Dual role of leadership in ‘Janus-faced’ telework from home

The ‘forced’ telework from home during the pandemic changed the practices, routines, and especially the working contexts of many employees in a leadership position as leaders themselves became teleworkers in addition to those they were expected to lead. This chapter looks at the challenges and resources of working from home (WFH)—and their ambivalences—among teleworkers and teleworking leaders during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Survey data was collected immediately after the lockdown. From this data, two subsets were filtered. First, the responses of teleworkers (N = 228) and, second, of teleworking leaders (N = 195) were identified and analysed in regard to the ‘the most challenging’ and ‘the most rewarding’ issues when working from home. The study shows that telework from home is ‘Janus-faced’: telework is simultaneously challenging and rewarding in several respects. In addition, teleworking leaders have a dual role, as they must both adapt to working at home as teleworkers themselves and to being leaders of homeworkers. The findings can be used for designing, organizing, performing, and leading hybrid work in the future. In this evolving ‘new normal,’ leaders need to adapt to their dual role, learn new leadership competencies, and encourage their employees to lead themselves.