Bosses want to simply accept that workers select what the way forward for work appears like

Whether or not it’s the phenomenon of “quiet quitting” or tales of workers outsourcing their jobs, all the pieces means that the pandemic could have helped employees really feel empowered to count on and ask for extra as a result of they’ve skilled flexibility firsthand and located methods, to do issues otherwise–in some instances very, very otherwise.

These are the types of tales that, on some degree, irritate CEOs and different leaders. For those who’re an old-school government, there’s little about these developments that feels good. But I’m right here to say that worker empowerment is the very best factor that may occur to your workforce.

Begin by pondering of labor alongside the strains of what, the place, when, and the way.

My era of leaders has all the time been clear about what must be executed. What has all the time been non-negotiable. And the place and when have been already taken care of: Previous to COVID, it was anticipated and accepted that employees got here into an workplace or traveled to a different job location, historically from 9 to 5, however usually extra.

The how was largely as much as workers. The best leaders are those that empower their folks. They don’t micromanage and which means not messing with how your high folks get their finest work executed. Immediately, the how could be very totally different in comparison with simply a few years in the past.

In our period of versatile, hybrid work, corporations of all types are scrambling to seek out methods to get their workers again into the workplace. We’re targeted on the when and the place of labor, regardless that the what and how stay most important.

Unexpectedly, current survey information exhibits Gen Z and different younger generations really categorical extra curiosity in coming into the office than older colleagues–however that is smart in the event you give it some thought.

Put up-college social lives was once dependent largely on the place you labored and whom you labored with. Youthful workers need issues that some older workers have given up making an attempt to get out of labor or present in different points of their lives, like steering, belonging, and camaraderie. But as an alternative of carrots, too many corporations appear to need to leverage sticks that concentrate on prior methods of getting issues executed.

Discovering the precise managerial steadiness within the post-pandemic, quickly evolving age of labor is hard. Leaders don’t need to be too prescriptive as a result of that shall be unempowering–however they don’t need full chaos. These tremendous strains undoubtedly grow to be more durable to navigate when not everyone seems to be required to be in the identical place on the similar time, in any given week.

Whereas the place and when could garner all of the headlines, let’s face it: what and how are extra necessary–a continuing that needs to be reassuring for any chief, so long as they’re keen to do their half by empowering the brand new versatile workforce.

Anne Chow is lead director on FranklinCovey’s Board of Administrators and co-author of the best-selling guide, “The Chief’s Information to Unconscious Bias.” Chow is the previous CEO of AT&T Enterprise and was twice featured as certainly one of Fortune’s Most Highly effective Girls in Enterprise.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary items are solely the views of their authors and don’t essentially mirror the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

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