An intriguing insight from workplace strategist Nirit Cohen recently caught my attention. In response to economist Nick Bloom’s research showing that younger CEOs are more likely to lead remote teams, she offers a compelling theory: many of these leaders built their businesses during or shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic.

This timing matters. The pandemic didn’t just shift where we work; it opened the door to rethinking how work is evaluated. With office attendance no longer the gold standard, organizations began to reconsider what productivity actually looks like. One consistent lesson emerged: in a remote world, time at a desk matters less than the outcomes that follow.

But making that shift—from presence to performance—isn’t as simple as swapping out one metric for another. It surfaces some tough questions:

• How do we evaluate the full range of someone’s contributions, especially when so much of what makes a team effective—like emotional support or informal mentoring—is hard to quantify?
• Does a focus on task completion unintentionally downplay essential but less visible skills like collaboration, communication, or team-building?
• Can this model work across all jobs, work styles, and personalities? Or does it favor certain types of workers while leaving others behind?

While answers to these questions need to be navigated by each leader, there is one thing I keep coming back to:

And at the core of that new leadership model is one essential ingredient: TRUST.

Trust is what gives people the freedom to work independently—and the responsibility to deliver.
Trust allows leaders to shift their focus from surveillance to support.
Trust encourages teams to take initiative, solve problems, and collaborate—even when they’re spread across cities or continents.

In other words, trust makes remote work.

As we continue evolving how and where work happens, it’s clear that the leaders—whether young or experienced—who succeed won’t just adopt new tools or metrics. They’ll build cultures of trust that allow those tools to thrive.

For more data and insights, check out wfhresearch.com

#TrustAtADistance #RemoteWork #RemoteLeadership #AccountableAutonomy