Here’s a question I bet you’ve never been asked before: What would happen to your team’s work if the boss suddenly wound up dead in a pickle barrel? This is kind of a morbid (okay, downright weird) question, but on remote teams we seldom have a good plan in place for who does what if something major happens. And there’s a historical lesson here for why succession planning is … [Read more...]
Is 2019 the Year You Plan for Remote Work?
Can you believe it’s 2019 already? For some of us, that was a year we only thought possible in science fiction movies; but ready or not, it’s here. For many of the clients we’ve talked to, it’s finally time to quit dealing with remote work as something aside from their normal planning, and to make it a standard part of how things get done in their companies. The truth is if … [Read more...]
Good Coaching Matters, No Matter Where Your Team Is
When we talk to managers around the world about what they feel they could improve on, the one area they all say they could improve on is “coaching.” It’s hard to do and doesn’t come naturally to many of us. So, it seems a bit like piling-on to point out that the odds are pretty good you do a better job coaching the people you share a workplace with than you do with the ones who … [Read more...]
Are Credentials Still Important?
by Chuck Chapman, Content Strategy Coordinator Bill Gates majored in pre-law at Harvard and spent much of his time taking math classes and noodling around in the school's computer lab. He left school after two years. With no credentials, he founded Microsoft, and you know the rest of the story. While you might not achieve Bill Gates levels of accomplishment, success in … [Read more...]
Why “Why” Is the Most Important Question for Long-Distance Leaders
As long-distance leaders (or, heck, any kind of leader) we should ask a lot of questions. For many of us, the inability to see activity and output with our own eyes means we need to get that information in other ways. Leaders often talk about the “5 Ws “ of asking questions in order to make sure we’re getting what we need. But one of those words gets a lot less use than the … [Read more...]