Empathetic Leadership: How to Help Your Teams Survive an RTO Mandate

Return-to-office (RTO) mandates have stirred a spectrum of emotions across workplaces. Some employees welcome the return to in-person collaboration, while others feel anxious or frustrated about the disruption to their routines. As a manager, whether you personally support the decision or not, your role is to help your team navigate this transition effectively. The key?

Leading with empathy. 

At its core, empathetic leadership means understanding, listening to, and valuing each team member as an individual—not merely as a role within the organization. The workplace is not just about output and efficiency; it’s a human space where emotions, challenges, and personal circumstances matter. If leaders fail to recognize this, the risk of disengagement, low morale, and turnover increases dramatically.

Start With Yourself: Processing Change as a Leader 

Before you can support your team, you need to manage your own response to the change. The shift to an RTO model is not just a logistical challenge—it’s an emotional one. Recognizing where you stand in the transition process is critical. You may feel relief, frustration, or even resentment. Instead of pushing those emotions aside, take time to reflect on them. Writing down your thoughts by hand can be particularly effective; research suggests that handwriting engages different neural pathways, allowing you to process complex emotions more deeply than typing.

Once you’ve acknowledged your feelings, take a step back—what one of my colleagues calls “going to the balcony.” This perspective shift allows you to see the bigger picture. Why is your organization pushing for RTO? What long-term benefits might it provide? Even if you remain skeptical, reframing the change in a broader context can help you approach it with a more balanced mindset.

Beyond perspective-taking, realign yourself with your purpose. How does your work contribute to the company’s strategic goals? What aspects of your role bring you pride and fulfillment? If you struggle to answer these questions, it might be a sign that a larger career reassessment is in order. But if you do find meaning in your role, anchoring yourself in that purpose can help you maintain motivation—even amid uncertainty.

Leading Your Team Through the Transition 

Once you’ve processed your own response, it’s time to help your team navigate theirs. Change is never linear—some employees will embrace RTO quickly, while others will struggle. Your role as a leader is to meet each individual where they are and help them move forward.

Start with active listening. Instead of assuming how your team feels, initiate open conversations. What excites them about RTO? What concerns them? Some employees may worry about commuting time, work-life balance, or lost flexibility. Others may feel disconnected from the company’s mission. By taking the time to hear their perspectives, you demonstrate that their concerns matter—even if you can’t change the policy.

Gotara’s 2024 Industry Report highlights a striking disconnect between managers’ perceptions of their leadership effectiveness and their team’s actual experiences. While 28% of managers believe they excel at coaching and mentoring, only 9% of employees agree. This gap underscores the need for leaders to not only listen but actively support their teams through moments of change.

“Managers today are being asked to do more than ever before—balancing team performance, innovation, and employee engagement—often without adequate support or training,” says Dr. D Sangeeta, CEO of Gotara. “The key to effective leadership isn’t about being perfect; it’s about being present, adaptable, and genuinely invested in your team’s success.”

Turning Resistance Into Engagement 

One of the most effective ways to help employees move toward acceptance is to reframe the change in a way that connects to their personal and professional growth. Encourage your team members to assess how their role fits into the larger organizational mission. How does their work contribute to the company’s success? What opportunities might arise from being in the office—whether through collaboration, mentorship, or career visibility?

For example, informal moments like water cooler conversations can provide unexpected insights into other teams’ projects, sparking cross-functional collaboration or revealing opportunities for growth. Casual lunches with colleagues can lead to the exchange of fresh ideas, new problem-solving approaches, or even connections that support career development. Meeting in person also allows for deeper, more intuitive interactions—body language, tone, and spontaneous dialogue all play a role in building trust and strengthening professional relationships.

From a neuroscience perspective, in-person interactions stimulate the brain’s social circuitry, fostering oxytocin release, which is linked to trust and rapport. Additionally, face-to-face engagement activates mirror neurons, enhancing empathy and making communication more effective. These interactions help employees feel more connected, valued, and aligned with the organization’s mission, ultimately making the transition back to the office a catalyst for personal and professional development.

Gotara’s research emphasizes that managers themselves often feel unsupported, with 51% identifying feeling overwhelmed as their primary obstacle to productivity. If you as a leader feel stretched thin, chances are your employees do too. A key strategy for managing this is setting clear, realistic goals. Help your team refocus by defining short-term objectives for the next three to six months. Having a clear roadmap can reignite motivation and provide a sense of direction amid uncertainty.

Additionally, recognize the emotional weight of the transition. Some employees will struggle more than others, and their concerns may not be purely logistical. A parent worried about childcare, an employee with anxiety about social interactions, or someone who thrived in a remote environment may need extra support. Rather than dismissing these concerns, understand them and work together to find solutions.

If hybrid options are on the table, explore ways to make the adjustment smoother. Work with your team members to find a balance that supports both their needs and the business’s objectives. Flexibility goes both ways—while employees may benefit from remote work for deep focus or work-life balance, the organization also gains from in-person collaboration, mentorship, and team cohesion.

Consider creative solutions that create a win-win scenario. For instance, aligning in-office days with key team meetings or brainstorming sessions ensures meaningful face-to-face interactions while allowing for remote work when independent tasks are the priority. Encourage open dialogue about what schedule works best while keeping business goals at the forefront. By demonstrating a willingness to adapt, leaders can build trust, foster engagement, and create an environment where both the company and its employees thrive.

The Power of Human-Centric Leadership 

Ultimately, leading through an RTO transition isn’t about enforcing mandates—it’s about helping people adapt. The best leaders recognize that employees aren’t just workers fulfilling a function; they’re individuals navigating a complex and often overwhelming work environment.

Gotara’s findings show that when employees feel their growth opportunities are limited, their engagement and retention suffer. The same holds true in times of transition—if employees feel forced into change without support, frustration will follow. But if they feel heard, valued, and guided, the shift can become an opportunity rather than a setback.

RTO mandates may not be within your control, but how you respond to them is. By leading with empathy, listening actively, and helping your team reconnect with their sense of purpose, you can transform a difficult transition into a period of renewed engagement and collaboration. In doing so, you won’t just help your team survive the change—you’ll help them thrive within it.

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