consider how you tend to respond when you encounter a problem you haven’t seen before: Do you approach it with an expert mindset or a learner mindset?

Leaders operating from an expert mindset tend to:

• Want to be right — and to be seen as right

• Interpret new information through what they already believe they know

• Feel responsible for having all the answers

Leaders operating from a learner mindset:

• Want to get it right, rather than simply be right

• Remain open to possibilities they have not yet considered

• Ask questions before jumping to solutions

• Use new information to challenge their assumptions

The distinction is important for adjusting one’s mindset. A learner mindset does not mean abandoning experience or expertise; it means being willing to recognize when your experience may not provide the answer.

Mindset Shapes Leadership Behavior
When leaders remain in an expert mindset, uncertainty can feel like something to eliminate. So they add:

• Another meeting

• Another approval

• Another policy

• Another layer of oversight

But when leaders adopt a learner mindset, uncertainty becomes curiosity and something to investigate. They ask:

• What am I assuming?

• What has changed?

• What might we need to try?

• What can we learn from what happens next?

That shift changes the leader’s role from having all the answers to creating the conditions in which better answers can emerge. In modern work, that’s increasingly what effective leadership requires.

Remote leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about having the mindset to recognize when your approach needs to change.

Learn more about the REMOTE Leadership Framework and the book.