Thinking Remote

When objectives are well defined, trust is maintained, and everyone communicates effectively and appropriately – they will not get hung-up on needing to be seen to be ‘busy’ while working remotely. They can just enjoy being truly productive and effective.

f you use shared tools – for example, a Kanban-style board such as Trello or Planner – it’s easy to maintain an overview of what you are working on, which anyone can examine if they want to see the status of something

remote working can greatly improve productivity and focus, especially on deep work tasks.

How truly two-way is the process, and are we all comfortable giving and receiving feedback in both directions – speaking ‘truth to power’ and asking for help where we need it?

Do this to review your process, not necessarily your results. Answer questions such as:

Is communication effective?
Do you feel supported?
Are there any blocks you constantly come across?

During the conversation, the team member reports on:

three things they have done well
two areas or skills which need improvement
one way in which the team lead and organisation can support them.
Finally, the ‘Oh’ brings one or two sentences on what they are most excited or grateful for in the organisation, and how they would like to develop their career.

The most important thing about these one-to-ones is that they are regular, even if sometimes they only last five minutes. It is important for both of you to know that you have a slot where you can have uncomfortable conversations when you need to, rather than expecting a problem to be flagged every time that a one-to-one meeting is called

Grant – a professor of management at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania – went on to describe how he gathers anonymous feedback asynchronously from his students, focusing on “constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement”. He then emails the full set of suggestions to the entire class and summarises the findings in the next session, inviting more feedback on his interpretation of the suggestions, as well as telling the students how he proposes to address the issues raised

a good working relationship will always bring with it difficult moments

Building an environment where spontaneous interactions can take place goes a long way towards building strong relationships