Becoming a Virtual Meeting Guru

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It has been one year since many leaders were forced to shift to frequent use of virtual platforms for meetings. It is likely that everyone has at one point this year felt “zoomed out”. Perhaps we have facilitated meetings that made us wonder if attendees were actively paying attention behind their screen or simply scrolling through their email. When poorly run, remote meetings are more susceptible to poor attendance, lower attention span and less efficient discussion than meetings held in person. It is easier for attendees to “check out” of virtual meetings to work on something else while the meeting is happening. It is much harder to “check out” when meeting face-to-face because everyone would see you playing with your phone during the meeting.  Meetings held via virtual platforms are more susceptible to participant disengagement and require more diligence to avoid this pitfall.

Meetings held remotely also have their benefits. Attendees are participating at their workstation as opposed to going to a physical meeting room, and this means that they can easily access relevant documents from their computer during a meeting or move between meetings through a few clicks of a button, saving on valuable workday time. The key to running effective remote meetings is proper planning and organization. This blog will explore our best practices to run effective virtual meetings.

Establish a Clear Purpose for Your Meetings  

The need for establishing a clear purpose for every meeting has always been important.  However, when meetings move to a virtual environment, clarity of purpose is critical. A clear understanding of why participants are coming together will not only help you better plan out your meeting agenda but will also help them better prepare and contribute during the discussion. In our experience, there are three basic types of meeting.  They are categorized according to their end goal. They are:  

  • IS – Information Sharing: The goal of this type of meeting is to educate participants on information relevant to their roles.  The meeting should be set up to ensure that participants are able to ask questions to ensure understanding of the information being conveyed.
  • DI – Discussion Items Requiring Input: This type of meetings provides participants with the opportunity to provide input on a particular topic.  These types of discussions usually precede decision making.  The purpose is to maximize the pool of information that will be used to make a decision. 
  • DM – Decision to be Made: For this type of meeting, participants focus on making a decision. A critical component of success for the decision-making meeting is to have the decision maker(s) in the meeting.  We have encountered countless situations where the meeting organizer told participants that the purpose of the meeting was to make a decision, only to find out at the end of the discussion that the decision maker was not at the meeting.  This often causes significant delays, frustration and re-hashing of the same discussion.

Meetings can focus on one of the three categories or can have different parts that fit different categories (i.e. part of the meeting focuses on Input on an important topic and another part of the meeting involves decision making). During the planning of the meeting, it is important to decide which category each part of your meeting falls under. Knowing the end goal of your meeting will help you identify who should and should not attend.  Also, once you have decided on the type of meeting you are holding, you can communicate this to participants ahead of time so that they understand the focus and expectations of their role in the meeting.

Invite the Right Attendees

After you establish a clear purpose, invite only those people who can meaningfully contribute to, or benefit from, the meeting’s end goal. If the purpose is information sharing, invite only participants that would find the subject matter directly relevant to their role. Aim for all information shared to be relevant to at least 50% of meeting attendees. If the meeting purpose is to come to a decision, make sure that all relevant decision-makers are invited and present before beginning the meeting. For discussion input meetings, you can widen the participation pool beyond decision-makers to those that can provide additional relevant information. Avoid unnecessary participants from attending meetings by asking two questions:

  1. What value does this participant get from the meeting?
  2. What value does this participant give to this meeting?

If there is not a clear answer to both of these two questions, then attending the meeting is likely not the best use of their time and they should not be invited.  Similarly, if there are people who get value from and/or give value to the meeting purpose, they should be included on the invitation list.  Most importantly, if you are the organizer of the meeting, your invitees should know what you expect of them as you think about the answer to the two questions above.

Choose the Right Platform

The communication platform you use for your virtual meeting is another important factor to consider when planning your meetings. The more complex or sensitive the meeting agenda is the richer the communication platform should be. Richer communication platforms incorporate multiple senses (i.e. audio and visual) incorporating more than just words with tone and body language cues. Use platforms that have video capability (i.e., Zoom, MS Teams, WebEx, Google Meet, GoTo Meeting, etc.) for complex/sensitive meetings and leave more routine topics for audio conference calls.  This will be covered in more detail in a future blog on virtual communication tips.

Use Your Meeting Time Wisely

Get the most out of your meeting time by preparing in advance.  Begin by writing out all of your agenda topics and allocate a time range to each (i.e, 5-10 mins). Be mindful of how many agenda items you include as they will often take longer than expected to complete and it is important to end on time.  As part of your planning, assign priority levels to your meeting topics so that you can skip over lower priority items if you find yourself running short on time. Respect the time of your attendees by arriving fully prepared, a few minutes early. If possible, it is beneficial to end the meeting a few minutes before the hour or half-hour to help participants transition to their next commitment or scheduled meeting. Remember the adage – those who fail to plan, plan to fail.

Key Insights

Meetings in a virtual environment highlights the need for proper preparation. Begin by establishing a clear purpose for your meeting and communicate this with all attendees. Ensure all your meeting attendees have a clear role to play in the end goal of your meeting. Choose your communication platform based on the nature of the topics and feedback from participants. Organize your agenda items by time and priority level and respect the agreed-upon meeting start/end time. Proper preparation will not only make remote meeting more efficient which will save time in the long run by requiring fewer meetings to achieve the desired end goal.

The Author

David Town, CHRL, ACC, is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effective leadership of virtual teams. David is a member of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA), the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is Co-Founder and Principal of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc.

Effective Communication Strategies for Virtual Teams

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The better a team communicates, the more effectively it can operate and maximize results. This is especially true for remote teams that do not have the ability to communicate in person. There are key adjustments that should be made when managing a team remotely to keep an optimal level of communication. This blog will explore actionable steps team leaders can take today to develop their team communication.

Establish a Rhythm to Your Virtual Meeting Schedule

The first action you can take to enhance team communication is to establish a schedule of agreed-upon times for your remote meetings. Team members working remotely will often have a greater variance in their daily work schedules compared to working in the same physical work environment. As a result, it is unrealistic to expect full attendance from all team members if you regularly hold spontaneous team meetings. By establishing regular meetings well in advance, you will ensure full attendance and engagement from those you manage. At Virtual Leadership Matters, we recommend that managers outline a strategy with respect to the communication platform used for various meetings. When the complexity and emotional sensitivity are high, a video call platform such as Zoom should be used for these meetings.  Having said that, not all meetings need to be on a video platform. Conference calls work very well – particularly for short check-in meetings where participants can access the meeting using a phone as opposed to need to be at a computer.

Establish Structure to Meetings

Once a schedule is established, structure your meetings in a way that makes the best use of everyone’s time. When including the whole team, ensure that the purpose of your team meeting is to communicate with the whole team and not just one or two team members at a time. Prepare for your meetings ahead of time by creating a meeting agenda that is relevant to everyone attending. If a team member feels that the meeting material is not relevant to them, they will often lose interest and place their attention on other tasks or may begin “multi-tasking” in the background. This can result in participants missing important information when the meeting agenda returns to a topic of relevance to them. Running meetings where attendees are not truly present or engaged is a poor use of time and energy. As a rule of thumb seek to make all material discussed relevant to at least 50% of attendees for any given topic.

 Prioritize Team Purpose

Team purpose is a topic we recommend including in every virtual team meeting. Team purpose outlines the overarching objective that team members share and that directs their efforts. Without a clear understanding of purpose, the efforts of team members may be dispersed in different directions and may result in poor team performance. Clarity around purpose is one of the first things to devolve when a team begins working remotely. This is in part because managers will likely have fewer interactions with team members throughout the day. It is impossible to “manage by walking around” when leading a virtual team, so team purpose must be continually communicated during scheduled team meetings. Our previous blog offers a more in-depth look into purpose HERE .

Creating Norms for Communication

Another tip for increasing the effectiveness of team communications is to establish communication norms for team members to follow while working from home. A great way to start this process is to introduce an email charter for your team. An email charter outlines best practices for email correspondence between team members. Here are a few potential items to include in your team’s charter:

  • Constructing clear email subject lines
  • Reduce the number of “CC’s” by only including recipients that are absolutely necessary
  • Eliminate responses that lack new content that adds value
  • Avoid using “reply all” unless all recipients have an action as a result of the communication  
  • Schedule blocks of time for your emails and disconnect for periods of uninterrupted work.

Involve your team members in the development of this charter for additional ideas and come to mutual agreement on the guidelines. Lead by example in your email correspondence and recommunicate these expectations on occasion during team meetings.

You should also set expectations around when to use other communication platforms. Team members will come to you with many topics, some mundane and others complex. As mentioned earlier, we recommend using more engaging channels such as video or audio calls when discussing complex/sensitive topics and leave email for more mundane matters. Use your judgment and input from team members to find what works best and make changes when you feel that team members may be “burnt out” on the use of one particular platform. 

You may also consider setting communication norms based on the ideal timing that enables the recipient to focus on the communication. An email or call may be better received and processed by the recipient at 9 am compared to 5 pm. Hold a discussion with team members to identify periods in which they are unable to take a call or read an email. After you have a good sense of the team’s work schedules look for optimal times that are best to send and receive emails, calls, etc. This information will impact your decisions on the rhythm of the meeting scheduled discussed earlier.

Lastly, identify an urgent communication platform to use when you need to connect to someone ASAP. We recommend avoiding the use of email as the platform for urgent messages for two reasons. First, emails are not necessarily continuously monitored and there is a risk of greater delays in response time. Setting up a system that expects team members to continuously monitor emails can have a significant negative impact on personal productivity because individuals are constantly distracted by emails. Secondly, a team member’s email inbox likely has more messages than other communication channels (i.e. phone) making it more difficult to find the really urgent messages amongst all of the unread messages.  It is like throwing a needle into a haystack and expecting people to see it right away. Have a discussion with team members to find the channel that makes the most sense (i.e. phone, text, internal messaging, etc.) and commit to answering all communication from that platform as quickly as possible.

Key insights

Maintaining team communication is an essential task for team leaders managing teams that work remotely. To develop remote team communication, start by setting regular meeting times that work for all schedules. Cover only material that is relevant to attendees and include team purpose as one of your high-priority topics for every agenda. Set communication standards for sending emails and pick another platform for more urgent/complex topics. Involve team members in discussion throughout this process and use feedback to make adjustments where necessary.

The Author

David Town, CHRL, ACC, is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effective leadership of virtual teams. David is a member of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA), the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is Co-Founder and Principal of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc.

Leadership Excellence Built on Commitment, Empowerment and Smiles!

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In my previous blog I outline a model called “The Compliance Control Trap™” that is based on “old school” leadership principles where the leader tells people how to do their work and then monitors them to ensure that they are compliant in following the directions.   I pointed out that this a “trap” because it works. Even though it works, it is not very effective, particularly when leading people who work remotely on a virtual team. So, even though control-oriented leadership works (sort of), there is still a need to adopt a different approach to leadership that is much more effective in achieving greater commitment and productivity.  The more effective approach to leadership is called “The Commitment Empowerment Model™”.

The Commitment Empowerment Model™

The Commitment Empowerment Model™ up is a leadership style that draws on relationship-based sources of power and influence to get things done.  The leader builds positive relationships, fosters trust, builds capability in others, provides feedback and role models performance excellence.  They lead with “soft skills” and emotional intelligence.  It is important to note that soft skills are focused on treating people respectfully.  Unfortunately, I have encountered leaders who perceive the use of “soft skills” as being weak.   This couldn’t be further from the truth.  I worked for one CEO who told me “soft skills don’t mean soft expectations”.  He had very high expectations for his team and achieved stellar results.  We worked very hard for him and were happy to do it.  If you weren’t making the grade, he would tell you without crushing your spirit or attacking your self-esteem.

Focus on “What” not “How”

Another important aspect of the Commitment Empowerment Model™ is that the leader focuses on clearly explaining the goals and desired outcomes of an activity or task.  They build commitment to those outcomes by involving the people they lead in developing strategies to achieve the outcomes.  In simple terms, they focus on what to achieve vs. how to do things.  The goal of the leader is to empower people wherever possible.  The concept of empowerment has been around for quite some time and yet I’m not sure it is as well understood as it could be.  The word “power” is imbedded in the concept of empowerment.  One way to understand power is to relate it to authority and decision-making.  In an organization, an employee’s power is based on a combination of their freedom to make decisions and the level of impact of the decisions.  A senior leader who has the authority to make million-dollar decisions on their own certainly has a lot more power than someone who is given the authority to make decisions up to fifty thousand dollars before they have to ask for permission from someone who has more decision-making authority (power).  It’s also important to note that the authority should not be given to someone who has not gained the competence to make independent decisions at the level of authority being given. 

Build Competence, Share Authority

So, empowerment is about building competence and sharing authority.  Leaders who embrace the Commitment Empowerment Model™ build competence and delegate decision-making authority to the people that work for them.  This results in much higher levels of accountability, commitment and productivity.  It is important to note use of the word “sharing” when talking about delegating authority.  Many leaders have told me that they are reluctant to empower people because they don’t want to lose control.  When the mindset is stuck on giving away control, it can be difficult to change.  There needs to be a shift in mindset from losing control to sharing control.  This is made easier by building competence and trust in the people you share it with.  The more control an employee has with respect to making their own decisions on how to achieve the results that the leader wants, the more likely that they will be committed to achieving those results.   One other barrier to sharing is the oft-used excuse “none of my people are ready (aka I don’t trust them)”.  Ok – whose fault is that?  If this is your explanation, then you should be committed to explaining why no one is ready.  As James Belasco said in his book “Flight of the Buffalo”, if you are pointing one finger away from yourself placing the blame on others, you are likely also point three fingers at yourself and there is a three-to-one chance that’s where the real accountability lies.  Read the book.  It’ll help.

Better Use of Time

Empowering people also has positive impact on a leader’s ability to manage time.  If the leader is always spending time answering questions are giving permission, there may be little time left to focus on more strategic tasks that add greater value.  Leaders should be spending time “on the business” not “in the business”.  When employees have the competence and authority to make good decisions without having to always check with the leader, the leader has more freedom to make better choices with respect to how to spend their time.  Of course, you want to schedule check in conversations to provide the employees you have empowered, to update you on all the good things that they have achieved.  Remember focus on results not activities.

A Better Tool

In my last blog, for leaders stuck in the Compliance Control Trap™, I promised a more in-depth explanation of a better tool for leadership. So, there you have it – the “Commitment Empowerment Model™” is a better leadership approach.  For leaders who manage remote workers and virtual teams, shifting to this style of leadership is critical in order to achieve greater employee commitment and productivity.  

As always, I welcome your feedback. You can connect with me via email or telephone or leave a comment right here on the site.

Until next time,

Dave

The Author

David Town, CHRL, ACC, is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effective leadership of virtual teams. David is a member of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA), the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is Co-Founder and Principal of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc.

Control-Oriented Leadership . . . It’s a Trap!

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Old School Leadership Principles

As with most Baby Boomers, I had have had bosses who ascribed to the “old school” legacy leadership practice of command and control.  The approach taken by these leaders – past and present – seems to suggest that they believe that success comes from exerting positional power, coercive power and hard tactics.  Their approach is designed to ensure that the people they are leading achieve the results by following their instructions.  They micromanage how things get done and control most or all of the decisions because they don’t’ really trust people to make good choices on their own believing that success comes from telling them what to do.   This leadership style focuses on maintaining control on how things are done and forcing people to simply obey the instructions that are given.  I call this “The Compliance Control Trap™”.

Understanding What Drives Command and Control Leadership

If we try to understand why leaders choose to lead this way, we can surmise that part of the reason may be based on ego.  This is where the leader believe that they are the most knowledgeable person for the task they need done, so everyone needs to do it their way.  No innovation, no new ideas – my way or the highway.  Part of the reason may be fear that things won’t get done “right” unless they maintain full control on how it gets done.   It’s also possible that they just don’t know any other way to do things, they don’t trust others to do it as well or better and their approach gets results.  That’s the rub. The “Compliance Control Trap™” gets results.  The problem is that the results are not nearly as good as they would be if they used a more inspiring and empowering leadership approach.   Many leaders use a controlling type approach that works without fully understanding that a much better approach is available. For them it can be very difficult to give up what works for something better. They are challenged by questions such as:  Can I do this another way?  What if I fail?  The answer for them may be:   I can’t give up control because I am accountable.

Consequences of Being Too Directive

In the previous paragraph, I stated that the “Compliance Control Trap™” gets results.  The challenge for leaders managing people who work remotely is that this approach will be far less effective than it was in a face-to-face in-person environment.   A recent article on the impact of micromanaging outlined the negative implications of being overly directive.   The key to unlocking greater productivity is to let go of the need to tell people what to do.  It goes on to say that leaders who focus on monitoring employee activity risk damaging the relationship and perceptions of trust which will further erode productivity.   Leaders who manage remote teams need to find a better way.

A Better Way

Comparing the notion of doing what works “the old school way” when there are “better tools”, can be illustrated by my experience at making mashed potatoes.  When I was growing up, I was responsible for helping out in the kitchen.   One job that I really enjoyed doing was making mashed potatoes.  I would cut up the potatoes into chunks and boil them in water.  When the potatoes had boiled long enough to become soft, I would get the potato masher, which was a hand utensil that enabled me mash the soft potato chunks.  As progress was made mashing the potatoes, I would grab a fork and add a bit of milk and butter to make the potatoes a bit fluffier.  I used a fork because it was difficult to blend the milk and butter with the potato masher.  It was sometimes tough sledding with the fork due to the density of the mashed potatoes and inevitably there were small chunks of potato that didn’t get mashed well enough.  Nonetheless, everyone enjoyed the mashed potatoes I made (which is why I was able to keep that job!).  Years go by and along comes an electric hand mixer.  Wow what an improvement.  It takes less than half the time, there are rarely any chunks, I don’t have to switch to a fork and I am now able to blend in a little bit of creamed cheese for an even more heavenly batch of mashed potatoes.  So, what’s my point?  The old potato masher worked – but – although the power mixer was a bigger up-front expense, it achieves much better results.  You may be reading this and saying to yourself “using a power mixer is obvious”.  That’s true.  The “Compliance Control Trap™” is a hand masher that needs to be put away so that better tools can be used.  Let’s make it just as obvious.

The Commitment Empowerment Model™”

The better tool for leadership is called the “Commitment Empowerment Model™” where the leader believes in sharing their authority and trusting people to achieve results without being micromanaged.  For leaders who manage remote workers and virtual teams, shifting to this style of leadership is critical in order to achieve greater employee commitment and productivity.   I’ll describe this model in more detail in my next blog.

As always, I welcome your feedback. You can connect with me and I’d love to hear from you.

Until next time,

Dave

The Author

David Town, CHRL, ACC, is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effective leadership of virtual teams. David is a member of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA), the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is Co-Founder and Principal of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc.

Maximizing Personal Productivity – Staying Ahead of the Curve and Shifting the Time Management Mindset

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Does it seem like you need to constantly check your smart phone and you feel overwhelmed by too many emails, too many texts, too many phone calls, too many interruptions and the feeling of not having enough time? Then you need to invest a few minutes of time to find out about “Maximizing Personal Productivity – How to Stay Ahead of the Curve”.  This blog will introduce some simple truths that will help you manage your workload more effectively and spend more time on the things that will maximize your productivity.

Maximizing Personal Productivity starts by exploring the mindset and the process required to take control of how you spend your time in order to achieve the goals you really want and need to achieve.

Time Management: Time is a Fixed Resource

Mindset, can be defined as “a set of beliefs or attitudes that a person holds”.  For decades the concept of personal productivity has been primarily labelled “time management”.  This has led people to think of managing time as a resource in the same way you would manage other resources like finances.  The flaw in this comparison is that time is a fixed resource.  Money is not.  Financial management can involve borrowing extra money to spend now or saving money to spend later. There may be times when you have absolutely no money and no capacity to immediately get any.  Time on that other hand is not a resource to be managed in the same way finances are.  There is always time – it’s just that it is a fixed amount every day, and you have to spend it. 

There is No Such Thing as “I Don’t Have Time”

Let me give you an example of how the mindset issue comes into play with leaders and managers who have very challenging workloads. When questioned by a boss or colleague why they didn’t do something that the other person expected them to do, the answer is often “I didn’t have time”.  This answer seems to somehow suggest that the problem is external to the person and is due to a lack of a resource.  If you don’t have any money, then you can use that as an excuse for not spending.  It is a lack of resource issue.  With time, you have 24 hours every day.  There is no such thing as “I didn’t have time”.   The reality is that you didn’t choose to take the time for that task.

“I decided to take time do something other than…”

Think of it this way, if your spouse asks you to pick up some things from the grocery store on your way home from work and you arrive home empty handed, it seems easier to say “I didn’t have time to go to the store”.  The more truthful answer is “I decided to take time do something other than go to the store”.  Although that answer could have you sleeping on the couch, it is really what has happened.  Now, if the reason that you didn’t decide to take time to go to the store was that you needed to complete a report for the CEO where you work, that – if not completed – could change the trajectory of your career, you may have an easier time explaining your choice to your spouse.

How You Spend Your Time is a Choice

The point in all of this is that how you spend your time is a choice.  If you want to maximize your personal productivity, you need to adopt a mindset that it’s all about how you choose to spend a fixed resource. It’s your choice. 

When I present this scenario to clients, it often results in a response such as “my boss tells me what to do and I don’t really have any choice. I have to work at least 10 hours a day to get it all done.”  What I find is that when we explore decision-making process for spending time, the client has more discretion than they think.  There is always room for improvement.  However, in some cases the client really has taken on a job that has a volume of work that is so onerous that they feel they can’t do other things that are important to them.  If you find yourself in a situation like this, you need to recognize that the choice to stay in that kind job is ultimately what needs to be evaluated. It’s a choice.  Sometimes our big decisions lead to feeling like we have no control over the little decisions.

Develop this Mindset to Make the Best Choices

In summary, developing the mindset of “how I spend my time is a choice” leads to the opportunity to employ a process and strategy for making the best choices possible with respect to how you spend your time.  This will enable you to manage your workload more effectively and spend more time on the things you want to spend time on.

Once you change your mindset, you will be able to follow a simple (not necessarily easy) process to master the decisions you make regarding your workflow and how you spend you time to Maximize Personal Productivity.   Check out our webpage Maximizing Personal Productivity and sign up for the two-session virtual training program on “Maximizing Your Personal Productivity” that will give you the tools to achieve the goals that are most important to you.

As always, I welcome your feedback. You can connect with me via email or telephone or leave a comment right here on the site.

Until next time,

Dave

The Author

David Town, CHRL, ACC, is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effective leadership of virtual teams. David is a member of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA), the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is Co-Founder and Principal of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc.

The Two sides of Remote Working

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The Desire to Work Remotely

Most of us are six months into social distancing and the remote working that goes with it.  Don’t let the working from home dishearten you, there are many benefits, which is why so many workers have adapted to it since the arrival of COVID-19.   A study by Zapier found that 74% of people would be willing to quit their job to work remotely and another study by Buffer found that 98% of remote workers would like to continue doing so, at least some of the time, for the rest of their career.  Accordingly, 97% would recommend remote working to others and up to 70% were happy with the amount of time they worked remotely.

The Benefits of Working Remotely

The most cited reasons for satisfaction for remote workers included the ability to have a flexible schedule (32%), flexibility to work from anywhere (26%), not having to commute (21%).  And, employers have referenced a range of benefits they are keen on too; increased employee engagement, boosted organizational efficiency, improved organizational flexibility, ability to hire from a wider talent pool,  more resiliency in the face of issues that can compromise on-site working (natural disasters or illnesses), decreased commutes which adds up to lower stress and transportation costs and in some cases improved employee productivity.  A study by Stanford found that employees are far more productive when working from home than when working from the office.  All summed up these benefits certainly can make employers and employees happier.

The Drawbacks of Working Remotely

For the reasons listed above there may be a strong preference for remote work above and beyond the obvious safety fundamentals associated with COVID-19.  However, there is another side to it with drawbacks that need to be considered.

  • Less social interaction. Workers have less social interaction with their coworkers, which is why it is important to keep them engaged. Introverts may prefer the social distance, but a lack of social interaction can lead to other problems
  • Decreased oversight. Managing remote workers is certainly possible, and some businesses have done very well operating entirely remotely. However, since workers are not physically located in the same place, managers must attempt to focus on outcome-based performance management as opposed to activity checking.  This is a whole different management style to assume.
  • Decreased ability to concentrate. When working from home, family members or pets can often prove distracting. 
  • Increased feelings of isolation and loneliness. Working alone, instead of in an office with others, can quickly transform feelings of solitude into feelings of isolation and loneliness which has an  emotional impact.

Addressing the Drawbacks of Working Remotely

Fortunately, most of the drawbacks covered here can be remedied with the right approach.  For example…

To combat social isolation, workers can connect frequently with others via phone or visual technologies.

Establishing healthy and creating a dedicated home workspace with acceptable ergonomics can help block out distractions

Clearly, remote working is not going to be easy to sustain for all organizations and it is not going away anytime soon.  With the right leadership approach and strategy, employees and organizations can both realize significant gains from a remote working, a new fundamental in the times we are in.  Virtual Leadership Matters Inc. helps clients with this new reality everyday.

The Author

David Smith, BComm, CMC, ACC, RPM has over 30 years of experience as an organizational leader and a decade as certified executive coach, facilitator and management consultant. He has served as a corporate executive (CEO), business owner and entrepreneur in multiple start-ups in different industries including one of Canada’s ‘50 Best Managed Companies’ and is Co-Founder of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc. 

Virtual Leadership Free Webinar Seminar Workshop Managing Personal Productivity with Virtual Leadership Matters

The Value Of Self Discipline

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In this time of great pause in many activities and new virtual connecting with relationships in our lives, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have the opportunity to either build up vital aspects of our character or, be victim in their absence or weakness. To maintain our momentum, we need solid organizational skills and ‘self discipline’ which both play a huge role in our personal success and fulfillment. If this is a character muscle you would like to flex and build, this will be a valuable guide.

The Value of Self Discipline

A favourite poem for many is called “If” by Rudyard Kipling. If you have not heard of this poem, you are invited to read it for yourself. In this poem, the author writes to his son, lessons on how to succeed in life and become a mature adult. Many of the lines of the poem involve delayed gratification and remaining disciplined and committed even in tumultuous times.

While working remotely from home due to Covid-19, one of our associates, Gabriel, reflected on this poem and the necessity of self-discipline. The following are the strategies he found resourceful in beginning to expand this trait within his life. Perhaps you will also share in his rich findings with applications in your life and maybe even in your use of virtual technology to keep human connections intact.

Defining Self Discipline

Self-discipline to me means “doing the thing you are supposed to do when you are supposed to do it whether you feel like it or not”. This is a simple concept however not necessarily easy to consistently implement each day. Developing a new trait begins with our thoughts and how we view or relate to the concept of discipline.

Shifting the Way We View Self-Discipline

How we view self-discipline can have both positive and negative associations. The negative associations with self-discipline include viewing it as repressive, limiting, uncomfortable, and consistently saying NO to things. When viewed through this lens, developing any character trait is far less appealing.

Instead, actively choose to view self-discipline in its positive form. Rather than repressing, self-discipline PRIORITIZES our most important goals and commitments over lesser ones. Rather than limiting, self-discipline brings ORDER to our many wants, goals, and desires. The act of saying NO really means saying YES to something else more important to our lives.

This often is the case when doing what feels good or comfortable in the moment goes against a greater more overarching goal or commitment. Saying yes to these goals and commitments requires self-control and the ability to delay gratification.

Value of Delayed Gratification

When we consistently say yes to our most important priorities (family, career, health, etc.) even when doing so does not feel comfortable in the present moment, studies show that our achievements and happiness levels increase significantly. A 2013 study conducted by Wilhelm Hoffman concluded that those with higher levels of self-control wasted less time, made more rational decisions, and indulged less in activities detrimental to their health.

One of my favourite studies on the value of delayed gratification is the famous Stanford Marshmallow experiment. In this experiment, children were offered a choice between a small but immediate reward and a bigger reward if they waited 15 minutes. During this time, the child was left alone with one marshmallow and could choose to eat it now or wait and be given two marshmallows when the researcher returned. Years later in follow up studies, it was shown that the children that were able to wait for the second marshmallow had better life outcomes in their career and health.

Taking Action

  • Write out your most important goals, priorities, and commitments. Next rank each in order
  • Audit yourself, is the time you spend each day or week reflecting what you hold most important in your life? How much time/energy do you spend on things that are momentarily gratifying but take you further away from the main priorities you wrote down.
  • Consciously reallocate your time/energy to better reflect your initial list. Focus on one item until it becomes an ingrained habit in your life. This could be waking up earlier to exercise before work or turning your phone off while spending quality time with your loved ones.
  • Until that time of habit formation, you will encounter resistance that requires you to exercise your will to remain disciplined.
  • Willpower has been shown to deplete over the course of the day. Mitigate this by proactively avoiding temptations all together specifically at the end of the day.
  • Reward yourself along the way. Begin small and celebrate your tiny victories with scheduled breaks, treats, or other rewards after you remain committed for a pre-set time.

Key Insights

In a world becoming increasingly filled with distractions, communications overload and immediate gratification so self-discipline is integral to your success. Deciding what is most important and investing time and energy into them, regardless of how we feel in the moment, will not only bring greater results but promote long term happiness in our lives. Start small and seek to go to bed just a bit more committed and disciplined each day.

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