Navigating the new culture of work with intention and flexibility
Hybrid work is no longer about how many days we spend at home or in the office—it’s a fundamental shift in how work gets done. Just as personal banking moved from in-branch visits to a mix of digital and in-person channels, today’s workplace has expanded into multiple formats. And that shift is here to stay.
Even as some organizations bring employees back to the office, flexibility has permanently reshaped how people view work. The real question is no longer where we work, but how we enable performance in this new reality.
A thoughtful approach means maximizing the benefits and minimizing the challenges of each model. Fully remote work broadens access to talent but risks disconnection. Fully in-office work fosters collaboration but can reduce efficiency. The opportunity lies in combining the best of both, intentionally.
1. Know thyself
New ways of working demand new levels of self-awareness. Built on decades of research, our hybrid framework identifies 11 personality traits that play a role in how individuals navigate flexible work settings, such as introversion, optimism, and autonomy needs.
Recognizing your own work tendencies and needs helps you make better daily decisions, whether that means bringing noise-cancelling headphones to focus in an open-concept office, or scheduling check-ins with colleagues you don’t often see.
This kind of self-understanding helps resolve common friction points in hybrid work: distractions in open spaces, makeshift home offices, or challenges for new employees integrating into unfamiliar settings. Performance starts with helping individuals adapt their environment (or develop coping strategies) based on the work at hand.
2. Lead with intention
The skills that used to serve leaders well in the office are still essential, but they are no longer sufficient. Leading in this new context requires new habits, and based on our research, three in particular stand out:
- Practising flexibility by understanding individual preferences and creating shared guidelines that support both individual and team needs.
- Managing relationships by being present, enabling informal team dialogue, and maintaining alignment on shared objectives.
- Maintaining performance by focusing on outcomes, fostering engagement, and building psychological safety.
The most effective leaders know their people, tailor their approach, and measure success by results, not visibility.
3. Make team norms explicit
High-performing teams don’t leave success to chance. Research from Stanford and Cisco shows that hybrid teams thrive when expectations are clearly defined. Without structure, friction tends to surface quickly, whether through meeting overload, a lack of trust or connection within the team, or fragmented focus from constant messages and email notifications.
That’s why team agreements matter. These co-created norms outline how a team collaborates, communicates, and coordinates its work. They raise unspoken assumptions and create alignment, helping teams balance individual autonomy with shared accountability.
Thriving in the new world of work
Success in this new reality depends on how intentionally we shape our habits, relationships, and shared norms. For individuals, it’s about knowing what helps you perform at your best and advocating for it. For leaders, it’s about creating clarity and trust to make flexibility work. And for teams, it’s about designing the rules of engagement that are agreed to by all.
When these elements come together, hybrid work becomes more than a model, it becomes a mindset—one that invites us to show up differently, lead with empathy, and design our work lives with intention and purpose.
At Humance, we partner with organizations to help their culture and leadership practices evolve so they perform, adapt, and thrive in this new world of work—wherever that work happens.
Discover how we can help your organization drive performance in this new reality.
References:
Bloom, N. (2024, June 10). “Hybrid work is a win-win-win for companies and workers.” Stanford University. Retrieved November 5, 2025, from https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2024/06/hybrid-work-is-a-win-win-win-for-companies-workers
Cisco Systems. (2025). “Cisco global hybrid work study 2025.” Retrieved November 5, 2025, from https://newsroom.cisco.com/c/dam/r/newsroom/pdfs/Cisco-Hybrid-Work-Study.pdf
O’Neill, T. A., Hambley, L. A., Greidanus, N. S., MacDonnell, R., & Kline, T. J. B. (2009). “Predicting teleworker success: An exploration of personality, motivational, situational, and job characteristics.” New Technology, Work and Employment, 24(2), 144–162. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-005X.2009.00225.x
