Back to Basics: Leadership Fundamentals for Success in the ‘Next Normal’ Virtual Workplace | S1E006

And that could not be more true today. So listening for emotion, listening for engagement, listening for disagreement, even though words might not be said, it's vitally important for leaders to listen between the lines and to, to hear what isn't being said, to ensure that information was communicated clearly and that people are buying in to what's being said. So in terms of staying connected and engaged, it's important to remember that we need to communicate often, again, frequency, we can do that through How goes it check ins and you can do that in a variety of ways. It doesn't have to be a formal meeting. It doesn't have to be scheduled. Sometimes it's really helpful for a leader to just check in touch base with someone. Just call I believe, I believe live voice communication is very powerful. And just say how's it going? I just wanted to check in with you today. See how you're doing? Is there anything I can do to help? So offering support, listening with empathy is also very important. And as we said, being reliable following through and reaching out proactively in to connect with people. And, as I said, using the the power of the voice, the leaders voice, and using the most live, what I call the most lives tools, which would not include voicemail by the way, even though people can listen to voicemail now. And they can even listen to an email, because it, it can transcribe and read it to them. That's not the most live tools, the most live tools, or pick up the phone, talk with people be engaged in live interactions whenever possible. And of course, it's not always possible. But when it is utilize the most live tools, and be creative in the way that we communicate. So a big part of what we're doing with communication, particularly for leaders is to use these tools to create the sense of presence that overcomes distance. And one of the ways that we do that is to replicate and simulate face to face interactions and experiences whenever possible. So video conferencing is certainly a good example of a way that we replicate and simulate a meeting that would be would have or we're all sitting in the same room or sitting around the same table. And so I always challenge leaders to think about the creative ways that they can replicate and simulate face to face interactions and experiences, whether those are meetings, small groups, one on one, to build that engagement, and to create as much presence in spite of the distance that separates us. So this means that we need to use the right technology. And again, each leader with his or her team needs to determine what are the right technologies for us and our work, and then learn to use those technologies. Well, that might mean it should mean in many cases, providing training on how best to use that technology. And to use for meetings, virtual meeting guidelines, which you can find our checklist for virtual meeting guidelines at our website at virtual works well.com forward slash checklist, again, that's virtual works well.com forward slash checklist. And that's just a brief checklist of the key things to do before, during and after a remote meeting, to keep everyone on the same page and ensure that you're doing all of the right things to ensure that it's the most productive and effective meeting. So let's talk a bit about a third key to leadership success in real fundamental, which is performance, sort of where we started. If leaders are not achieving critical performance results, there will be a change in leadership. So performance results are an important part of a leaders job. And we achieve those results. We achieve performance through engagement with team members in a variety of ways. This is accomplished through one on one communication, team interactions, performance monitoring, and performance monitoring tools, the way that leaders address performance challenges or problems, coaching and providing feedback, which can be accomplished through performance reviews, as well as coaching as needed for development for success. And finally, another area that I believe runs the risk of being overlooked as the workplace becomes more distributed, and we're not face to face as often. And that is celebrating success. We had found lots of ways to celebrate success when we were together in the workplace to win We could have impromptu celebrations or planned celebrations, when there was a success for the whole team, or a unique success for a team member. And these are more challenging when we're remote. But again, thinking back to how can we replicate and simulate those things that we know are important, celebrating success is a really important part of leadership, acknowledging that we see the successes that people have achieved, and we appreciate what it took to achieve that success will go a long way toward helping people feel valued and appreciated, which is very critical, when we are looking at the challenges of talent retention in particular. So leaders must also have some structure not only to meetings, but to other discussions like coaching discussions. So some of the guidelines that a reader might keep in mind, in handling a coaching discussion would again start with clarifying purpose and importance and desired outcome. So this could be true for a performance problem or for coaching for success discussion. So why are we having this discussion? What What's the objective, the desired outcome, reviewing all of the relevant information and asking for input is, again, important for listening, and making sure that you have all the information to work with the next the next step in this kind of discussion would be to establish or review objectives. So we've gathered all the information, and you want to then clarify the objective, in terms of, you know, what do we really want to accomplish? Where do we need to go from here, now that we have all the information, and of course, throughout all of this listening, listening carefully, listening with empathy is a really important part of a coaching discussion. The leader would then want to discuss ideas and concerns, again, seeking concerns, demonstrating that you're listening and discussing the ideas of the person that's having the discussion with the leader, be that again, a performance problem, where there could be some defensiveness, some difficulty getting to understanding what's causing the situation. And also, when you're coaching for success, you're typically coaching in a situation where someone either hasn't done something before, doesn't have a lot of experience with it, is taking on a new task or challenge. And this can be unsettling. So coaching discussions require a lot of care on the part of the leader to ensure that you're covering all the bases. So again, you want to discuss ideas and concerns, and then agree on goals or a plan of action, and then setting a follow up to ensure that there's a time and a place for the team member to be able to clarify again, get further support or guidance, and just to see how it goes. So all of this with these fundamental leadership skills. And again, I want to impress that so many leaders are quite skilled in these areas, but really have to bring greater consciousness to how they are utilizing the skills in the virtual workplace as we implement more remote and hybrid teams. So that leaves leaders with a real, what I call leadership mandate to bridge the distance. So every day a leader of remote and hybrid teams is challenged with bridging the distance. And this mandate, to me requires that leaders communicate effectively connect frequently to demonstrate caring with the competence to achieve results. Let me just repeat that. The leadership mandate to bridge the distance really requires that leaders communicate effectively connect frequently to demonstrate caring with the competence to achieve results. So in that is communicate connect care. Are and confidence. And so it's important for leaders to recognize that they need to bring greater consciousness to how they're doing that. And they need to seek out for themselves and ensure that their organizations are providing the skills that they need to do that in this new environment that we're all facing. And in the new context of their workplace, and not surprisingly, virtual works, offers they the skills and the training to help leaders do this. But I also believe that if there's greater awareness, and more enlightenment, of unconsciousness about how to do these things, there's a lot of talent and a lot of creativity within teams. And I've often asked by leaders, you know, how, how do how do I do this or that that in the new workplace? And how do I know the best way to do this with my teams? And my answer often is, ask your team members, let them help you. Leaders don't have to have all the answers to all the questions. And certainly if it's about what is best for their teams, what helps them the most, what will allow them enabled team members to feel supported and cared about and appreciated, asking them what the leader can't do to help them and what they can collectively do as a team to be most successful and to achieve achieve the best results is going to get the leader, the best result.

Thank you. And I look forward to talking with you again. In the next episode of the remote leadership podcast. Thanks for listening to this episode of the remote leadership podcast. If you found value in what you heard, share this with your colleagues. And if you haven't already, please be sure to subscribe rate and review the show on your favorite podcast player. Additional free resources and direct ways to reach me are available at remote leadership podcast.com Thanks for listening and for always learning