There’s a lot of talk today about company culture and the effects of people working remotely, or in whatever hybrid way they’ve assembled themselves to get the work done. Primarily organizations and teams are asking if we can be the kind of connected, productive, engaging workplace we want to be without being in close physical proximity. The question is important. It also … [Read more...]
Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Remote Leader
What does leading a remote team have to do with Sherlock Holmes? Whether you play the violin, smoke a pipe or enjoy deerstalker hats or not, there’s one important similarity. Most of the time, when something goes wrong, we don’t witness it ourselves and have to find out what happened. I am a big fan of “the Wizard of Baker Street” (That’s me with his statue in London this … [Read more...]
What Can We Learn from IBM’s Work from Home Pledge
In May of 2020, IBM polled thousands of its workers about how they can make work from home work. How do the ideas put forward work two and a half years later? First, let’s take a look at the key points of the “pledge” the company created for its employees based on their findings. You can (and probably should) read the whole thing here, but here are the 8 key points (the … [Read more...]
Displaying Empathy While Maintaining Standards
A few weeks back, I was leading a class on How Leaders Create and Manage Remote and Hybrid Teams. Two of the participants got into a heated exchange that was very instructive. It raised a good question: When does empathy towards your team members get in the way of managing performance? One of the participants said how much he liked seeing people when they worked from home … [Read more...]
Five Ways to Manage and Lead Better in a Virtual World
by Angie Morgan You can lead without being a manager. You can manage without being a leader. Leadership is always a choice. Choose to lead. I’ve managed, I’ve led, and I’ve coached managers who’ve aspired to be stronger leaders. I can distill my experience and advice down to five simple things that I think every manager, at any stage of their career, can benefit from … [Read more...]