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...]
Help Others to Help You Succeed
Are you training your remote teammates to get in the way of your productivity? Of all the discussions we have in our classes with long-distance workers, one of the most fruitful is when we talk about how we teach our coworkers and manager to work with us and help us succeed. Sometimes, however, they learn behaviors that are counterproductive. It sounds crazy but stick with … [Read more...]
Listening with More than Your Ears
We all know that active listening is the key to being a great communicator. But when you aren’t face to face, and have to rely on tools like email, chat, and webcams this can get tricky. After all, can you “listen” to an email? Yes you can, and you know it. Have you ever read a text message or email, and thought, “Man, she sounds ticked off.” Well she didn’t “sound” … [Read more...]
Setting Up Guardrails For Working Remotely
Whether you’re a leader with a title or just someone working remotely trying to do your best, odds are you have a hard time disconnecting from your work. Remote workers, especially those who are new to it (which is an LOT of us since March), report that their biggest challenge is constantly being sucked into work-related emails, text messages and projects when they should be … [Read more...]
Why Technology Fatigue Sets in So Fast
When we work remotely, technology is our lifeline. You’d think we’d be grateful for the ability to see each other when we’re not in the same office, or send our written messages around the world at the speed of light. Instead we tell anyone who’ll listen that the volume of email is interfering with our work. Most of us have only been using Zoom for three or four months, and … [Read more...]