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...]
Teaching People to Push Back
Do the people on your remote team do pretty much everything you ask, without asking questions? Do you get very little push back when you assign them tasks? That might sound like manager’s dream, but it can be a sign of a problem lurking under the surface. How can people doing what they’re told be a bad thing? Very often our requests have unintended consequences. If we aren’t … [Read more...]
Coaching and Feedback at a Distance
When we talk to leaders of teams, the one part of the job most feel they could do a better job of is coaching their people. This feeling of “not quite being as good as we could be” is heightened when we work remotely from the people we should be developing. On the surface this requires frequent, targeted, purposeful conversations. You can have those remotely, so why does … [Read more...]
Sorting Out the Voices in Your Head
It's not unusual for Long-Distance Leaders to spend a lot of time alone. Now that you no longer share an office with anyone, your actual human conversations have likely diminished. That means the voices in your head might be the most common voices you hear. No, you're not crazy. We all have those voices guiding us and helping us process questions and find solutions. It’s … [Read more...]