Remote work advocates are generally a pretty positive bunch. If you listen long enough, they are going to save the planet, restore sanity to our work schedules, and save us all a boatload of money. If you ask people who work from home, even part-time, why they like it, inevitably the first thing they’ll cite is the lack of a morning commute. But is driving to work really so … [Read more...]
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 … [Read more...]
Getting Along Isn’t Rocket Science
Because next year is the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon, (and because I’m old enough to remember the actual event) I recently read James R. Hansen’s terrific biography of Neil Armstrong, First Man. It was fascinating on many levels, but one of the most intriguing things for someone who studies team dynamics is that the crew of Apollo 11 were not particularly … [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...]
Loneliness and the Remote Employee
A recent survey by Cigna found that nearly half of Americans report sometimes or always feeling lonely or left out. One in four Americans (27 percent) rarely or never feel as though there are people who really understand them, while about half of the surveyed population have meaningful in person social interactions. Two in five Americans sometimes or always feel that their … [Read more...]