Month: July 2017

Remote workers – trust & face to face

In my previous blog, I discussed how trust is a valuable and oft times rare commodity that doesn’t happen by accident. Rather, it is the result of intentional and focused effort, and a willingness to dedicate time to create such relationships. I also listed 5 challenges faced by remote workers as identified by Jeff Robbins, the first of which was the lack of non-verbal communication. This, I would suggest, can be a barrier to building trusting relationships with clients, and managers.

Face to face connection by the Baltic Sea!

As I speak with both remote workers and their managers, a common piece of advise offered is, whenever possible, build in face to face time before the hire, during the process, and on an on-going basis after the contract has been signed. Yes, this adds to the financial cost of doing business, but it is money well spent in order to build a solid foundation of trust.

We are aware of the importance of non-verbal communication. Peter F. Drucker has been quoted as saying

“The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.”

‘The importance of non-verbal communication‘, a blog created by ethos3 provides excellent insight, and tips, on how to increase your non-verbal communication when speaking in public…presenting, negotiating, leading meetings, in fact anytime you are face to face and wanting to clearly communicate both a message and build trust with your listeners.

Let’s put this into the remote context. If this can be accomplished when we are face to face with others, how can we replicate it if the situation does not allow for such interactions? (The academic in me feels the need to provide you with further research into this.)

The right tool can make any place your virtual office

While there may not yet be a substitute for pure face to face, the addition of a Skype, FaceTime, or video conference call can increase the likelihood of connecting on such a level, providing a  starting point on which to build a trust relationship. (Good site for virtual meeting tools)

When in the recruiting and selection process, the difference in a person from what I have imagined through cover letters, resumes, or even phone conversations, to when we actually meet face to face in an interview never ceases to amaze me. Not only does a face to face interaction remove the screen that can hide the tell tale signs of exaggeration, or dare I say, out right lies, but it can provide a lovely opportunity that opens the door to connect on a level that lets me see the gem shrouded on the pages of documents submitted. It would be a mistake to think that because you’ve had this f2f connection, you’ve covered all the bases…three months down the road you may again see an even different person! However, this is a great first step that is crucial for subsequent interactions that will result in a successful, right-fit hire.

A commitment to building trust through face to face doesn’t end once a connection has been made…it needs to be fostered in order to realize continued growth and development. In a conversation with Clint Schnee  (founder & designer UXperts), he shared from his remote worker management and support experiences. His advise? “Following initial on-boarding face to face interactions, the maximum amount of time to wait between such times is 6 months.” This applies no matter where the employee is located around the world. He went on to say that “any longer than that and you will see the attrition and turnover rate greatly increase”.

While challenging, I do love the fact that as humans we still thrive when in face to face community with others, making those trusting connections…a practice worth striving for and fostering.

Remote workers—trust and communication skills

You don’t get too far along in the discussion of trust-building before hitting on the importance of communication: verbal, non-verbal, written… and the channels used to convey the desired message. A message delivered effectively can provide the platform on which trust continues to be developed; however, a message miscommunication can create barriers, misunderstanding, and even offense that could lead to the shredding of progress made along the road to trusting relationships.

Kavi Guppta, a self-declared digital nomad, in a recent webcast “How to survive work in the 21st Century”, spoke about his ‘Holy Trinity Model’…skills you need to master no matter the job. Communication makes the top three:
– Organization: time management, billing, get jobs…
(How organized are you?)
– Process: how you do the work (music, selling shoes, cooking…)
(How well do you implement an idea?)
– Communication skills: how to talk to all involved in your work…all stakeholders.
(How well do you communicate that idea?)

Jeff Robbins – PIAF: Management Distributed (Yonder), speaking in the same webinar addressed the communication challenges faced by distributed teams and remote workers. They are:
– Very little nonverbal communication
– All communication needs to be intentional
– Most communication is archived (forget the delete button!)
– Very asynchronous
– Communication can by syndicated

The above list could be expanded on (and I intend to in future posts), however, the bottom line is that good communication takes skill and intentionality, AND it matters!

Remember back when reading and writing were the cornerstones of education? A time when the very act of writing was something of an art form? While I concede that artful handwriting may not be as important as it once was, the ability to create word pictures that enable your readers to truly get what you’re saying without the use of emoticons has never been more important to the business person than it is today.

For remote workers, much of their communication is indeed in written form: introductions, proposals, contract negotiations, documentation for all sorts of agreements… the list goes on. Needless to say, when creating a written message attention needs to be given to what you are saying, how you are saying it, how it will be received, and the all important emotional intent of the communication.

One final note… communicating with individuals is different than communicating with a team as a whole…fortunately there are great tools to help with that (yes, yet another post 📝).