Chuck Chapman, Author at The Kevin Eikenberry Group

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Author: Chuck Chapman

Long-Distance Leadership, Long-Distance Work, Productivity

If You’re Not at Your Desk, Are You Working?

When it comes to working remotely, one of the biggest differences between successful leaders and those who burn out, making themselves (and everyone else) crazy, is how much time they spend worrying about “if people are working.” It’s not that we’re not concerned about how people spend their time, it’s just usually the wrong question.

If we break that question down to what managers really mean, you can determine its relevance. Usually, that’s not what they really need to know. Here’s what I mean:

If they’re not at their desk, what are they doing?

Leaders who are new to remote work spend a lot of time worrying about this, often to the point of madness. First, it presupposes that if workers arrived at their desks on time and left when they should, the work would get done in between. We have all known people with great attendance records who didn’t get much done over the course of a day. Attendance is not productivity.

Secondly, just because your remote workers don’t pick up the phone on the first ring or respond like Pavlov’s dog to every incoming message or email doesn’t mean they are watching The View or playing with the dog. It is entirely possible they are working on something more important and can’t be interrupted.

The problem is that you don’t KNOW what’s going on. Simply keeping your teammates apprised of your schedule, sharing calendars, using status updates, and simply setting expectations can help eliminate the mystery.

Does the work demand actual, physical presence?

Some jobs (customer service, IT help desk) are defined by response time. Someone needs to be there to pick up the phone or accept the message. For others, it is the volume and quality of work over a given period of time that truly matters (Are their reports coming in on time? Is Bob available when there’s a meeting and his input is required?) Furthermore, does it actually matter if that work gets done at five in the morning, so that person can go to the gym or duck out to take the kids to school?

And if they are working, does it mean it has to be at their desk in their home office? I live in Las Vegas where the sun shines invitingly, and I have to start really early in the morning to accommodate East Coasters. More than one of these blog posts has been created sitting on my deck drinking coffee, or combining my daily walk with thinking time. If you can’t pick out which ones were written where, what does it matter?

One way to help ease these concerns is just to address them head-on. If someone needs to duck out midday to take the kids to school, can the team cope? Can they be reached in other ways in case of emergency? Will the total work be completed at other times so a half-hour in the middle of the day won’t impact productivity?

Simply using technology to let people know what’s going on reduces a lot of the stress.

They’re working, but do you know what they’re working on?

For many managers, this is the question you should be asking. People often have a tendency to focus on their individual work at the expense of team collaboration and assistance when they work alone. Set expectations for your people, and help them be accountable for their team contributions. Having regular communication (sometimes verbal or webcam, sometimes a simple SLACK message) about what people are doing, expectations and standards will help remove a lot of the nagging doubt.

Do they know what you expect and how you’ll determine success?

This is the most important question of all. If you have had candid conversation about what work needs to be done, how it can meet their needs as well as those of the team, and how you’ll measure success, you can start letting people do their thing. Of course, if standards aren’t met, or people don’t live up to their commitments, or work suffers in some way, coaching and performance management become critical.

And at the end of the day, that’s really the issue for leaders. If you haven’t discussed what they should be doing, aren’t getting evidence of task completion and quality, and don’t have regular communication throughout the work week, you are essentially working in the dark. Doubt sets in, you can’t answer questions that YOU need answered to do your job, and trust erodes.

If you ask the right questions, and work with your virtual team to arrive at mutually-acceptable metrics and standards, you’ll be surprised how little it will matter if someone is tapping on their keyboard at that precise moment.

To learn more about setting expectations and improving accountability both for yourself and your team, check out our on-demand training course, Remote Goal Setting and Accountability.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wayne Turmel
Co-Founder and Product Line Manager

Wayne Turmel is the co-founder and Product Line Manager for the Remote Leadership Institute. For twenty years he’s been obsessed with helping managers communicate more effectively with their teams, bosses and customers. Wayne is the author of several books that demystify communicating through technology including Meet Like You Mean It – a Leader’s Guide to Painless & Productive Virtual Meetings, 10 Steps to Successful Virtual Presentations and 6 Weeks to a Great Webinar. His work appears frequently in Management-Issues.com.

Wayne, along with Kevin Eikenberry, has co-authored the definitive book on leading remotely, The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership.

Long-Distance Leadership, Long-Distance Work

Don’t Let Long-Distance Performance Reviews Ruin Your Holidays

Tis the season… Relax, this isn’t another “prep for the holidays” blog post. It’s worse. Because while everyone around you goes into holiday mode, you have to prepare for the worst thing about the end of the year—performance reviews and development plans for yourself and your people. If you lead a long-distance or dispersed team, this can be even more stressful.

As with most things, it doesn’t have to be cringe-inducing and insomnia-causing. Doing reviews and helping your team develop plans for the coming year can be effective, with a little planning. Working with your distant team members just takes a little forethought and a few deep breaths.

Some of the basics for doing good performance reviews and planning don’t change regardless of where the person works:

Use SMART Goals.

I know, I know, but the fact is you can’t really turn good intentions into deeds without defining success so that you can build accountability into the process.

Don’t Forget the “M” Part.

The second letter in SMART is “measurable,” and we spend a lot of time establishing metrics for this time next year. But one reason development plans and good intentions fail is that we go from the present state to final goal so we can say we set a goal. But the intention isn’t to set a goal, it’s to achieve it. Especially when working remotely, it’s important to establish short, achievable goals throughout the process so people don’t go, “oh no, it’s October already!”

Hold people accountable for their own goals.

Think of it this way: you have seven other people whose plans you need to work on. The individual person has one–themselves. If people aren’t willing to hold themselves accountable for their development and hitting their goals, what are the odds of achieving them?

So far, these things hold true regardless of whether you’re face to face or on the other side of the country. Working remotely does present other challenges though. In order to overcome them, you should:

Make performance review meetings as “rich” as possible.

That means creating an environment as close to a one-on-one, in-person meeting as possible. Use webcams to transmit facial expressions, body language and tone of voice. Make sure the conversations are private, so people can speak freely. And be in a place where both of you can concentrate. Holding them on a staticky cell phone from an airport departure lounge isn’t optimal for anyone.

Include the agenda and specifically what you want to cover in the meeting invitation.

One of the unintended consequences of holding remote meetings is that we often become far more concerned about time than we are in someone’s presence. We become intent on “checking off boxes” and moving on to our next meeting (especially if it’s an uncomfortable conversation.) By creating an agenda for your meeting, you both become responsible for achieving its goals, and both parties will be properly prepared.

If the performance review is the only time you’ve addressed learning and development, you’ve already both blown it.

The items on the performance and development plan should be baked into your coaching conversations year-round. Consider entering them into your calendar when you schedule one on ones or other coaching opportunities.

This time of year we are expressly charged with both the development and the performance of our people. If this hasn’t been a strength, now’s the time to change that and make this process less stressful on you and your remote teammates.

If you want to be a better long-distance teammate in 2020, we’ve got just the learning opportunity for you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wayne Turmel
Co-Founder and Product Line Manager

Wayne, along with Kevin Eikenberry, has co-authored the definitive book on leading remotely, The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership.

Coaching & Developing Others, Long-Distance Leadership

Make Virtual Coaching More Effective

Of all the jobs a manager/leader has, the one that we often feel we could do better with is coaching. Study after study shows that’s the part of the gig we often feel gets ignored or isn’t done as well as we’d like. Your employees, especially those who work remotely, agree with you. So what can we do about it?

Here are some things you can do to make your coaching more effective when you can’t be face to face.

Decide to have a real coaching conversation.

A coaching call is not a “check-in.” Good coaching requires focus on both ends of the line, planning, and attention to detail. Look at it this way: if you were going to coach someone in the office, you’d take them somewhere private. You’d sit down, maybe have a moment of casual conversation and demonstrate relaxed, positive body language.

When coaching virtually, the same things apply. Be somewhere you both can relax and not be distracted. Take enough time that you’re able to engage in some social conversation before you dive in. Any conversation that starts with, “Let’s not waste time, let’s get down to business,” is probably going to restrict real conversation and the chance to explore what’s really going on with the other person.

Make coaching conversations as rich as possible.

Coaching can be an emotional experience. When we are face to face, we can hear the tone of the person’s response as well as their facial expressions and body language. The best results happen when you’re having rich, real-time conversation. For that reason you want to have as “rich” a conversation as possible. You want to make sure you are communicating effectively, are understood, and any unspoken objections or questions get surfaced. This is almost impossible to do over the telephone alone. Suck it up and use your webcams. A little word of advice though: a critical coaching call is not the best time to use webcams for the first time. Get both parties used to the idea of being on camera when the stakes are low and the conversations casual, so you’ll both be less self-conscious when your discussions get deeper and more important.

Have a list—but not a checkbox.

A rich, constructive coaching conversation has a lot going on. You need to know what you’re going to discuss, have supporting evidence or questions you need to ask, and there’s a process to a well-run coaching call. Most of us can’t keep everything clear in our head and wind up hanging up then thinking of all the things we forgot about, or could have said or done differently.

So having a list of topics and reminders is a good thing. On the other hand if we treat it like a checklist, with the goal just to tick off boxes, we often focus on that, rather than really listening to the other person for clues that we should probe deeper, or there are things that aren’t being said. It’s a fine line, but an important one.

Open the call to possibilities.

Coaching means you have to actively listen to the other person. One of the challenges for a lot of us is that people will answer the questions they’re asked. Many of us start with well-meaning requests for information that prematurely focus the discussion and don’t always open the door to more productive conversations. For example, there is a difference between “what’s going on with the Jackson account?” and “What are you spending most of your time on?”

Here are some open-ended questions to kickstart coaching conversations:

What’s up?
How’s it going?
What’s working?
Where are you stuck?
How can I help?

Notice that you’re leaving the responses up to the other person. You may want to get to the Jackson account, but if there are other priorities, challenges or the person has something they need to discuss first, you’ll have a better talk when you get to it.

For more information on coaching at a distance, consider our Remote Leadership Certificate Series. Coaching is just one of the critical skills we help long-distance leaders master.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wayne Turmel
Co-Founder and Product Line Manager

Wayne, along with Kevin Eikenberry, has co-authored the definitive book on leading remotely, The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership. Wayne and Kevin’s follow-up book, The Long-Distance Teammate, offers a roadmap for success not just for leaders, but for everyone making the transition to working remotely.

Long-Distance Work, Teamwork & Collaboration

Why Remote Workers Need to Be Continual Learners

by Chuck Chapman, Content Strategy Coordinator

Are we there yet? This anxious question from the impatient child doesn’t really go away once we grow up. Instead of the family vacation and wondering whether you’ve reached Disney World, as adults we apply this question to our careers.

We want to know if we’ve arrived, if it’s time to relax.

Maybe once upon a time workers could safely believe that. In older times when the wheels of commerce turned a bit more slowly, there were places where individuals could settle in to one career or even one workplace and live out their lives repeating one learned skillset. After a period of time, they would either collect their gold watch or pass on from this earth doing the same thing they’d always done.

We can debate the existential value of that way of living some other day. The important thing to note for today’s workers is this: that world no longer exists!

The work world of 40 years and a gold watch is pretty much gone. In its place is an environment that’s increasingly global and constantly changing. That can be unsettling to many, unless you adopt the mindset of being a continual learner.

Technology Changes

The scope and pace of technological changes alone should cause everyone to understand the need for continual learning. Just last night I was watching a television show set in the 1990s. One of the characters was taking notes on his Apple Newton PDA. Remember those? Remember when we all had to learn how to use the stylus and write using the “shorthand” characters programmed into the device? That wasn’t 100 years ago. For most of us, it’s something we experienced during our professional careers.

How long did that skillset last? It was a necessity for some for a little while, but along came the smartphone. And while we’re all now adapting to utilizing the latest version of the iPhone or Samsung Galaxy, what will be the next revolution. Will it be five year from now, or will it come sooner? What will we have to learn then?

Processes and Best Practices Change

The changes in technology don’t occur in a vacuum. They produce downstream effects in how businesses establish their processes and what becomes “best practices.” That’s where having the mindset of a continual learner really pays off.

When processes change, people respond one of two ways: they either adapt and improve or they dig in their heels and grow stagnant. It doesn’t require an MBA in organizational leadership to guess which people will remain viable for the organization and which ones will self-select as those who can be eliminated or down-sized.

People Change

One of the side benefits of that static work culture I mentioned at the outset was we got to work with the same people over a long period of time. There’s a lot of good that comes with that in terms of comfort level and trust.

Because the work force is increasingly remote, it’s also increasingly mobile. Not only are companies not employing people for decades any more, the reciprocal is true. People are choosing not to remain with the same company or on the same team for long periods of time.

So not only do we have to have a learner’s mindset about processes and practices, we have to be able to learn and adapt to new co-workers and bosses as well.

To some, this view of the new work culture might seem like a dystopian novel come to life, but I’d like to offer a different viewpoint. It’s highly likely that the degree of change we’re experiencing today isn’t all that different than in the past. The pace might be faster, but workers have always had to adapt and adjust to change.

Henry Ford, arguably the biggest innovator of the 20th century, said this about learning in his day: “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”

Having a mindset of continually learning not only keeps us young, it keeps us viable and productive. It also allows us to view the challenges that come with change with an attitude of excitement.

Are we there yet? No, and we probably won’t be; but with the right mindset, the ride can be every bit as enjoyable as the destination.

If you’re looking to start your learning process as a remote worker, consider 12 Weeks to Being a Great Remote Teammate. Go beyond just being a member of the team.

Leadership, Long-Distance Leadership, Teamwork & Collaboration

How to Make That Meeting an Email Instead

Ah, the wittiness of the internet. How many memes, pictures and snarky comments have you seen from people complaining that the latest assault on their precious time was “a meeting that could have been an email”? Especially when we work remotely, it’s easy to complain about the time spent in unproductive meetings. I feel your pain but here’s a question for you:

Exactly what SHOULD have happened instead? Why do well-meaning people have meetings that could ( or maybe should be) handled another way?

What could happen instead of a meeting #1:

The information is sent in advance and people send in their initial responses by email, Slack, or some file-sharing site. It is then processed, compiled, and either announced in a subsequent communication, or there is a shorter, more focused and productive meeting to close the matter out.

Why it doesn’t happen: The manager fell for this before: S/He sent out the information and one or two people responded. There is a shortage of feedback followed by a combative meeting about why the manager made such a silly decision. Without accountability on the part of the team, you’re going to wind up with a meeting anyway, and this way you will at least know who has done the assignment and who hasn’t.

What could happen instead of a meeting #2:

You craft a masterpiece of an email with a clear, concise, unmistakable call to action to the team. You extend a heartfelt offer to answer any questions by either email or private conversation to address concerns or clear up anything that isn’t obvious (in your well written, clear concise email.)

Why it doesn’t happen: It’s possible your communication wasn’t the magnum opus you thought it was, and instead of driving the work forward, there is now a flurry of gossip, rumor and unproductive conversations among the team members that you don’t hear about until it has reached crisis proportions. All of which assumes that people read the email in the first place. Then you have to hold (are you seeing a pattern yet?) another meeting!

What could happen instead of a meeting #3:

Embracing the new collaboration tools your company has invested in, you create specific discussion rooms, question and answer forums, and colorful dashboards where you can track progress on tasks without spending time on the dreaded “status update” that is just a round robin of people telling you things you probably already know.

Why it doesn’t happen: It did! But after the first week you had most of the team not bothering to use the tools or defaulting to more familiar tools like email instead of the tool you chose. The few people who were contributing to the discussions got discouraged because they were the only ones who took the time to follow the rules and they gave up. Eventually, there is so much complaining about the “redundancy” in the system or the “red tape” involved, or how complicated the solution is that it ends up in…. I can’t even finish that sentence, it’s too depressing.

If you really want to avoid wasting time in meetings, it’s important that you and the entire team understand what’s going on:

Identify the part of the meeting that is “a waste of time.”
As a team, brainstorm alternatives. If they suggest the solution, odds are buy-in will increase.
Communicate those alternatives, including what their role is in making this a success.
Continually coach people to use the tools and processes. Don’t expect them to get it or follow it the first time. You might want to consider peer coaching and recognizing those who are early and successful adopters.
When you send out email or group chat communication, build accountability into the process. Have people acknowledge receipt or set firm deadlines for responses.
Remind them why this new process exists. You can always suggest a meeting to address the issue. See how that goes over.

Here’s the thing. If people complain about meetings, but don’t embrace alternatives, maybe the meeting isn’t the problem.

These kinds of communication issues are a big part of being a great remote teammate. Check out our new learning program, 12 Weeks to Being a Great Remote Teammate.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wayne Turmel
Co-Founder and Product Line Manager

Wayne, along with Kevin Eikenberry, has co-authored the definitive book on leading remotely, The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership.

Long-Distance Work, Productivity, Teamwork & Collaboration

The 3 P’s of Being a Great Remote Teammate

It’s no secret that Kevin Eikenberry and I are working on a new book to follow up The Long-Distance Leader- Rules of Remarkable Remote Leadership. This one is all about being a great remote teammate. Not a team member. Anyone with a log-on password and an employee number can be part of a team but not be a real teammate. What’s the difference?

In researching all the latest information on why some people work remotely and burn out, while others remain engaged and successful, we realized that there are three factors at work. We call these “The 3Ps of Great Remote Teammates”:

I know, you’re thinking, “nice picture, what does it mean?”

Productivity

No big surprise, one of the first things we think of when consider doing good remote work is, well, actually getting the work done! Productivity is important, but it’s not enough. Doing enough not to get fired can keep you on the team, but it won’t keep you engaged, connected, or promoted over the long haul. Also, if you’re not careful, you may be productive while eating into your personal time, or working too many hours, which can result in burnout. Completing your work on the right things in the right way is just the start.

Proactivity

We’ve been writing about this a lot lately, because in our research with leaders and remote workers, it is the one word that appears more often than any other. Proactivity is perhaps the single greatest sign that you are an engaged member of the team. Why?

For two reasons: First, If you are engaged and connected, you’re more likely to be proactive. If a teammate needs help, you’re there. You participate actively in meetings and contribute to brainstorming and collaboration. This creates a virtuous cycle: you are perceived as valuable and helpful, which means people treat you that way, which enhances your engagement and satisfaction, which makes you try harder and so on.

Secondly, if you care about your teammates, your manager, and the organization, you will do the hard work of actively seeking clarification if you have a question. You will check that you have the same priorities as your manager when it comes to tasks. You’ll risk momentary loss of face for the long-term effect of doing the right work the right way, and it will be rewarded.

Potential

The third “P” means that you work with the big picture in mind. Sure, you can keep your head down and not contribute in meetings, but what’s the long-term impact of that? You might get that email answered, but your teammates and manager may think you’re not contributing.

You might get your work done faster if you don’t answer your colleague’s Slack request for information, but what will that mean when you need help from them?

And what are your long-term goals? If you envision working for this company and getting promoted, are you doing the things you need to do in order to stay on the boss’s radar screen, develop the skills needed for the future, and network effectively (and ethically)?

Doing the work can make you a member of the team, but if you focus on the 3 Ps, Productivity, Proactivity and Potential, you’ll elevate yourself to being a great remote teammate.

If you’d like to learn more about being a great remote teammate, or developing those skills in the people who work with you, check out our new learning system, 12 Weeks to Being a Great Remote Teammate.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wayne Turmel
Co-Founder and Product Line Manager

Wayne, along with Kevin Eikenberry, has co-authored the definitive book on leading remotely, The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership.

Long-Distance Work, Teamwork & Collaboration

3 Ways Remote Workers Can Stay on the Boss’s Radar

Working from home is incredibly popular, and growing fast. We know this. But would you enjoy it so much if you knew that choosing to work away from the office would slow your career trajectory, or at least make it less likely to get that next promotion?

That’s the challenge facing many remote workers, and the organizations we all work for. Sometimes it’s a conscious decision: the organization expects leaders to be aboard the “mothership” in order to get work done the way they want it to happen. More often than not, careers get derailed because of benign neglect. It’s not that they think you’re not qualified, it’s that they don’t think about you at all.

The boss needs someone to take on a high-profile assignment? In a perfect world he or she would look at the task to be done, carefully weigh the skills and gifts of each team member equally, and delegate based on capability and the person’s deep personal goals.

You know what’s more likely? The manager is in a panic, they see a qualified person across the cube farm, and voila, it’s delegated, and they can get on with other work. They didn’t decide not to delegate elsewhere, they just didn’t give it much thought at all.

So, what are some ways you can make sure this doesn’t happen to you? Don’t leave it up to anyone else to include you in the mix. Take charge. Here are 3 ways you can stay on the boss’s radar.

Ask direct questions about policy and opportunities.

One of the challenges with working remotely is nobody really planned for it. Many companies don’t have policies in place to account for this new way of getting things done. As a result, some companies have written and explicit requirements such as “above a certain level you MUST be in an office location.” Others just assume that if you choose to work remotely you’ve made a choice between lifestyle and career. Check with not only your boss, but HR to learn if there are official barriers to promotion or success. Usually it’s just benign neglect.

Don’t expect your manager to care as much as you do.

This isn’t because she’s an uncaring ogre, but odds are she’s all too human. Because time is so precious when working remotely, coaching sessions and one-on-one calls tend to be very transactional. You both have a list of items that need to be addressed, and then you get back to work. If you have questions about opportunities inside the company, or where you should focus your personal development to take that next step, make sure you have it on your list for your manager. Odds are it has slipped off theirs.

The only things that belong in silos are corn and nuclear missiles.

One of the unintended consequences of working remotely is that because you’re not part of the day to day interactions, you are “safe” from office politics and get left alone to do your work. Mostly this is a beautiful thing. What it CAN lead to—if you’re not mindful—is that you go down a rabbit hole and focus on your tasks, expecting the work to speak for itself. It won’t. Never has, never will.

The best way to stay on the career track is to be “ethically visible.” That doesn’t mean bragging and drawing all the attention to yourself. It does mean contributing on team meetings, volunteering for cross-function assignments, and reminding your boss and the organization that you are there, qualified, and eager to be part of the organization, no matter which chair you actually occupy. Be proactive and engaged.

When you work from home, it’s easy to be caught up in the blissful silence. But if you’re not hearing and seeing anyone else, odds are they can’t see or hear you either, and you may be left out unintentionally.

It’s your job to control your career. Get on it.

This is just one aspect of being a successful remote employee and teammate. Check out our new learning opportunity, 12 Weeks to Being a Great Remote Teammate. It has the power to transform the trajectory of your remote career.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wayne Turmel
Co-Founder and Product Line Manager

Wayne, along with Kevin Eikenberry, has co-authored the definitive book on leading remotely, The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership.

Long-Distance Leadership, Teamwork & Collaboration

Recovering When Remote Work Goes Wrong

How do you go about fixing work that goes off the rails when you’re not face to face or you work on a remote team? We spend a lot of time around here giving out advice about how to make things work well. And, best as we can, we try to live up to our own high standards. Recently, I goofed. This seems like a good chance for a little radical honesty.

The details don’t matter much, except to say that it was project work and the timeline for deliverables got all out of whack. This isn’t an unusual situation on teams, although it’s rare for us because I’m surrounded by very smart people who are very good at what they do. As you are, more than likely.

Now what? How do you go about getting back on track?

Take ownership of the problem.

The problem with fixing a project or piece of work that has slipped is that someone needs to be the one to say, “this is wrong.” Ideally before the actual deadline has passed or the work is beyond repair. Sometimes you are the source of the problem or confusion. In this case, it was mostly me. Sometimes you’re not but if you don’t blow the whistle or step up, can you say for sure that someone else will? If you have a stake in the outcome, you need to act like you own it.

Acknowledge there’s a problem and define it.

“This isn’t working,” might be accurate, but it’s not helpful. In this case I needed to be very clear: our deadline was a week out, and we were missing important chunks of content. That’s better, but specifically we were missing which items and how was that going to impact our delivery date to the customer?

Stop emailing and IMing and TALK.

Part of the problem (and I’m guessing this sounds familiar) is that there were a lot of emails flying around, some of which were inaccurate, some were late, and some weren’t just being read at all. I needed to put a stop to it and just say “we need to talk about this.” Again, I put the onus on me, but we’d have never solved the problem if I didn’t throw myself on their mercy. We needed to talk in real time, mainly because I suspected—correctly—that I was missing important information and we were talking “around” each other. It was time to check assumptions.

Talk as “richly” as possible… including screen sharing.

Very often people are using different words to explain the same thing, or making assumptions about what someone needs. In this case, the correct solution was to schedule a live web meeting. That would be tricky, given time zones and it meant meeting later at night than I’d have liked. But remember I own the problem.

A web meeting meant we could not only talk about things in real time, but share the documents so we could literally SEE what the other person was talking about. This turned out to be the deciding factor in solving the problem. More of the work was done than we thought, but it was sitting in the wrong folders and not visible to other stakeholders. Once we had walked through the problem, it was easy to identify fixes and next steps.

Reestablish a new timeline including milestones, but also how you’ll notify each other and rebuild trust.

In this case it meant my using Slack to keep everyone in the loop as the new pieces were checked off the list, rather than waiting for the weekly meeting.

We were able to get the project back on track, and everyone has pretty much forgiven everyone else, as you’d expect on a healthy remote team. Yes, working remotely was part of the problem, but with the right mindset, tools and talent, we were able to get things back on track.

Your team probably works pretty well most of the time, but how do you handle bumps in the road? How you address problems is critical to your team’s long-term success.

If you’re dying to know what the project was, we can give you a sneak peek next Monday, November 4^th when you join us for our free webinar event, The 3 Ps of Being a Great Remote Teammate. Check out the details and register. See you there!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wayne Turmel
Co-Founder and Product Line Manager

Wayne, along with Kevin Eikenberry, has co-authored the definitive book on leading remotely, The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership.

Long-Distance Work

5 Very Real Struggles for People who Work from Home

by Chuck Chapman, Content Strategy Coordinator

The advantages for people who work from home are well-publicized. The morning commute is a breeze (unless your kids are on break from school and create a backup in the kitchen). You can wear your pink fuzzy slippers all day long if you want, even if you’re on a video conference and dressed “professionally” from the waste up. And of course, there’s flexibility in your schedule. If you want to put in a load of laundry while you’re working, have at it.

But the struggles are real, people. If you work from home, you’ve probably experienced some, if not all of these phenomena. This is a message of solidarity to my fellow remote workers. I’m here for you and I feel your pain.

“You’re not really busy.”

Raise your hand if you’ve heard that one. Your mom calls and wants you to come over and reset all the clocks after the power went out. You say, “I can’t mom, I’m working.” She says, “No you’re not. You’re at home. You have time.” Or maybe it’s your spouse who works outside the house who leaves you with a laundry list of things to get done around the house (including doing the laundry!). Why do other people think that just because our office is in our home we’re not at work?

Lack of face to face human interaction

Fortunately for me, I have a spouse and kids. Eventually at some point during the day I’m going to come into direct contact with living, breathing human beings (if you count adolescents as human beings). Others aren’t so fortunate.

Even if we’re talking on the phone, chatting on video or messaging via Slack, there’s no substitute for actual human interaction. One adjustment I’ve made this year is intentionally getting out of my house to work elsewhere. I have the Remarkable House where I can see some of my co-workers with the Kevin Eikenberry Group. But I also like to go to the library or other place where there’s good wi-fi, just so I can interact with others, even if it’s just the barista taking my order.

Your neighbors think you’re unemployed

Most of my neighbors know me and what I do. But there are others I don’t know well and I can only imagine what they’re thinking. “Why is his car in the garage at 9:30 AM?” “He takes the dog out every day around 11:00. Normal people are at work. He’s been out of work now for over a year. Maybe we should take over a casserole.”

While I wouldn’t turn down a good casserole, if you’re one of my neighbors reading this, rest easy. I’m gainfully employed, even if it doesn’t look that way.

You get so focused on work you forget to take care of yourself

Many of you who work from home are “creatives” like me. That means you know what it’s like to get “in the zone.” The “zone” is that mystical place where creatives (and I imagine other folks like coders and accountants too, but I can’t be sure) go when the ideas are flowing like…well, I’m not really in the zone right now, so you can finish the simile.

Anyway, when you get in “the zone” you lose track of time and space. You emerge from your work-induced haze and realize hours have passed. You haven’t eaten or bathed. The dog peed on the carpet and is whimpering at the door. You’ve got two dozen or so emails and Slack messages waiting on you.

You got good work done, but the price was steep. I’ve learned that it’s okay to take breaks, that my creativity can not only withstand me eating lunch, it’s actually a little bit stronger when I’ve taken in some nourishment. Don’t work yourself into a situation where the returns on your focus start to diminish.

Getting lost in the internet

Working in the internet and social media is part of my job description. This is both a blessing and a curse. Yes, it’s “fun” to stay apprised of all the latest news and memes…but no, it’s not fun, especially in today’s climate, to constantly be surrounded by the latest news and memes.

If you have an internet-based job, please take some planned breaks, especially when work is over. Get away from Facebook and Twitter. Walk the dog, wave “hello” to that neighbor who’s looking at you so pitifully, wondering when you’re going to get a job. Maybe even call a friend and see if they’re available for coffee.

If they work from home too, chance are they’re not busy.

Remember, all work an no play makes for a bad remote teammate. If you want to be a more productive remote worker and better teammate, consider our 12 Weeks to Being a Great Remote Teammate learning program.

Long-Distance Work, Teamwork & Collaboration

3 Ways Remote Workers Sabotage Themselves

One of the reasons people like working from home—or at least not at the office—is that they aren’t bombarded by interruptions from other people. We’re left alone with our work and our thoughts. Which is great…most of the time. But what if that little voice in your head gives you bad advice? It happens more than you think. Here are three ways that remote workers undermine their own work and potential long-term success.

We isolate ourselves to focus on our own work

If you’re focusing on your work, shutting out the outside world, not communicating with others in the short term, you’re getting things done. But isolation can also mean you’re not talking to your teammates, you’re not participating as actively in meetings and collaborative activities as you were, and if nobody hears from you, you quickly become “Out of sight and out of mind.”

Suddenly you’re not included in every discussion, you might not get that new project, or be thought of for an assignment. In fact, many companies believe that if you’ve chosen to work primarily from home, you’re consciously choosing lifestyle over career. That may or may not be true, but it’s worth considering whether working alone and being hyper-focused is actually interfering with your work.

Remember, the only things that belong in silos are corn and nuclear weapons.

We think the work will speak for itself

While we are hammering away, we believe we don’t need to actively promote ourselves or build strong networks and relationships. We don’t have to worry about these things because our work will speak for itself. It doesn’t.

There are many reasons to believe this. Maybe you’re an introvert who doesn’t enjoy speaking to the group, or you were raised not to brag, or you have faith in your manager’s eye for talent. But the simple fact is doing quality work is seldom enough in this world to achieve the rewards that should come with it.

Social recognition, promotions, new assignments or just personal growth… all these require help from other people, and they aren’t likely to care about you and your work as much as you do. Remember, being a remote worker should only describe where you work, not your emotional distance from the rest of the team.

It’s a fact of human behavior that quality of work is only one factor that goes into long-term success. Yes, we need to deliver excellence, but social capital, knowing people, being pleasant to work with, demonstrating why people should know, like and trust you, are critical if you’re going to be anything more than a cog in a machine.

We imprint on our manager

Maybe you realize you’re going down a silo, and that you aren’t interacting with people, and perhaps your work is not being recognized or rewarded. Building relationships with a whole team of people might be hard, or uncomfortable, but by golly, you can maintain one solid connection, and that’s with your manager.

Many people try to compensate for the reduced interaction with their teammates by doubling down on the one relationship they feel truly matters. That’s the person with the most potential impact on them—their manager. If I have a question, who do I go to? Do I reach out to a teammate I hardly know, or do I contact my boss? If I suspect she isn’t aware of how hard I’m working, I’m going to cc my manager on everything I do, so she knows I’m sweating it out here.

If this is you, your effort to prove what a good team member you are and how hard you’re working is actually taking MORE of the boss’s time. There may be unintended negative consequences to that. What looks like proactivity might be seen as needy or bothersome.

The best way to avoid these self-inflicted wounds is to be mindful of how we build and maintain relationships with others. If you’d like to learn more about being a great remote teammate, join us November 4 for our FREE webinar: The 3 Ps of Being a Great Remote Teammate.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wayne Turmel
Co-Founder and Product Line Manager

Wayne, along with Kevin Eikenberry, has co-authored the definitive book on leading remotely, The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership.

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