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...]
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...]
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...]
Long-Distance Leaders: How Much Do You Trust Your Team?
by Chuck Chapman, Content Strategy Coordinator It's sad, but it's true. Some leaders view their employees more like children than professionals. In their minds, if they aren't watching every second, work won't get done. And don't even think about allowing people to work off-site or remotely. How in the world will any work get completed without the expert "supervision" … [Read more...]