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Communication & Interpersonal Skills, Leadership, Long-Distance Leadership, Teamwork & Collaboration

What Does Engagement Look Like?

Engagement is one of the topics remote leaders lose the most sleep over. In a recent poll, we learned that “keeping the team engaged” is more of a concern for leaders than team communication, measuring performance or making sure people are working when they say they are.

So, there’s no doubt today’s question is one that’s on the mind of every Long-Distance Leader, but a bigger question remains: What exactly is “engagement?

The dictionary wasn’t much help. It actually made me laugh, because the first definition was “The duration of an agreement to get married” while the second was “to meet the enemy in combat.” As a former comedian, my first reaction is “there’s a lot of good material here,” but that doesn’t help us get any closer to our goal of defining engagement.

When managers talk about their employees being “engaged,” what exactly are they looking for? Essentially they want to know if their people care (about more than a paycheck, that is). Here is a partial list of behaviors that show your employees care:

Proactive communication

Do members of your team regularly reach out to you (and their teammates) with questions, suggestions and feedback, or do they have to be begged, cajoled and solicited for their input? This can also show up in one-on-one coaching sessions. Do people raise issues and discussion topics on their own, or do they go along with whatever your agenda is? Do you only hear from people when there is a big problem, and you find yourself asking, “why didn’t you say something earlier?” There’s likely a disconnect you need to address.

Active meeting participation

Do people treat virtual meetings or teleconferences in the same way they do in-person meetings? Do they offer opinions, ask questions, and generally speak up? One of the biggest signs of low engagement is silence when you ask people to contribute. If team members think they’ve done their job by simply joining the call and getting an attendance checkmark beside their name, they are disengaged.

Offer proof they have the big picture in mind

When you have conversations with team members, are they only concerned about only their own work, tasks and metrics, or do they seem interested in the team and organization’s success? Engaged workers about more than just getting the work done. They want to know how their work impacts everyone’s overall success.

Willing to engage (constructively) in conflict

Often the first sign of disengagement is the hardest to recognize. People who aren’t emotionally invested in their work and their teammates will gradually stop offering ideas, challenging bad information, and providing feedback. They simply disappear into the background. What can look like passive agreement may actually be a matter of not caring enough to put in the effort it takes. It’s hard to tell at first, because it appears that everyone is doing what they’re told without argument. That lack of conflict could be a sign of trouble, however. And of course your meetings all end on time because no one is talking. That’s a good thing, right? Maybe not.

None of these behaviors in and of themselves is proof that your team members are disengaged. After all, sometimes people actually agree with what’s being said in the meeting and don’t need to chime in. Other times they decide for the good of the team and their relationships not to challenge someone’s idea.

On the other hand, if you are hearing less and less positive input from someone, the quality of their work is dropping, or they seem to be meeting minimum performance standards but aren’t putting in visible effort, you may have an engagement problem.

Leading remotely requires constant monitoring of, not just what’s visible, but what’s lurking under the surface. Make sure your one-on-one conversations are probing for more than just task completion. And if your gut tells you something’s up, it’s probably right.

What are some of the ways you actively test the engagement of your team members?

As I alluded to above, your meetings are a great place to encourage and measure employee engagement. It’s also a great place for you to start as a Long-Distance Leader building that engagement level you’re after. We’ve got a great on-demand course to help you do that, Leading Effective Virtual Meetings.

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.

Communication & Interpersonal Skills, Long-Distance Leadership, Long-Distance Work, Productivity, Teamwork & Collaboration

Does Your Remote Team Know What’s Expected?

by Chuck Chapman, Content Strategy Coordinator

Remote work is becoming more common, but it’s still fairly new for most organizations. If you’re a remote leader, chances are this is your first time leading a remote team, and many team members may also be experiencing their first job away from the office.

That means all of you are sailing in some uncharted waters. The good news is you’re not tied to a lot of “traditional” practices, so you can be more innovative. The bad news is you don’t have the benefit of a long history of “this is how we do things.” That can lead to uncertainty and discomfort among the team.

Expectations go both ways

The first thing you need to understand as a leader is expectation is a two-way street. Not only will you communicate to your team what’s expected of them, but you should solicit what they’re expecting of you. It’s probably more than just a paycheck every two weeks. When you find out what your team expects from you as a leader, you have the opportunity to meet those expectations, creating a more positive team culture.

How will we communicate?

There’s no popping in the boss’s office or stopping by Jane’s cube to deliver a message with a remote team. The first thing you need to establish are expectations around team communication. You’re going to want to have answers for these kinds of questions:

Am I expected to communicate my progress on assigned tasks? If so, how often?
Is there an expectation for responding to emails within a certain period of time?
Are we having any regular meetings as a team? If so, are those mandatory to attend?

You’ll come up with many others when you ask your team for their input, but these are a good place to start.

How will you know what I’m doing?

One of the biggest issues for Long-Distance Leaders is measuring productivity. If you can’t see Joe working at his desk, how do you know he’s working? Well, first you’re going to have to get over the desire to control every moment for your team. That’s not optimal for a co-located team, and it’s just not possible with a remote team. Here are some questions to consider regarding your team’s productivity:

How will you be tracking productivity? What specific metrics will you be using?
What are the requirements for reporting time?
What about time away? If a team member has to be away from his/her desk during “normal” work hours, should that be communicated? How and to whom?
On that note, are there expected common work hours? (This can be tricky for international teams.)

What expectations are there regarding teamwork and culture?

Don’t let this one slide just because it may be a little more “squishy” than the other expectations. If you don’t set up expectations for how your team interacts and building culture, you’re asking for trouble down the road.

It’s really easy for remote workers to get into a “silo” mentality because they’re physically removed from the rest of the team. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure in this case. Encourage and model team communication.

One of the things Kevin Eikenberry encourages with our team is “small talk.” There’s a tendency with remote teams to “get down to business” and become very transactional with communication. Kevin intentionally sets up opportunities for team members to talk about last night’s big game or their kid’s violin recital before moving on to the “important” stuff.

If you’re in the formative stages with your remote team, or maybe if you’re playing catch-up because you started without setting these expectations, a great place to start is this course on creating and managing remote teams.

Communication & Interpersonal Skills, Long-Distance Work, Teamwork & Collaboration

A Crazy Solution for Your Remote Communication Problems

What is the biggest complaint remote workers have about remote communication their colleagues? If you guessed too many emails, or being barraged by Slack messages, you’re in the top ten. But when we recently asked people “What’s the thing that drives you craziest about working with remote workers?” the answer was a little surprising.

“I hate talking on the phone. I prefer solving the problem by IM”

“IM stinks for problem solving. I wish people would just pick up the phone.”

“Once you get used to it, webcam is quick and easy and lets you see who you’re working with.”

“Webcams suck.”

It turns out that people like communicating in the way they are most comfortable, and get a little cranky when others don’t work with them in that way. But if every human being has their own particular communication comfort zone, how is a team supposed to settle on processes and norms so that everyone gets at least some of what they need?

Here’s a crazy idea. Ask them.

Seriously. When was the last time someone asked you how you wanted to communicate about a problem before you got mired down in the communication muck? Usually those discussions come after someone has to speak up and shout, “THIS ISN”T WORKING!” That’s when people snip email threads and get on the phone, or plan meetings after wasting a whole afternoon arguing on Slack.

How do we know what people want from us when it comes to communication? Well, since you’re asking:

If you have a need for someone’s time, ask them how they want to communicate.

We have a colleague here who actually (brace yourselves) would rather talk on the phone than indulge in pointless typing back and forth only to wind up having to get on the phone anyway. The more complicated the matter, the more likely a simple text exchange won’t work. If we want to avoid making her crazy, we get on the phone sooner rather than later. Crazy, huh?

It helps if you know in advance what people prefer.

When you work in the office together, you get to know who’s open to interruptions, who wants the world to go away, and who you need to approach with a peace offering of some kind (usually something baked and tasty). It’s harder, but not impossible, to get to know people’s work styles when you don’t get those daily cues. Tools like DISC and other work style assessments are helpful. (Here’s a link to a free DISC assessment if you aren’t familiar)

Be willing to use remote communication tools or styles that aren’t your personal preference.

As a manager, people will generally bend over backwards to make you happy. This means if you’ve made it clear that email is the best way to work with you, that’s what they’ll use. The problem, of course, is that it may not be the most effective or efficient way to address a problem. You might really hate being on webcam (it’s not my personal first choice) but its value is so obvious that sometimes it’s the right answer. Are you willing to adapt to the situation? If you’re a manager, are your people comfortable suggesting other means of communicating to you?

Be explicit about the need to choose the right tool for the right job.

Keep the conversation going with your team. Make choosing the right medium for the right message at the heart of your team’s work. Don’t assume everyone thinks about this stuff…most of us are too busy just trying to get the job done.

That probably includes you. We get caught up in the day to day and aren’t intentional about how we work together. But we should be. You might be driving your colleagues crazy and not even know it.

What’s YOUR biggest complaint about remote communication? Remember, venting can be healthy!

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.

Coaching & Developing Others, Communication & Interpersonal Skills, Long-Distance Leadership

How to Show Your Appreciation to Remote Employees

You know the old saying, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder”? Well, when it comes to remote employees, that’s not true at all. In fact, when you’re managing a team of remote workers, a big hurdle to overcome is the feeling of isolation and all of the negative emotions that come with it. So while making sure your team feels appreciated is a good leadership habit in general, remote leaders have to be extra-sensitive and intentional about letting their team members know their value.

Respond Consistently

Remote leaders are just like remote employees. You’re removed from the demands that come with daily face-to-face interaction. That means it’s easy to get caught up plugging away at various tasks you’re responsible for and put off or ignore communication from “outside.” When that happens, the questions start popping up in the minds of your employees. “Why isn’t he responding to me?” “Is she upset with something I’ve done.” “I didn’t get any feedback on that last proposal, so that must mean it’s not good.”

When a team member sends you something, whether it’s a text, email or some other communication, they’re reaching out. As the leader, you need to reach back. It doesn’t have to be anything long or time consuming. Maybe just a simple “thumbs up” emoji in a text message, or a “Thank you.” The point is to be consistent. When you respond consistently, it nixes all those negative “What if” thoughts and replaces them with the most important message you can ever send: “I care.”

Set up a Peer Recognition Process

It doesn’t always have to be the leader handing out the pats on the back. Many times the praise from peers is as good or better than anything you can offer. Set up a process where team members can give “shout outs” and “attaboys” for work well done.

At the Kevin Eikenberry Group, Kevin has implemented two such outlets where team members can regularly salute each other. We can recognize each other on Slack, either on in front of the whole team or through a private message. That’s something Kevin models himself and the rest of the team follows suit. We also have weekly reports on the work we accomplish that we share with each other. In addition to being a good check for productivity, it offers the opportunity to publicly recognize team members who helped get the ball across the goal line that week.

Whatever method you choose, have a way where praise is a regular part of the company culture and make sure you lead the way in your example.

Flex into Other Time Zones

If your team spans multiple time zones, don’t make meeting times always dependent on your schedule. If you’re leading from the Eastern time zone but have employees who live in California, those 9 AM ET meetings can be pretty taxing. It’s even more so if you have international team members.

Intentionally schedule some meetings so that it fits best where they live. Move that 3 PM ET meeting to another time that will allow your left-coasters to have lunch and not have to work while hungry. If they’re in another country, get up early on occasion and talk during their regular “work hours” instead of making them log in after their day is supposed to be done.

Your sensitivity to their time schedule is a simple and much appreciated way to show you care.

Offer Professional Development Opportunities

Professional development is an often overlooked area for remote teams. It’s easier for co-located teams to bring people in for training or have “learning lunches” where everyone participates. You need to offer those opportunities for your remote employees, too. Just know that the logistical challenges might be greater.

Budget funds and scheduling to allow team members to go away to get the training they need. Create group learning opportunities by scheduling video conferences where team members can learn about HR matters or how to use the latest software.

Don’t assume your remote team members will be self-directed in their professional development. Show you care about their development and communicate your long-term investment in them by taking the initiative and offering opportunities.

Remember Your ABC’s

Of course the most important development opportunity is your coaching. As a leader the simple rule “Always Be Coaching” is good to follow. When leaders are invested in coaching their team members, it offers opportunity for praise (as well as correction) and raises the bar, not just for the individuals, but for the whole team.

You can learn more about delivering more effective feedback and coaching your remote team with our Effective Remote Coaching and Feedback on demand training.

Don’t let distance be a reason your team doesn’t perform to the level it’s capable of. Be a Remarkable Long-Distance Leader and show them the appreciation and support they need and desire.

Communication & Interpersonal Skills, Long-Distance Work

Hello, Is Anybody in There? 6 Ways to Elicit Feedback in Web Meetings

One of the most frustrating things about leading virtual meetings is not being able to answer a simple question: are they out there and just listening silently, or are they silent because they aren’t really paying attention? The problem is that they can sound the same to your ears. How do you know the difference?

Here are just a few simple ideas to help you get the feedback you need as a presenter or meeting leader, while not letting paranoia get the best of you.

Set the expectations clearly at the beginning of every meeting.

As with so much in life, you get the behavior you ask for. Since many people have basically been allowed not to participate, nor have they been held accountable in the past, it might be a bit jarring to be told you’re EXPECTED to participate. Give people the chance to act like adults. When there is an expectation, then they can hold themselves to that standard. When you tell people that they are expected to participate, and you actually take the time to ask for their input, and treat it seriously… it’s amazing how things can change.

Use webcams-thoughtfully.

In a traditional meeting, you can look around and see if people are understanding, or look like they have a question, or need a bio break. That is hard to do in a virtual meeting unless you can actually see their faces. Webcams allow you to do this, but there is an important caveat. Emphasize the positive aspects of using a webcam (reading each other’s body language, keeping their interest, helping people get to know each other.) If the sense is that you’re only using it to spy on them and make sure they’re working, there will be massive pushback and you’ll nullify the advantages that seeing each other have.

Identify logical places to check in and get the feedback you crave.

In a face to face meeting, you are getting constant visual feedback: slow down, speed up, they get it move along, or check to see what you haven’t explained properly. While you might not get a constant flow of signals on a conference call or webmeeting, that doesn’t mean you can’t get the feedback you need. Identify places to check in. Stop and ask “What do you think about that?” or “What else do you need to know about that before we move on?”

Make sure “Any questions?” isn’t a rhetorical question.

One of the most common mistakes online meeting leaders make is checking in but not giving people time enough to respond. After this happens a few times it appears that you aren’t really interested in their questions. When you ask for questions, give them time to respond. Five full seconds is long enough to encourage real participation and input. Count it in your head—it’s longer than you think (and most of us are comfortable with. It takes practice.)

If they don’t volunteer, respectfully call on them for feedback.

You know that people will have questions, you might even know who has them but they won’t speak up. It’s okay to call on people and encourage participation. Just remember to be respectful; you’re not trying to bust them, and they should know before hand you’re going to expect their participation. Also, mention their name before asking the question , “Bob, what do you think?” so Bob has a chance to focus if his mind’s been wandering. You’re not out to embarrass people, you want to encourage participation.

Give them multiple ways to offer feedback.

Not everyone is comfortable (in fact most people aren’t) speaking up on a conference call. Most web meeting platforms allow you to encourage participation in multiple ways. Here are some of the most obvious:

- Not muting their microphones or phones on entry. Is the message that they get when they join your meeting “sit down and shut up until given permission?” They are grownups. If they need to mute themselves that’s fine, but encourage them to unmute when they want to speak.
- Use a “raise hand” button if there is one. Many platforms allow you to mimic normal meeting or classroom behavior. If someone wants to speak in a meeting room, they raise their hand. No reason this should be different. The only thing to know is many people don’t know that feature exists and how to use it. Don’t assume they do.
- Encourage the chat or Q an A boxes. It is actually frustrating to speak up on a call. People talk over each other, the same people monopolize the conversation, and it can seem rude to interrupt the leader with a question. Many people find chat a great way to overcome those barriers. Introverts can think about their ideas before speaking, it doesn’t interrupt the flow of the conversation, and people with English as a second language can be more easily understood.

The best way to see if people are paying attention is to ask for the feedback your brain desperately requires. That sounds obvious, but it’s amazing how many people don’t do it. Don’t be that person.

What are your best practices around meeting input and engagement? Share them with our reader in the comments section.

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. You can pre-order Kevin and Wayne’s follow-up book, The Long-Distance Teammate, now.

Communication & Interpersonal Skills

Are Communication Style Tools Valuable? It Depends.

Why is communication so hard? One of the top reasons is that not everyone communicates in the same way, with the same tendencies or styles.

To simplify things, we have access to all these useful tools that provide assessment takers with acronyms, colors, letters, animals or other designations to identify their personality and communication style. They’re often fun and can be ideal for building self-awareness.

The problem with such activities is that most of us don’t know how to use them to improve our communication.

We have greater success when we remember that it isn’t about us

Let’s take a step back. At the very basic interpretation, communication is a message sent and a message received, right? For real communication to take place, one must send a message in a way that it can be (and is) received effectively by the other person.

That’s where I think those assessments hold real value. Regardless the tool/assessment you choose, the greatest value comes not in understanding your own tendencies, though that is helpful. The greatest value comes from understanding the various styles well enough that you notice them in others. With that knowledge, you can adapt your communication to their style, and make it easier for them to receive your message.

If you want to be a better communicator, by all means use a communication styles tool for self-awareness, but don’t stop there. Use the tool to help you understand, observe and diagnose the styles of the people who report to you, so you can adapt as necessary.

Start with our free assessment

If you haven’t taken an assessment of this type (or haven’t in a long time), I recommend starting with our free D.I.S.C. assessment.

You can also upgrade to a more complete and detailed assessment and even get coaching if you choose or purchase the assessment for your team members. Knowing your own communication style, and more important, the style of your employees, can help to ensure you are getting your message across, regardless to whom you are speaking. That is critical to preventing conflict and mistakes, establishing goals and expectations, and providing feedback people will understand and act on.

Take the free D.I.S.C assessment now.

Coaching & Developing Others, Communication & Interpersonal Skills, Long-Distance Work, Teamwork & Collaboration

Does Your Online Communication Build Relationships?

By Chuck Chapman, Content Strategy Coordinator

One of the foundations of being a remote leader is effective online communication. As we’ve well documented on this site and in The Long-Distance Leader, this is one of the principle leadership challenges for those heading up remote teams.

Simply put, communicating remotely just isn’t the same as communicating in co-located office settings. Much of the richness that comes with face-to-face communication is missing. That often makes interpreting messages more complex than when we’re sitting across a table from each other. Without the context of non-verbal communication and even voice tone, messages sent via e-mail or chat sometimes lack the clarity we’re after.

Communication is about more than the message

But getting the message across is only half the battle when it comes to online communication. Communication is also about building relationships. When we send e-mails or notes in Slack, there’s more than just an exchange of information and data going on. There’s an interaction between human beings that will impact the way they think about each other, and ultimately how they work together.

We can have all our “I’s” dotted and “T’s” crossed, our grammar and punctuation proofread, and be totally accurate with our facts and figures, but if we neglect the relational component of communication, we’re only doing half the job.

Using the DISC Model as a Template for Effective Online Communication

The DISC Model is one of the most useful tools for understanding how people communicate. To understand it fully, you can read more at our DISC site, but it essentially breaks down communication styles into four quadrants: Dominant, Cautious, Inspiring and Supportive.

Those four styles describe the basic needs we all have when we communicate with each other. And while we can have different styles in different situations, by and large we each have a dominant style that we prefer.

These four styles can be further broken down into two main groups: Those who are more task-oriented in their communication and those who are more relational. You may already be ahead of me in recognizing the main challenge for remote teams: the nature of online communication tends to reward the task-oriented people while depriving the relational people of necessary input.

Getting Beyond the Information Exchange

When we work together remotely, it’s easy to get lulled into the “just get the job done” frame of mind. That gets reflected in our communication. We think we’re doing a great job when we’re providing all the relevant information and not wasting the time of our colleagues with stuff that’s unrelated to the success of the project.

The folks in the “D” and “C” quadrants will probably love that. They’re much more receptive to “bottom line” messages that answer the questions “What” and “Why.” But if you’re communicating with the relationally focused people in the “I” or “S” quadrants, they’re going to see that same interaction as cold and lacking engagement. The data is important to them too, but they also want to talk about the excitement of the achievement and enjoy your virtual company. They’re more likely to go out of their way to express their appreciation and expect that in return.

Managing the Different Styles

So as you can probably see, even in a co-located setting that enjoys more “richness” in communication, meeting the needs of all these different styles doesn’t happen by chance. For each of us our default setting is to communicate in our own style. That can be the cause of unnecessary confusion and conflict, especially with remote teams.

As a Long-Distance Leader, it’s your responsibility to coach your team toward more effective online communication. That can mean using the proper tools and communicating the right information to the right people, but it also means encouraging the focus on relationships. When your team becomes aware of their own communication needs and biases as well as those of their teammates, you’ll find they work together more productively and effectively.

You can get started by taking your own DISC assessment for free. You can also learn more about DISC and take advantage of all the other features, including a detailed team assessment that can be the springboard for improving your team’s online communication.

Communication & Interpersonal Skills

The Old-School Skill All Remote Workers Should Learn

When we think about the skills remote workers need to be successful, a lot of things come to mind: mad web presentation skills, the ability to sail through SharePoint like a swallow at Capistrano, and knowing how to appear on webcam without looking like the shadowy informant on a TV show are among them. But there is one old-school skill that seems to have been forgotten, and it can make your (and your team’s) life a lot easier: How to take a phone message.

A lot of you just rolled your eyes at that. For those of you who haven’t moved on to cat videos, hear me out. Why does taking a good phone message matter? After all, we have voicemail. When was the last time we actually TOOK a phone message? For half of you, when was the last time you actually used the phone to talk at all? Here’s why it matters.

It’s a frame of mind.

My mother was a secretary, back in the day when people were actually paid to answer the phone on behalf of someone else (yes, that was a thing.) She taught us there were five parts to taking a phone message, and woe betide any of us kids who didn’t do it properly, even at home.

Who called? (Mr. Johnson called)
Who did they want to speak to? (Wants to talk to Dad)
What time? (10:15)
What did they want? (Wants dad to call him at 555-545-1425. Says it’s important)
What action is supposed to be taken (and by when)? (Call him at the store before 5 o’clock.)

So what do we mean by “frame of mind?” Because whether you are taking a message or sending one, leaving a voicemail or a chat message, writing an email or trying to figure out what the heck someone is actually asking for, following this format will eliminate frustration and multiple messages.

Different media, same goal

Certainly Instant Messages have your name and even your face on them, and emails have time stamps, but the idea is the same. Every time you send a message, people should know:

Who are you and when did you reach out?
Who you are sending the message to (in the case of email, this can be multiple people, but it should be clear)?
What time did the message come in?
What is it you want? Be as specific as you can, so people can be prepared. There’s nothing worse than taking the time to return a message only to find there’s something else you need to do. Help people get what you need the first time!
What specifically are you asking for, and when do you need it?

Leaving a voicemail? Help people by giving them the information you need.

Sending an IM? What about this isn’t appropriate?

How many misunderstandings, delays or missed opportunities could be avoided if we developed the habit of leaving, writing and generally communicating with this format in mind?

Who knows? You might even have to take a phone message one day.

Email is still our most commonly used (and misused) method of communication. We’ve got an on-demand course, Writing and Managing E-mail that can help you make e-mail the time-saver and productivity-enhancer it was meant to be.

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.

Communication & Interpersonal Skills, Long-Distance Work

How to Combat Information Overload on Remote Teams

One of the great paradoxes of working remotely is this: getting good information out to all the team members in a timely manner is a time-consuming challenge, but rumors, gossip and bad information spread faster than hot butter. If you’re a manager, this can be frustrating. If you’re a remote employee, it can be tempting to take the first information you get and react immediately.

With that in mind, how exactly can you process information properly?

Lately I’ve been reading a number of books on critical thinking and managing the information overload we all face. Books like “Factfulness,” by Hans Rosling and “The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe,” by Steven Novella and his team have set out a number of rules to help sift truth from rumor, and take the emotion out of deciding which information is true and what’s just rumor.

I’ve been working really hard to apply some of these rules to avoid knee-jerk reactions to things I hear.

Here are some of the questions we need to ask ourselves:

Where did the information come from?

Do you know the original source of the information? Was it stated explicitly or is someone’s interpretation of the facts? (Assuming they are facts at all.)

How is your bias affecting your reaction to this information?

What’s your working relationship like with Bob? Are you always willing to believe the worst about his work? Is that based on actual job performance or the fact that he’s a Dallas Cowboys fan? We believe information that fits our assumptions and tend to ignore evidence that doesn’t comply with our world view.

Do you really understand the information, or does it just sound scary?

Many writers are warning us of a crisis of “innumeracy,” the inability to properly understand numbers, statistics, and financial information. I’m certainly guilty of this. Before responding to numbers ask yourself a number of questions including:

“What does “average” mean? When someone tells us the “average” of something it could be hiding a wide range of data.
“When someone says ‘most of you’, does that really mean anything? A majority might be 90% or 51%. There’s a huge difference between those two numbers, but we often respond to the word “most” emotionally.
What is that number compared to? If someone says “we’re a quarter million dollars short,” that can sound ominous. If your budget is a million dollars, that’s a very big deal. If it’s ten million, it’s bad but not the end of the world. Do you really know what the numbers mean?
How many sources did you check before passing the news on yourself? Yes, this is kind of a subset of “where did you get the information from,” but that was about getting the information in the first place. Answering this question is necessary before passing information on or taking drastic action. You don’t want to be part of the problem.

Working remotely by definition limits the amount of information we receive and the sources from which it comes. Don’t be too quick to respond to everything you hear, and slow your roll on passing information on before you’ve actually checked the sources and understood what the information actually means.

Have you ever heard gossip or information and over-reacted before truly understanding or vetting it? We’d love to hear about it in the comments. Help someone else avoid these traps.

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.

Communication & Interpersonal Skills, Personal & Professional Development, Video

Your Biggest Communication Mistake – Remarkable TV

We all make lots of mistakes in communication. But there is one in particular that has the biggest negative impact on our communication success.

I’m sharing four simple questions that you can ask to help avoid this most common communication mistake in the video below.

Tweet it out: If you want your message heard understood and remembered, start with your audience, not the message. @KevinEikenberry

From This Episode:

Learn more and sign up for our FREE video leadership program, 13 Days to Remarkable Leadership, here.

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