by Learning to work remotely is a skill just like anything else. By adding a few more skills to your bag of tricks you’ll be a position to perform at a high level without needing to constantly overthink things.
If you have an empty calendar, fill it up for optic’s sake
Most folks have an Outlook calendar that shows all of their meetings and availability. When in office business-as-usual is fine but with remote work, we need to manage optics more closely.
If your calendar isn’t filled out people are going to wrongly assume that you’re sitting on your duff watching Tiger King on Netflix instead of working. Even if this is further from the truth. So make sure you’re getting credit for the work that you’re doing.
Calls and tasks that need to be added to your calendar:
- Vendor calls
- Client calls
- Sales visits to customers
- Blocks of time dedicated to “deep work” on projects
Show up to all meetings and show up on-time
When people don’t have all the information it’s only human to make things up. Don’t give your co-workers the opportunity.
First off, don’t decline meetings. Do this and people are going to assume you’re blowing it off in order to do personal tasks. If you do have a conflict email the meeting organizer and extrapolate on what your other meeting is. Don’t be vague here or people will assume the worst.
If everyone is remote it might not be that obvious that you’re calling in late, but if you’re the only one on your team that is remote it’s going to be very noticeable when you’re the last one in. Try to dial into Zoom a few minutes before the meeting start time.
Overcommunicate up to the point where it’s annoying
It’s much more difficult to effectively communicate when out-of-office. There’s no water cooler conversations or impromptu desk walk-overs.
Make it a point to talk to each person on your team at least once per week. You want your co-workers to believe you’re on their side and “part of the team.”
Dale Carnegie would tell us if we want people to like us we should talk to them about topics they’re interested in.
Emails are good, calls are even better. Put aside time each week to talk on the phone with a colleague you’re working on. Calls are much more communication-rich than email, and more memorable to boot.
How quickly to return team correspondence:
- Text: 15 minutes
- Call: 1 Hour
- Email: Same Day
Returning texts and calls in a quick time frame will show that you are on top of things.
Contribute quality ideas to the team
One of the best ways, I’ve found to contribute is by being generous with ideas and help. Being on the constant lookout on where you can help someone else. If someone suggests one approach and you have another in mind that may work better pipe up and say “have you considered doing y?”
Having that back and forth will make you feel more like part of the team. In retrospect, people will remember that you were always contributing solution-minded ideas, whether they were used or not.
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