By Wayne Turmel Working from home often means staying out of a lot of noise and drama that take place in the office or co-located workplace. That can be a blessing, to be sure. But sometimes silence can be ominous. In fact, being left too much to our own devices can be one sign that

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By Kevin Eikenberry Almost everyone has worked for a micromanager at some point. You know the type who insists on signing off on everything, who wants you to document your every move, who requests ridiculously long status and progress reports, and who basically dictates how employees should do their work. I never understood why a leader

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By Wayne Turmel When people are new to leading remote teams, the most frequently asked question we get is, “How do you know they’re really working?” It seems like a reasonable question at first; after all, that’s why you’re paying them, and you want to be sure the goals are being met and tasks achieved

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What’s the difference between over-communicating with your remote team, and micromanaging? Wayne Turmel, co-founder of the Remote Leadership Institute, offers feedback and tips for knowing when and how often to communicate with team members who work outside the office.   http://kevineikenberry.wistia.com/medias/f7k6q3qqn0?embedType=iframe&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640   Now, we’d love to hear from you! How much do you communicate with your

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By Wayne Turmel Coaching is a critical part of our job as leaders. It’s also (if we’re really honest with ourselves) part of the job that too often gets ignored amid just trying to get the darned work done. As with so much, the fact that we aren’t co-located shouldn’t make our job harder (after

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by Wayne Turmel I don’t have to break out the latest Gallup poll or some other survey to convince you that meetings, at least most of them, can be a giant waste of time. Whether it’s lack of preparation, unruly participants or some other issue, most meetings fall short. For leaders of virtual employees, the

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This is a guest post by Gregg Thompson, author of  THE MASTER COACH: Leading with Character, Building Connections, and Engaging in Extraordinary Conversations. The case for coaching has been made. Coaching is recognized as a critical competency for leaders from organizations of all sizes and industries. Today, and into the foreseeable future, one of the

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By Wayne Turmel All managers—heck all people—are worried about making the best use of their time. We try to save minutes here and there, hoping it will result in higher productivity and eventually, less stress. One of the ways we do this is to be very intentional about not wasting time on meetings with anything

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Email is great, but sometimes a phone call is … called for. Being mindful and determining which communication tools to use in specific situations is a critical part of any manager’s job. In this video, we’ll share four questions that you can ask to help you make that decision. http://kevineikenberry.wistia.com/medias/fxd7u7v7uf?embedType=iframe&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640   One time when using email is

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By Wayne Turmel If you’re new to leadership or have been leading in a traditional team (everyone more-or-less in one place at one time), managing a team with remote members, even if it’s only people who telework a couple of days a week, can seem like an entirely new challenge. While parts of the job

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