Offering feedback to people who aren’t located with you can be complicated. Should you send an email or get on the phone? Do you need to set up a zoom call, or will a quick shout-out on Slack get the job done? And why do they act like you’ve never told them something before when you said it just the other day? Maybe we need to think backwards when we consider offering feedback … [Read more...]
Making Communication More than a Transaction
One of the phrases we use a lot around here is, “When working remotely, communication can become transactional.” Seriously, I was on our site and searched for “transactional,” and found over 20 references. And it's not just a catch phrase. This is a real phenomenon. What’s also true is that a significant number of people follow up with a reasonable question: “Huh? What does … [Read more...]
What’s in a Word?
by Kevin Eikenberry As I look ahead at the murky future of work, I know that words and how we choose them will play a role in what unfolds and how successful we are. Here are some examples. The Words We’ve Chosen When organizations sent their people to “work from home,” for many that became the phrase they used. On social media hashtags like #Workfromhome and #WFH were … [Read more...]
Is It OK to Turn Off Your Webcam?
Is it okay to turn your webcam off in the middle of a team call? That seems like a reasonable question, but it always seems to get people worked up. It should be a binary answer: yes or no. But the real answers are "sometimes," and "it depends." We all know the pros and cons of using webcams: The human brain is wired for visual communication. We crave seeing the other … [Read more...]
Where Does Mistrust Come From?
One of the great paradoxes of remote work is that it requires a lot of trust, yet that trust is hard to build at a distance and easily damaged. Most of us start out assuming positive intent, and that we trust in people until they show us they're more deserving of mistrust. At worst, we take a wait-and-see attitude. As we point out in both The Long-Distance Leader and … [Read more...]